This is purely out of my own ignorance on this - I have zero experience to tell me one way or the other.

I used to have an SVT Focus with the Audiophile system - it had a tiny amp for it's 8" sub - I used to have the stereo running in that car for an entire afternoon while I messed with the car - detailing and what-not - and I can't ever recall running the battery down.

With my Ranger, I plan on having 2 amps, a 200W for the sub (8" RF) and a 160-200W for the speakers (Polks) - basically an average, low-power system. So I'm curious - how careful do I need to be with this new setup for running the battery down because of playing the stereo with the the engine off? I guess I'd like to know ahead of time, rather than from my mistakes on this one - I'd just rather not run the battery down completly. But, it is a stick shift truck, so unless it is dead - not motsly dead but really dead - I should be able to get it started I guess. Any thoughts?

 

If you have the stock battery and really crank your tunes, you could get 1-2 hours. I don't know. I currently have ~600w system and I was able to kill my cheapo battery in about an hour with the volume up pretty high.

Try it and see. Just remember, draining an avarage battery down can shorten its life.

 

if you plan on playing the system with vehicle off look for a batt with high reserve, deep cycle would be nice too

 

in my last truck (4.6 f150) i had a 1100w amp for my 4 12s and a 300w 4ch amp and i would always have the music on while working on my truck.. i think i left it on for 3hrs once and it started up, but took a second longer...

with the ranger, i have a 300w 4ch amp, and ive left it for about 1 1/2hr about 3/4 way up and started up just fine.

if your that conserned about it, look into a solar powered battery charger, and just leave that hooked up with the solar pannel on the roof or something.


or invest in a jump box...

 

Thanks - just trying to get a "heads up" on what to expect.

 

it doesn't have anything to do with the volume you're playing the radio at. it's all about the draw on the battery. you could look into swapping in a deep cycle battery like an Optima yellow top or similar, or just hop in and start the truck up every now and then to let the battery recharge, then shut it off and continue drawing from the battery.

 

if you want another option, you can go out and buy your self a cap, and install that in with your system and that will give you a longer life and it helps the battery out a bit...just a thought though

 

get an optima battery. you can listen to the radio until you kill the battery then jumpin in and your truck will still start because it saves one cell for that purpose. but if you listen to the radio then take out the keys and come back and listen to the radio some more then you'll end up drainin that last cell and no crank crank of the engine. some how it can tell when there is a continuous draw on the battery like from listening to radio so it'll just draw from 3 of the 4 cells and save that last one.

 

Is that right! I didn't know that about the Optima batteries. Seems like a handy thing to have designed into them. Sine the current battery is brand new and I don't have a different car to put it in (ie, an excuse to buy a new battery) I'll probably have to just use the current one for a while. Good info to know though.....

 

Well a capacitor would be nice but you're not pushing a lot of wattage so odds are you won't dim your lights enough to need it. I have a 600 watt amp and 2 12's and along with my electric fan running it's still okay at idle. You can get a battery like an Optima if you want to spend the money or you can do like I did. A group 65 battery has the same post location as the stock Ranger battery and is the same width except it is longer. I took a cutting wheel and cut the sides of the battery box out and was able to install a group 65 Diesel truck battery from the Dodge dealership where I work that is 1100 CCA with the factory tie down. The battery only costs 80 bucks which was nicer than buying an Optima.

 

Regarding the amps, yeah, things have changed a bit. Still running just 4-6.5" coaxials and one 8" sub but now I'll be using an Alpine PDX-4.100 and then still the small Profile amp as stated in the first post. The Alpine is a class-D amp - I'm hoping that it's efficiency will keep me from having light dimming problems - if I change nothing at all with the charging system/battery, do you think I'll be dealing with dimming lights?

Speaking of dimming lights, does that happen whenever the system is on, or just when running it really loud?

 

The lights usually just dim when you hit hard bass or have it turned really loud. I think the best thing to do is make sure the battery you have in your truck right now is stable and install the system and try it out before you spend money that you don't really need to on a capacitor and battery.

 

Agreed - exactly what i think I will do - I'm guessing it won't be needed since it's a modest set-up and will be listened to at moderation for the most part. I appreciate the help - even if I won't be running it at it's limit alot, it's good to fully understand the system and know my limits. The learnin' curve is steep for me with this stuff - my first full-blown stereo system and I'm doing it myself.....