hey, so before i got into a car crash. i had two 12inch subs with a 1000 watt kenwood amp and they hit hard.

i went through the stock battery within a month of having the subs hooked up and that was with a cap.

i upgraded to a battery that normally goes into the f-350s also used in taxi cabs. i went through 4 of those within a year....

i bought a battery isolator so i could play the system with the truck off and still drive away without a jump....

i just finished the isolator install last night, ill post pictures later of the steps.

the system runs AMAZING now and with the truck off.

i plan on putting 3 more batteries in for a total of 4. after that ill wire in a police alternator.... down here we have rangers that are police vechices so its an easy fit.

give me your opinions and let me know if yall are runnning 2 batteries

 

https://www.ranger-forums.com/general-technical-electrical-18/2-batteries-same-space-129492/

it's something I want to do as well.

I don't see a need for four batteries though.

also, whats the isolator for if you only have one battery now?

 

The need for 4 is more as safety thing I play my music loud when the truck is off so to keep the music going for longer more battery power.....

And I have 2 batteries now that's to the isolator

 

gotcha. you said you wanted 3 more for a total of four so thats where I was confused. get some pics up of your setup, where did you mount the second battery?

 

i mounted the battery in the bed... takes up space i never used im posting pictures now..

and when i said 4 total i ment 4 auxiliary batteries.

when all said and done ill have 5 batteries including the starting battery

 

Not to be trolling you, but i doubt your 1k kenwood amp was pushing out that much power to need that much electrical.

 

it was. every battery ended up with a dead cell...

i gave he amp to my friend dylan thinking my alternator was the problem for the dead cells with in 2 months of him using the same amp (Kenwood KAC-7205) his battery got a dead cell

but i put in a Kenwood KAC-9105D 1800 watt now....

anyway here are some pictures ill try and put them in order

 

for heads up. i listen to my music EXTREMELY LOUD!!!!
i make it to were EVERYONE hears my country music

the reason for 4 batteries btw is one battery per amp... ill have 2 1800watt kenwoods and 2 1000 kenwoods for the doors.... im taking the WHOLE system off the starting battery.... anyway i only have one amp of 4 and i will put the other two subs in a box once i get the amp for them

 

the battery box is made out of wood laying around the house.... built it myself but my future project on the battery boxes is dimond plate

 

Looks good but I think it would look better if you cleaned the wires up at bit more.

 

Your just asking for big trouble, no FUSES, grommets or sheathing for your positive cables..

I guess your going to find out the hard way about what happens when you short out car batteries.

You do realize why your going through so many batteries don't you?
Your draining the batteries far too much before recharging them.
you need to learn to charge your **** more often.

doing this isolator will only save your starter batt... your stereos batts will still keep getting dead cells if you keep your charging habits the same.

but put some damn fuses on your cables for ----s sake

 

the wires can hold till this weekend and before this isolator i never played my system with out the truck running... so the battery was charging the whole time.....

and the red wire in the engine bay is a 6 gauge wire with 4 gauge instaultion..... how ever you spell it...
i plan on cleaning it up after this weekend i just wanted my music back....

i got my pay check this week so two more amps are on the way (door speacker

 

I'm with RangOH on this one. definitely get some rubber grommets on those wires near any metal or your asking for trouble.
and just for safety of your main big fuse, i wouldn't plug anything up to it directly. My electrical teacher actually said that was a bad idea.
i would just plug it directly to the battery.
and the reason your killing batteries so fast is because your running them with the engine off. your just draining them. batteries can only be depleted and recharged so many times. i believe some are two times unless you have a deep cycle battery which allows more. and if your not taking the battery out of the vehicle to charge it via charger you just have a dead battery on your hands. that's just my .02 cents. didn't want you ruining more batteries. if you want to run your stereo with truck off, your gonna need a ac dc converter to plug it in to a house plug. but you have the right idea...First thing when doing a big system is alternator otherwise it just cant keep up.

 

put a generator in the bed....

 

I'll be the troll here. You're Kenwood isn't killing batteries. And you don't need 4 batteries for a 1,000w amp. I've got roughly 300 amps being pulled out of my electrical daily and I get away with my stock battery(yes, 10 year old STOCK battery) and a Deka 9A31 with the big 3 and 1/0 throughout. Do the big 3 with 1/0 wiring, ditch the cap, and invest in one good battery. Something around 850CCA should do fine.

 

Why is it that people won't drill a damn hole somewhere so they can route stuff the easy way instead of running it up and around every piece of equipment possible ? Grommets and fuses are your friends......

 

Here's a question. Anyone know the pros/cons of using a separator as opposed to an isolator?

 

earlier i said with the 100watt i NEVER had the subs on without the truck being on...
i only pluged it into that fuse cuz i didnt want to bypass anything that the alternator went to. and with the way its wire its the SAME way it was wired before just with the isolator in the middle... the fuse wont get any more amps sent to it then if it was wired stocked...

but now i have a 1800watt amp in so no more 1000watt on the subs

now that i have the isolator i can turn my subs on with the truck off...



and i dont have money do the big 3. i plan on it later on when i get a job but for now i dont have the money and ill have to deal with what i can get..... and i can get free batteries....

after i buy 2 1000watt amps(for the door speakers) ill save to do the big 3.


i talked to some custom shops today about all this and he said thats it is run right and the only thing they would change is a fuse from the isolator to the second battery and the gramments in the engine bay...

 

i'd really love to test your amps and see how many watts your actually pushing out. lol

do you know what 1k rms watts actually sounds like?

 

id love for you to test them
free test why not

no i dont know what 1000 watts rms sounds like and i know my old 1000 watt didnt push it rms wise... it only pushed 170watts rms and 500watts bridged...

my new amp pushes 500watts rms non-bridged... its a mono block...

and i do know what 11000 watts rms and 20000 wats rms sounds like.... my buddy shawn has 11000 watts rms in his truck and yes thats what it was tested at.

my buddy james has 20000 watts rms in his car. yes thats what it was tested at.

 

5 words for you. CLEAN UNDER YOUR DAMN HOOD !... My pet peeve, a dirty engine bay...

 

You really need some grommets or you will have not only a short, but a fire!

 

this is the end result of no grommets and no fuses:



If you dont run grommets, what WILL happen, over time, the vibration of the truck will cut the insulation, causing a direct short. Something will pop, especially since your trucks own stock system is grounded to what you are now energizing with your short... this is very bad.

If you do have a fire, and your insurance company finds out they wont want to cover your losses!

 

X 1million on the grommets. $10 worth of rubber or plastic grommets WILL save you from losing your truck to fire.

I'd add heat shrink tubing around all the connections or at a minimum wrap them with good electrical tape.

You definitely need fuses or circuit breakers to protect everything as well.
I'm not a professional installer, I only have 25+ years experience installing stereos & electronics.

The dual battery isolator setup is good if you listen to your stereo with the truck not running, it will keep your primary starting battery from going dead, but even a good 2nd battery will drain in no time if the truck isn't running while you're cranking the radio.
You might consider using marine type deep cycle batteries for the aux. batteries, they're designed for high drain & quicker recharges.

Caps are basically like putting a bandaid on cancer. They're good for some things like a little additional reserve power, but if you're depending on them to run the system at 95% volume all the time, they'll become more of a drain on the system.

 

^ x2