Hey guys. I just picked up a Tantrum 1200.1 to power my SP15. Problem is that now I am having some voltage problems. Before I spend the money to get a second battery or upgrade my alt, I was wanting to try to upgrade the magic 3. I looked at it today, and I have no idea about what to do.
I have dual 8 guage power wire running now. I know it's not the best, but it's what I had at the time. I will either replace it with 4 ga or just add the 4 ga wire if needed. What else should I do?

 

I would replace it with 4 ga for sure. Add a capacitor and see if it helps, it should at least.

 

80 amp fuse for that sucker right ?

Dont forget to upgrade the Ground wires at the battery itself. !!!!

How long of a wire are you running and what is the total load ?

Heres some Calculators to help you figure out the best wire size.
http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/wire.htm

 

Actually, I think there is a 60 amp fuse in there now, but I do have 80's.

Do I need to upgrade both, the chasy ground and the engine ground? If I need to do the engine ground, where does it actually connect? I can only follow it off the battery for 8" down, then I lose it.

It seems like the power wire is 17 feet long.

 

ftp://208.187.38.55/Phoenix_Gold/Man...fiers/Tantrum/

PDF file for the 1200 lists 80 amp fuse ?

The Chassis ground is more important in this case,

(edit: thinking about it more, I would upgrade the engine block ground equally to the chassis ground as well, could be direct to the battery or from the chassis to the engine block)

Usually the engine ground is to the block itself.

 

Your engine ground, you can simply add another cable coming off the - post.

 

Well, I got one vote for chassis ground, and one for engine ground. The chassis ground is easy, the engine is tougher. Do I just need to run it to an engine mount bolt or what?
Is that going to make much differance anyway? Or do I need to upgrade to 4 ga wire and add a battery in the back?
One major no no I have, that needs fixed is that I have dual 8 ga power wires and only a single 8 ga ground wire. I plan to add the 4 ga power wire and 4 ga ground wire very soon.

 

DBikeman might want to clarify whether his was a "VOTE" just for the engine ground alone like you are interpreting. Or that he was suggesting to upgrade it too while you are at it.



Your stereos ground current flows through the BODY of the vehicle.

(EDIT: The Alternator flow goes through the block, and even though it should be able to handle the stock alternator output, upgrading both the Chassis and the engine block grounds should probably be done. )


Your amps ground wire should be short whereas your battery cables are long. If you use the link I provided above, you can see where you dont have a huge problem today with the smaller ground wire just cause its smaller, bigger is always better though.

(hint) longer runs of wire need to be "bigger" to carry the same load)

Picking wire gauge vs draw and run length from IASCA guide Matrix numbers refer to the wire gauge

Length of run (in feet)
Current 0-4 4-7 7-10 10-13 13-16 16-19 19-22 22-28

0-20A 14 12 12 10 10 8 8 8
20-35A 12 10 8 8 6 6 6 4
35-50A 10 8 8 6 6 4 4 4
50-65A 8 8 6 4 4 4 4 2
65-85A 6 6 4 4 2 2 2 0
85-105A 6 6 4 2 2 2 2 0
105-125A 4 4 4 2 2 0 0 0
125-150A 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 00







If you use mulitiple wires, Keep your ground wires together so you have a common current flow (both engine and ground) and that you avoid ground loops (bad)

Your engine has a seperate ground wire because it is isolated from the body by rubber bushings, aka motor mounts (which dont carry current) so that your truck is nice and comfy to ride in. Simply upgrading the engine ground wire will not significantly effect your stereo equipments powerflow.

(EDIT: the wire should match the amperage draw here as well and is especially true if you have upgraded the alternator ).


adding multiple batteries: (from the net)

The battery is most important when the engine is turned off, because it supplies all of power to the audio system. The stock battery in your car may not be up to the task of running a stereo with multiple (or large) amplifiers if it can't supply enough current to the amplifiers. Upgrading your current battery to a larger model may help solve the problem because batteries like the Optima 800 offer a larger number of cold cranking amps.

