Stereo tries to kill truck

[walker01s10]

Need some help and thoughts. When I crank my system and it starts hitting the low bass notes the engine idle falls and it almost kills the truck. It never did this with my old system. Here is a break down of the old system and the new sytem. I've asked around and no one seems to have an idea other than that the pg amps are power hungry.

Old system
JL 1000/1
2 JL 12W6
JL 300/4
200 amp alt
2 awg from batt to the fuse block and 4 awg to amps.

New setup
2 Pg ti600.2
2 JL 12W6
Ti 500.4
200 amp alt
Yellow top under hood all charging wires with 0 awg
0 awg wire to a second batt in the truck (kinetik 1800) with 4 awg wire to amps.

My voltage doesn't seem to drop and I just had my alt freshened up. The only thing I can think of is the voltage regulator might be going bad which is my next thing to try since my regulator is external.

Any one have any thoughts. Thanks

[davewaibel]

there isn't any difference electrically between your old and new system- I have 6 amplifiers on my s10, and do not have any electrical issues- my guess is your alternator is taking a crap, or like you suspect the regulator is going- if you put a meter on your battery while the truck is running what does it read? Your gauge inside the truck is probably at 14+ before the stereo starts bumping- either the above are the problem, or you have some bad battery connector under the hood- the s10 location is prone to a crappy connection point, and the large gauge wire aggravates that- I would remove the 'red' insulating cover on the stock s10 harness, if it still exists- and then you can get everything tighter- makes for a better connection-

[walker01s10]

My 0 awg wire goes from the alt to the top post on the batt. The side post is the factory wire and it goes to the fuse thing under the battery tray. Then I have a second 0 awg wire from the alt to a isolator to the battery in the truck. Also all grounds were replaced with 0 awg wire. I have a voltage meter built in to my fuse box for the amps (stinger fuse block) it stays pretty consistant. On really low notes it might drop down to 13.2. My lights don't dim but my idle really falls bad on low notes. And I can hear the alt really grunt so I'm thinking maybe a new regulator is needed.

My truck is a 2001 chevy s-10 4cyl

[stipud]

Hmmm... I would measure the resistance of all your new grounding points to make sure there aren't any weak connections. You might even want to try a dielectric grease on them.

Have you set your amplifier gains by multimeter or by ear? Perhaps coming from the JL 1000/1 you are expecting the same output from your Ti600.2 (which should be about 2-3dB quieter), and pushing the gains too high. Clipping definitely draws a lot more current than no clipping.

You might also want to try removing the second battery. The only way i've found to reliably use a pair of batteries is to have the same type, mounted side by side. Otherwise their voltage and charging differences can cause a power draw on your system, doing more harm than good!

[ChaosWarlord26]

As stated above. Re-check all ground points. You may need to relocate your grounds. What you may think to be a good ground may not be after all. Each vehicle is different. Also have you done the Big 3 Upgrade? (I may have missed if you already have during your post)

[walker01s10]

Hmmm... I would measure the resistance of all your new grounding points to make sure there aren't any weak connections. You might even want to try a dielectric grease on them.

Have you set your amplifier gains by multimeter or by ear? Perhaps coming from the JL 1000/1 you are expecting the same output from your Ti600.2 (which should be about 2-3dB quieter), and pushing the gains too high. Clipping definitely draws a lot more current than no clipping.

You might also want to try removing the second battery. The only way i've found to reliably use a pair of batteries is to have the same type, mounted side by side. Otherwise their voltage and charging differences can cause a power draw on your system, doing more harm than good!

Yes I tuned the amps by meter on a 60hz tone. which is about 25 volts per channel 50 volts bridged. The gains on the amps are about half way or less. The bass boost is at 0. And the freq is set about 100hz Now the subs are wired up 2ohm bridged to the amps. I'm thinking about rewiring the subs one voice coil per channel. So that way I'm 4ohms stereo. When I added the ground wires I located them all to the frame by cleaning of the paint/undercoat. I'll go back and check them also and put some dielectric grease on them. I even redid the body strap grounds.

On the same batt part thats why I ran seperate wires to each batt from the alt. Should I add another 0 awg wire from the front batt to the second batt maybe???

[stipud]

On the same batt part thats why I ran seperate wires to each batt from the alt. Should I add another 0 awg wire from the front batt to the second batt maybe???

I am confused, so you run a wire from the alternator to each battery, and one between the batteries with an isolator already? Or is the isolator on the alt-battery wire?

I think your power distribution is already massively overkill for the amps you have, and there may be a side effect of your overly complex charging system that is causing strain on your alt. It should be easy to disconnect one battery temporarily to see if that resolves anything. The usual problem is one battery will have a slightly lower voltage than the other, which causes it to draw from the other.

I am having a hard time visualizing your setup though... maybe a diagram would help?

[kg1961]

x2 im with Tom trying to see how all this is done

[walker01s10]

Sorry for the confusion

I have 2 wires comming from the alt. One goes the batt under the hood and one goes to the batt in the truck thru an isolator. Right now I have batt seperate the one under the hood for the truck and the one in the truck for the amps.

The batt under the hood is a yellow top

The batt in the truck is a Kinetik HC1800

[ttocs]

I have always heard that it is important to have matching batteries as well to match the charge/discharge cycle and minimize problems.

If the voltage is remaining costant, are you sure the computer is not having an issue an either pulling timing out of it or adjusting in some other way? It sounds like you got alot of current, and alot of bass and I am sure ALOT of vibrations. The vibrations or EMF from the current could be causing a sensor to be bad. Where is the 2nd batt grounded? Are the power wires next to any other stock power wires, sensors or gounded near them?

[walker01s10]

I have always heard that it is important to have matching batteries as well to match the charge/discharge cycle and minimize problems.

If the voltage is remaining costant, are you sure the computer is not having an issue an either pulling timing out of it or adjusting in some other way? It sounds like you got alot of current, and alot of bass and I am sure ALOT of vibrations. The vibrations or EMF from the current could be causing a sensor to be bad. Where is the 2nd batt grounded? Are the power wires next to any other stock power wires, sensors or gounded near them?

The second batt is in the truck where my third seat used to be on the pass side. It is grounded to the frame. What I did is drilled a hole through the body sanded the paint away to bare metal then put a piece of all thread in. On the under side I ran 0 awg to the frame from that all thread.
The batt is grounded to the all thread.

The wire for the sec batt is ran down the frame in flex and bolted to the frame for protection. I don't think its by any sensors and def not grounded by any.

[ttocs]

what year is the truck? I have seen on a couple of modern vehicles where the frame was fairly well isolated from the body(where the batt is grounded). Try taking your meter and measuring the potential difference between the frame and the body to see if this is the case. When we found it we ran a wire from the body to the frame to fix it.