Charging System Question

BobLS

BobLS

LVC Member
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Apr 24, 2023
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Location
Oklahoma
I know this doesn't make much sense financially on these cars, but has anyone messed around with the idea of custom mounting a second alternator, like a one wire? My alternator does fine with the factory electrical and even my aftermarket electric fans, but I would like to put a nice audio system in it and I know it wouldn't be able to keep up with that. My thought is that I could custom make a bracket and mount it possibly where my hydraulic fan pump used to go. I would run the second alternator to a second battery, essentially creating a second seperate charging system. The plan would be to use the second charging system for all of my aftermarket electronics (amps, and cooling fans). I know there might be other approaches to my problem, but I like the idea of a second charging system for a second battery seperate from the main. And I'm far passed the point of "worth the money or not" I just wanna know if this is even feasible.
 
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I'm not super well versed in automotive charging systems, but wouldn't adding another battery create additional load on the alternator? My plan at first was to do that, but I see people saying it does, some people say it doesn't. So I guess a follow up question would be: Can my 110amp alternator handle charging two batteries and keep up without dropping voltage or anything weird?
 
04 sport, I see now, I was typing that response while you posted the 2nd reply.
 
If the fan load still proves to be too much, you could run them on adjustable rheostats and back the fans down to 1500/1500 to take some load off.

I know at times Okie gets kinda hot, but it should still work, and not too hard to find a "balance" with the fans.
 
The fans really only become a problem if the air conditioning is set to full blast, otherwise, I'm staying above 13 volts, usually sits between 13.2-13.8 with fans at full speed. I've got a proform fan controller wired straight to the battery that works great. My main concern was with adding a couple amplifiers for my upcoming SQ build. In total, they'll run (at most) about 100 amps.
 
And you're right about that Oklahoma weather, water wetter and the fans have been doing me good though.
 
Bob - On the audio system, I am in the same boat as you. I love a great sounding audio system with alot of amplifier power. You are correct that the Gen 1 alternator can barely keep up with demand on a high output fan like this running.

I have had good success with my audio system going in a different direction. To reduce amperage load, I got rid of my audio amplifiers, and instead just run a Sony head unit, that has a rating of 50w x 4. Not a good amplifier 50w, but its not bad either. For the front speakers, I got a set of Infinity Kappa series 6" x 8", perfect fit in the doors. In the rear doors, I have a set of Kenwood 6" x 8" plate speakers that put out some solid hitting bass for just a plate speaker. No subwoofer is used.

Now here is what made a big difference - I added Kilmat sound deadening panels in all 4 doors. I put it in both the inner door metal, and also some to the outer skin. I listen at medium volume levels. Between the efficient Infinity speakers and the reduced road noise, I feel like its a good sounding system. I listen to different kinds of rock and metal music, and it seems just right to me.
 
I know all about sound deadening and things of that nature, I bet that's a pretty killer system, especially if you can do time alignment and equalization with the head unit. Infinity kappas are pretty good speakers. I'm wanting to do a full system in mine, kenwood excelon hu, morel mps4.400 for the door speakers paired with the maximo ultra 502 mkii 5-1/4 for the front, and the coax version for the rears. For the sub I'm gonna get the morel mps1.550 and their primo 124 12". I also plan on adding a dsp somewhere down the road (probably alpines 6 channel). I'll be putting sound deadening everywhere too. It's a pretty overkill system, but it'll be great.
 
This car (for me) is all about learning how to do things. I've already got a decent system in it, nothing crazy, but I feel like I'm ready to take on a bigger project with the audio system, and I wanna go all out.
 
I had a lower cost version of those Morel separates for a while. Even the lower cost version had great detail. I'm sure those are even better still. That's been my only experience with the Morel brand. I went back to Infinity because I got some water damage in the driver's door, and I was never happy with the tweeter install. I had some history enjoying Infinity home speakers, so I tried the Kappa 6" x 8" instead, and I really like them.
 
I've battled water leaking in my driver door seal for a while, it actually ruined my factory speaker and motivated me to upgrade, but I finally got around to fixing it. I've been running DD audio redlines for a while with their redline 65wrms x4 amplifier, and it's pretty good. I've got a set of mtx terminator subs, and for what they're worth, they are really punchy. I think my drawback is my cheap dual headunit I got from work at a discount. It works, but it's not great by any means. The system I wanna put in it is going to be a night and day difference.
 
Where did you mount your tweeters? I haven't figured out the best placement for those yet.
 
I have water resistant coaxial Infinity's in the factory door locations... and 6x9's in the factory sub locations in the rear deck.

Still using the factory 6 disc, but I've been waiting for the head unit to swallow a CD.

The belt is getting tired.
 
I'm not sure if the window allows for enough room, but I hear speaker baffles work great for "waterproofing" the speakers. You can remedy the loss of low end by cutting out the bottom section of the baffle. I plan on trying this out when I upgrade.
 
Mounting depth is 2-3/16", the baffles are 2-1/2. With the risers (definitely not the correct term for that part) I wouldn't think it would be an issue, but definitely can't say for certain without taking the panel off and measuring.
 
I guess, it's the part that mounts between the speaker and the door.
 
I used the water resistant baffles in both the front and the rear doors. If there is a loss in bass, I haven’t noticed.

On the tweeter location, I flush mounted the Morel tweeters in the upper dash trim panel, just below the windshield.

The tweeters sounded wonderful in that location, but I hated the way it looked. When I went instead with the Infinity Kappa 6” x 8”, I bought a replacement dash trim piece to restore the factory look.
 
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