voltage drop

[Ford302Redneck]

To fix voltage drop is to produce enough current to keep the voltage up.

Adding/upgrading batteries will help keep it above 12 volts but will be still drop.

If you want 14volts with hardly any drop, you need to upgrade alternator, or add another one.

If you don't mind the dropping but can live with it being at battery voltage, upgrade and add a battery.

[BURRack_Obama]

To fix voltage drop is to produce enough current to keep the voltage up.

Adding/upgrading batteries will help keep it above 12 volts but will be still drop.

If you want 14volts with hardly any drop, you need to upgrade alternator, or add another one.

If you don't mind the dropping but can live with it being at battery voltage, upgrade and add a battery.

thanks for the info. but do you think a rockford 1500 could draw that much? and maybe its my meter that is crap?

i had this amp in my dodge at 2ohm and it barely dimmed lights. would changing to 1ohm make that much of a difference?

[dsktim]

i had this amp in my dodge at 2ohm and it barely dimmed lights. would changing to 1ohm make that much of a difference

big diffrence from 1 ohm to 2 ohms also how old is your stock alt it might be getting wore out and is this one of the new constant power models

[Ford302Redneck]

Different cars different electrical systems.

If your dropping below 12 volts your using all your current your alternator is producing and draining your battery.

I say upgrade alternators with a respectful company. You shouldn't have any more problems.

Adding batteries will only put a banaid on the problem IMO, you need more current, not storage.

[Socky]

Rockford amps tend to be power hungry. I would upgrade the front battery with the biggest battery that can fit there, also do the big 3.

[skittlesRgood]

To fix voltage drop is to produce enough current to keep the voltage up.

Adding/upgrading batteries will help keep it above 12 volts but will be still drop.

If you want 14volts with hardly any drop, you need to upgrade alternator, or add another one.

If you don't mind the dropping but can live with it being at battery voltage, upgrade and add a battery.

thanks for the info. but do you think a rockford 1500 could draw that much? and maybe its my meter that is crap?

i had this amp in my dodge at 2ohm and it barely dimmed lights. would changing to 1ohm make that much of a difference?

can be double the power from 2ohm to 1ohm so ya, big difference.

test the stock meter. get yourself a DMM and check your voltage at the amp. see if its dropping as low as the stock meter says.

you can get a DMM from home depot, radio shack, and lowes. they can be $10-200+

[bassl0va]

Different cars different electrical systems.

If your dropping below 12 volts your using all your current your alternator is producing and draining your battery.

I say upgrade alternators with a respectful company. You shouldn't have any more problems.

Adding batteries will only put a banaid on the problem IMO, you need more current, not storage.

What's the point in a big ass alt if you have no decent battery to get topped up with any extra power you aren't using? Unless you're going to have your car running every time you play music, you'd be better off with batteries. And batteries can supply way more current than an alt can for shorter amount of times. You could pull 1,000 amps from a big battery for a few seconds with no problem, you can't do that with an alt though without putting heaps of strain on it.

Batteries supply current, as do alts. If you didn't have current, you wouldn't have power, you wouldn't have freaking electricity. Batteries just store their power in a chemical form, while alts convert movement into it.