Time has come to start plunging head first into modding my 4runner. In the next few weeks I'll be receiving a new bumper from Savage Off-road, a surco roof rack, pencil beam fogs, and a second set of KC 6x9s. Pretty exciting time haha.

There will be 2 Hella 500 driving lights mounted on top of the bumper, and 2 pencil beam fogs down on either side of the skid plate of the bumper. A total of FOUR 130 watt KC 6x9s up top. I was planning on having the driving lights and the fog lights completely independent which is easy, but I want the 4 KCs to come on with one switch (will need a 40amp relay).

Thats a total of 880watts and 30amps not including the headlights, the stereo, or amplifier!

I'm not sure if my battery and alternator can handle that load, perhaps someone else knows what the rating on the alternator is? And if I'm going to need a heavy duty battery?


Any info would be great!

Semper Fi

 

your alternator is really gonna hate you and probably fail

 

If you want to do all that, switch the halogen bulbs out for HID kits. Much much lower amp draw, but even then, you'll need some charging system upgrades.

At least a deep cycle battery, and a bigger alternator would help, too. 4Runner alt. is 80-90 amps. I've *heard* a 2nd gen MR2 w/powersteering's alternator bolts in with minimal wiring changes and offers 110-120 amps.

 

I was just reading a thread about a dual battery system (https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/d...talled-198973/) and was thinking I could split the lights up to have aux lighting on a second battery. Of course this doesn't solve the charging problem. I did hear something about the MR2 alternator, but would it be more cost effective to buy a new alternator and mod the wiring harness or to have the alternator I have rebuilt? I don't know if this company still does business, but I found a thread about it.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...r-pics-140704/

 

Its the alternator, not the battery that you'll need to upgrade.

Seems like too many lights IMO. You must do a lot of night offroading?

My 2 HID's brighten the night plenty for offroad driving.

 

There is a basically bolt in upgrade to a GM alt, the cs144 maybe? somthing, it puts out 120Amps

 

A 130W H3 bulb will put out about 1500-1800 lumens, and pull 11 amps. So multiplied by 4, you're aiming for about 6000 lumens total light output and 44 amps of current draw. That is a lot of heat and power draw for not a lot of light IMO. You'll also need a relay in the 50 amp range as well, not 40 amp.

My Hella 700FF's which are converted to 55W HID put out 5000 lumens PER BULB, for a total of 10,000 lumens, and pull a total of 9.2 amps for the pair. So not only is the HID option cheaper than buying 4 KC's (less than half as much!), but it also puts out way more light (66% more!) and draws a lot less power too (75% less!)


Thread: Converting Hella 700FF's to 55W HID

 

The CS-144 is the way to go. The stock alternator is 80amps and puts out maybe half of that at idle. The CS-144 alternator is 140 amps and put out 80-90 amps at idle.

There are two models of the CS-144 older and new style. You want the new style, to get that one tell them you want a alternator for a 1995 Cadillac Fleetwood. Also another thing to consider is doing the "High Idle Mod". The High Idle Mod allows you to flip a switch to either have your engine idle normally or make idle around 1300 rpm so the alternator will put out the full 140amps at idle. Its also helpful in the summertime to make the A/C work allot better and keep the engine cooler when your parked in hot weather. Also I remeber I had to use a differnt length belt, I think it was a shorter belt but will get the number off it later today.








How to wire the plug.

 

Although I do see the need for fog lights I can run on the street, offroad, the 3 Kragen HID's I have put out more light than I could ever use...

 

I'll look into this, thanks man! I'll be the first to admit, having 4 kcs across the top is unneeded but I think it'd look badass. I have a set of 6x9s already that i had from my old truck and I only ran two up to. It was more than enough light, but the two awkward lights got my truck nicknamed "mickey mouse". I probably wouldn't use all the lights at once, but 100% of my driving is at night so I like the availability to see. I'll look into changing them over to HIDs, it seems like the way to go.

 

Hey FogRunner were you able to get the part number for the shorter belt? I may do the cs-144 alternator mod since I am running 4 hellas on my rack as well as 2 fog hellas on my bullbar.

 

High Idle Mod?! I've never heard of this one, but I WANT IT!!! I'm running dual batteries, lights and all the goodies. I've planned on upgrading the alternator when money allows, but there are alot of things like that.

Either way I'd love to hear more. Seems searching it only brings up this and an ECT mod. The ECT mod doesn't seem right for what you describe.

Mike
2001 4Runner