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New to Car audio Need advice (dual batteries vs Alternator and wiring)


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Hello everyone,

I am pretty new to car audio, I have a 2007.5 Silverado Crew Cab that i'm about to start my install on. Putting in 2 skar VD-12's powered by a SKv2-1500.1D, and 4 - SPX 6.5s and 4 spx tweeters powered by a SKv2-100.4AB, and plan on doing the BIG 3.

Now for the questions.

I will be moving my main battery to the bed due to I have to tub the front. So I was gonna add a second battery to the truck strictly for the audio. Here is where it starts getting a little confusing for me. I was wanting the second battery strictly for the car audio and the main battery for the truck. I was planning on just running two 1/0 wires from the alternator one to each battery. But everything I'm reading around on the forums everyone has the batteries ran in parallel. Would running the batteries separate be too much strain on the alternator? Do I need to upgrade the alternator? The stock options are a 145 or a 160. Haven't taken it out yet to see which it is. but since its the 6.0 vortecmax ltz option i'm almost certain it has the 160amp alternator. Or should I just scratch the whole dual battery setup and run 1 good battery? (then do i upgrade the alternator or no?)

Also the wiring.... welding wire or no?

oh and with moving the battery to the back, do I need to fuse the wire from the alternator to battery since its gonna be significantly longer?

 

Thanks in advance for any help / advice / criticism :)

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1 hour ago, PsychoBishop said:

Hello everyone,

I am pretty new to car audio, I have a 2007.5 Silverado Crew Cab that i'm about to start my install on. Putting in 2 skar VD-12's powered by a SKv2-1500.1D, and 4 - SPX 6.5s and 4 spx tweeters powered by a SKv2-100.4AB, and plan on doing the BIG 3.

Now for the questions.

I will be moving my main battery to the bed due to I have to tub the front. So I was gonna add a second battery to the truck strictly for the audio. Here is where it starts getting a little confusing for me. I was wanting the second battery strictly for the car audio and the main battery for the truck. I was planning on just running two 1/0 wires from the alternator one to each battery. But everything I'm reading around on the forums everyone has the batteries ran in parallel. Would running the batteries separate be too much strain on the alternator? Do I need to upgrade the alternator? The stock options are a 145 or a 160. Haven't taken it out yet to see which it is. but since its the 6.0 vortecmax ltz option i'm almost certain it has the 160amp alternator. Or should I just scratch the whole dual battery setup and run 1 good battery? (then do i upgrade the alternator or no?)

Also the wiring.... welding wire or no?

oh and with moving the battery to the back, do I need to fuse the wire from the alternator to battery since its gonna be significantly longer?

 

Thanks in advance for any help / advice / criticism :)

Unless you have a dual alt setup your secondary battery will still be part of the main electrical running the whole truck. The secondary battery has to be ran in parallel with 1 alt. Even if you ran 2 wires that's still parallel. For the power you're putting in a single XS power D3100 would be enough. Especially with a 140 or 160 amp alternator. 2 batteries would be better tho for rock solid electrical. You can do 2 of the stock sz batteries but swap to AGM for certain. This is really simple actually and battery sz and brand is totally up to you. Run 2 1/0 wires from the front to the back battery/batteries for redundancy. Then parallel those together. I'd fuse between the alt and battery. Then fuse a foot away from the battery between the battery and your skv2 1500.1. no need to get a high output alt with your power and beefy stock alt. 

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Yeah you have a couple ways you can go here. Dibo is correct about the second battery still being parallel. All you really need for the build you have listed is a good single AGM Batt. I recommend an XS Power D 3400 or bigger depending on how much you wanna spend. If There are no chances of you upgrading then I wouldn't worry about an alternator, it's not needed. As said before Dibo summed it up.

 

Just woke up so I'm rambling......

Sitting around waiting to be installed:

  4 FI X 10

 270 CES alt

D3400/73ah lithium

 AA 3800.1

  (2) AA 75.4

     

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On 2/26/2019 at 7:49 AM, PsychoBishop said:

Thank you Dibo and Wishuponasub. Gonna go with a single XS D 3100 then. 

If it’s just for the back I would suggest an xp3000 as it has higher AH as d3100 and is 100 cheaper.

Sundown NSV4 18"  +  Sundown SALT-4 Baby

MechMan Elite 370a  +  XS3100 - XP3000

SHCA 1/0 OFC(blue+  SMD Fuse Holders(blue)

Pioneer AVH-2440NEX  SHCA Pro RCA 

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 4/18/2019 at 12:05 PM, OldSchoolBass said:

I have a similar question do you run 1 0 gauge wire to each battery from alternator or just to one battery since they are already wired in series ? And what about an extra run from both batteries to the case as a ground ?

Hope your bank isn't wired in series... You'll up voltage that way. 3 batteries would become 36v for example. 

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