On my rig i have two piaa 525s that have a 100watt high beam... I have 1.24kW of stereo equpiment. If my headlights are on My battery gauge moves up and down like crazy in a weird almost life-like motion.

Am i overdrawing my alternator? Do i need a yellow top?

My truck runs PERFECT and always starts on no more than 5 cranks. It has never left me stranded...

should i leave it or add the battery or alternator?

 

An auxiliary battery would be very helpful for you.

 

at minimum you're probably stressing your alternator. upgrade the alternator, or perhaps install a 2nd alternator and battery for auxillary stuff

 

A second alternator would be quite difficult to do, as you would have to make some kind of mount and get a custom length belt.

I suggest you get a capacitor for you're stero system if you don't already have one. Proabably more than 1 Farad.

Then Get a second battery, and use the Painless wiring or a similar kit, that way you can use one or both batteries or charge one or both.

I think the painless kit is less than $100, and a battery (I suggest a blue top) is 100 somethin I think.

 

a second battery is only a temp solution.

if your drawing 90 amps, and the alternator is only outputing 75, your drawing the other 15 from "reserve" battery. once that runs out it doesnt matter if you 1 or 5 batteries, same is true for a cap. (nothing but really short term battery)

The real fix is a larger alternator, more battery(s) will help smoth out the peaks/valleys in the system voltage as it can repond quicker than the alternator. Currently the system is trying to keep up with the current output by dropping the voltage. W=VA

 

Hah, this reminds me of my buddy's old Ranger. He put a rediculous stereo into it (stolen, replaced, stolen again, given up on...) so whenever he had it cranked, he would have to flick his turn signals on and off because it wouldn't do it by itself. That truck was hilarious. He hit the ditch going way too fast and basically destroyed the body, but kept on truckin'. One of the "r's" fell off the back of the truck, so it has since forever been known as "the anger." He also smashed out all the lights on one side of the box, so he rewired the thing with trailer lights from an rv store.

 

Even a bigger alternator is quite expensive. I remember I looked into the Mobi-arc 90 amp upgrade to the current 60 amp toyota alternators and that was a decent deal, but I don't know if they still do that.

Powermaster makes the 170 amp and proabably larger alternators, but they are very very pricey.

I'd have to say the best bet would be to drop the system....I used to have one and they aren't worth the trouble. 4 speakers and a head unit will be fine. My system was "cool" and "I love music so I want it to sound good", but It caused me more trouble than it was worth. You could proabably sell some of the sound stuff and put it to good use...or in the bank, it's less likely to be stolen there as well.

 

best to get an upgraded alt to a higher amp rating, like others are sayin.

 

Helpful (i hope) alt upgrade link i found. Some of the links on the page are broke. Still alot of usefull info.

Linky-link

 

i would deff up the alternator....hit cebby up...he has a 160 amp for sale....

 

search for gm CS-144 alternator swap, i did it, 140 amps alternator,not too expensive,reliable as hell,lifetime warranty,im running flexalite fan,4 times KC'S long range 130w,and soon a winch,and i got a single good deep cycle batterie,when my fan kicks at idle with 4 kc's lighted up,the voltage needle barely moves an milimeter.

check my buildup thread,and make sure you check the one Ganoid did!