Tfraser

So my truck is eating batteries.
I have a sound system in my truck consisting of two twelve inch subs with a ported box and an amp (obviously). Over about a month or a little more of use whenever I'm driving the battery will get to the point where it holds a charge but has no load capacity. The voltage Guage dives pretty good and the lights on the truck dim every time the bass hits.

As far as what I have done. When I got the sound system I was told I had to upgrade grounds and whatnot so I added more grounds and upgraded whichever other ones i could. As well, I upgraded the alternator and upgraded all related electrical wires to 0 gauge (mainly because I had blown out the in-line fuses.
I went to a car audio shop yesterday and he said there could be something drawing power even when the truck is off causing it to kill batteries. He said it might be sound system related or might not. I'm not too sure how to check for this but I do know for a fact that my amp shuts off as he checked it.

Does anyone have any helpful hints or related experiences?

Chris_1

iTrader: (1)

Might be time to consider a dual battery setup - or a slightly less aggressive sound system.

Lakerat11

So my first thought was you needed a capacitor or 2, depending on how much wattage you are pushing from the amps, which would solve the dimming and voltage drop during hard bass periods. But before that, I would say invest in some better batteries. I ran 2 15 inch DD subs on 10k watts in my last vehicle, and I used XS Power d4300 batteries, 4 to be exact, with 2 1 farad capacitors. But if you're not running more than 4k wattage, I would say upgrade your batteries, run true AWG 00 guage cables, and use a 250 AMP fuse inline. If, at that point you are still having the dimming and draining issues, I would say have a .5 farad capacitor for every 2.5k watts being used.


All that said, first thing to check is your charging system cabling. Did you upgrade the cables when you upgraded the alternators? What kind of battery are you using? A good item to check, is whether it is the cranking amps that is being drained or the voltage. That can point to specific gremlins at times.

Kkline

Steve83

Your post is too vague to diagnose. "Whatnot" tells us nothing - you have to be descriptive & specific. GIGO. Posting lots of pics of your truck, its alternator, its battery, & its cables would help us help you. You also need to specify where these batteries are coming from, what brand & size they are, and their manufacturing dates (decode the number melted into the side of the cover).