Generally, adding a second battery is great if you want to listen to your stereo with the car turned off (and be able to start the car again later!). This is accomplished using a dual-battery isolator: a device which allows the second battery to be charged by the alternator, but prevents the amplifiers that are connected to the second battery from drawing any power from the main battery. Installing a second battery may be done instead of upgrading the main battery.

 

Yea I meant you need both grounds, I have 0 guage ground at the engine and a few of them on a distribution block in the back.

 

agreed


magic three for those who dont know are


1> Alt to battery
2> Battery to Ground
3> Eng to Ground

 

Okay, I know where the alternator to batter cable is, and I know where the battery to ground is. But where is the engine ground?

 

My 4runner has two engine grounds. One looks like woven (bare metal) and attaches to the rear of the motor to the firewall. The other is a wire (probably 8ga) and attaches the body to the engine.

 

Thanks for the replies. Especially COYOTA. My next questions is, How do I hook up a 4ga wire to my alt? It looks like it's probably a 16ga wire that runs into the plug now. Also, I obviously can't just pull the current wire out of the plug (it has 2 other wires in it as well) and shove a big wire in it's place. So what do I do?
Pics would be very handy if anyone had some.

 

If you have a 2nd gen, your stock system should have 3 grounds. One small 10ga ground going to the side of the engine bay, a frame/chassis ground on the front crossmember juuuust to the inside of where the lower control arm attaches. As far as the engine block ground I have no idea - I just added an extra engine block ground in 1/0.

As far as upgrading your alt to bat question, just find a small 4ga crimp on that can go over the current wire, but still under the nut. This should work

http://www.cardomain.com/item/STIS4PRGPT

Crimp it, and solder it, trust me you NEED to solder it...

 

I've been waiting for you to chime in Bumpin' Yota.
Thanks for the more detailed instructions. I have at least a better idea what I need to do now.
What do you think about adding a battery in the back? Worth while for me to do?

 

I see that you have double 8ga power wire, but do you only have a single 8ga ground from your amp to the chassis? Are you getting a large voltage drop back at the amp right now? Im just wondering what is telling you that you are having voltage problems.
Thanks,
Wes

 

I am getting a big voltage drop everywhere. I can see it on my dash volt meter and on my epic150. I drop down to 12.8 pretty often. It's droped lower and had the amp shut off a couple times.

 

Ok I have some very pertinant questions that have to be addressed.


1. Are you still running 2 8ga wires to supply power to your amp?
2. Have yoiu done any of the big 3? If so what?
3. Have you added any batteries anywhere yet?
4. The wire grounding the amp, what size is that?
5. The wire grounding the amp, the metal it contacts has had all of it's paint sanded away?



That amp will need 4ga minimum. Preferablly 1/0ga - you may need to buy some 1/0 to 4ga reducers to properly terminate the wire into the amps. The ground wire that grounds out the amp should also be 1/0ga. The metal that the ground wire grounds to, needs to have the paint sanded away from it. Your best grounds are your frame rails, but that usually entails drilling a hole through the floor of your truck, using a grommet to protect the wire, and grounding to your frame. The next best route is grounding to a seatbelt lug or something with some good sanding done around where it anchors. Since you are relying on the frame or body for a ground, your big 3 is THAT much more important.

Now underhood. Do your big 3. Look around for 1/0 or 4ga termination. Usually the stuff can be found at Ace for pretty cheap.

If you STILL have dimming problems, the BEST solution is a www.hoalternators.com. I have a 190amp direct bolt on unit, and I LOVE it!

The next best thing would be to add a battery. Adding a second battery helps make the 'voltage floor' a bit higher when your amp pulls power. In other words with one battery and alt your voltage may drop to 11.9v, but with a second battery, it would drop to say, 12.6v. However this method does have it's drawbacks. Eventually the second battery will loose its charge and you will have to take time to recharge it. This is an improvement over a single battery because it will take twice the time to drop your dual battery setup to the limit that the single one had. The drawback is that your recharge time is 2-3x longer than a single battery.

I suggest you get a digital voltage gauge and run the probes to your amp, then put the gauge somewhere where you can see it when you are driving and banging. You will learn a lot about your charging system just from that guage.

 

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...ght=Alternator


something else to check.