Has anyone bought one of these high out-put alternators? My stock alternator is rated at 75 amps, while I can buy a high-output one at 130 or 150 amps. Now the question is, is it possible to run 800 watts max or 400 RMS (off 2 amps) and not have to buy a capacitor. My Last car I did that to without a capacitor, my lights dimmed considerably. Basically I want to buy the high output Alt alone and not a capacitor. Will the high-output alternator fix the dimming lights problem? Anyone have experience with this?

 

yeah, ill let Leviii chime in on this later, but a high output alternator will make a huge difference in the dimming lights. people always want to put in a cap or bigger/extra battery to fix this. but the problem is that you are taking more power from the battery than the alternator is making, all a bigger battery is going to do is make it so you can listen to the radio longer while the car is off and still be able to start it.

 

Just so I understand, your 2 amps are gonna be 400RMS each or combined? If you are running 2 amps that are a combined 400 rms, your existing alternator should be able to handle the load. Have you considered that maybe your existing alternator needs to be rebuilt? I wouldn't buy those high capacity alternators, they are just so damn expensive...

 

In my experience 800 watts total from 2 amplifiers will dim the lights, it dimmed them on a 96 LX, a 04 EX and now on a 97 HX. So I'm pretty sure its not a bad alternator. Also it does kind of suck that they ar so expensive , but I'm doing a little more research on them then I'll decide if it's worth it.

 

If you think about it, you alternator will die eventually, might as well put in a better on IMO, I bought one for about 225 off alterstart.com, its great, no more dimming, also might wanna add extra ground wires under the hood, or connect the alternator with a big guage wire right to the battery on a fuse. I also put in an optima, 200 for each of those isnt bad considering the optima will last forever

 

I have somewhat delt with this problem and what I came up with was; I had my alternator rebuilt to about 130amp for much cheaper than a new one, and it wouldn't hurt to have it done its not like you won't make use of it. Next I bought an optimax battery and used 4 gauge to ground and supply my battery. I am also not using a cap but it is nice to have just a little extra storage. As far as adding bigger batteries and a cap to slove your problems all it will do is prolong it and overload your alternator. Like most everyone else mentioned you need to get your supply up to meet the demand not the storage although it will help once you have an alternator that will keep up. Another thing to keep in mind is when you build up the alternator you will loose a little voltage at lower rpm, so having that extra storage at a stoplight will help in that case. Hope everything makes sence[sm=smiley5.gif]

 

i ran 800 watts off one amp. in my accord a few years back..it dimed the lights when i had it up loud..however, even without lights dimming, running a system without a cap. isnt exactly the best thing.. if you dont wanna run a cap. your gonna have to get a like 130 amp alt. or something..another option is a yellow top batt. that will help some..but its still not gonna fix yourt problem

 

Rule of thumb is for every 1000 watts get 1 farad of a cap.ive got 1500 watts of bass (real wattage here rockford amp not rockwood lol).......and ive got a 2.5 farad cap and my **** still dims......but hi volt amps kill horsepower no?>

 

yeah, turn it down when merging onto the freeway

 

And I thought it was torture to get on the Turnpike with the A/C on at night during the rain when you have the traffic report on the radio and the laptop charging its 5 minute battery through the cigarette lighter...