420guy

iTrader: (5)

Yup thats it, almost the same setup in a 2000 Neon and the headlights were like strobes It was 8ga wire and now in the Cavi with a bigger front amp and same sub amp with 4ga wire, nothing at all.

Yeah man, any Saturday hit me up and come on by.

fresh1

iTrader: (2)

ok wait i went through the FAQ on the kinetik site and it says that the HC 600 can be used as a cap, which is good, but my question then becomes, would i wire it the same way as that diagram, or would i wire it like a cap? my guess would be like the diagram so it would be like adding a second battery, but in their FAQ it also states that it can discharge the other battery. have you had any issues with that Mike?

fresh1

iTrader: (2)

i usually dog on my friends for living so far from me so my trips to brampton are few and far in between. i will be there on the 28th however, i'm dropping my parents at a party and my boy and i were probably going to go have a beer ourselves, sooo i guess i'll see you then lol

John__Taylor

iTrader: (3)

In a perfect world you would use the patented cloning machine and make an exact duplicate of your existing batt, but in the real world, even 2 batts one after the other off the assy. line will be a little different.

Go as close as you can in CCA (Cold Cranking Amps). the batts will want to "equalize" for lack of a better term. You can get an isolator or a smart solenoid if you want, both will prevent backfeed (again, wrong term but close enough) but as i said, i took mine out.

Both my batteries are within 50 CCA, one new and one maybe 3 years old.
YMMV of course.

fresh1

iTrader: (2)

well i was thinking of taking the easy way out and going with the HC 600 and use it as a cap, their site says its a good choice as well since i'm not changing my starting battery

Father Yuli

iTrader: (17)

you can hook up 2 batteries any way you want really. just be sure the grounds are good. it is recommended to ground the battery in the trunk to your frame as well as to the battery up front, but you really dont need to if you cant do a frame ground with the trunk battery.

all of this is really as simple as it looks.

if you are grounding the battery in the trunk to the frame of the car please be sure you have the big 3 done as well.

John__Taylor

iTrader: (3)

I think I have about 7/8" worth of grounds to the same spot on the body pan in the rear . 3 amps (4 AWG, runs are only 2 feet) 1 baby cap 4 AWG (signal smoothing purposes only), and the rear batt (0/1).

I probably dont NEED it set up like that, but i have no whine, hum, pops, nothing, so why fool with it.

John

fresh1

iTrader: (2)

well this weekend i'm going to map out my van with the wire i have now and see how much i will need. if i have enough to do the big 3 with that wire then i will just use that, if not then i will probably contact you for a run of the 1/0 you were selling, if you still have some Yuli

John__Taylor

iTrader: (3)

Can I give you a small tip?

0/1 is as thick, or thicker, than your thumb. Pull off a couple of panels and see if you can hide both runs together. I didnt bother doing that and I wish I had of.

When the weather warms up I'm running them down opposite sides of the car because together they are too thick to hide nicely.

maltesechicken

Even if you can't do the big 3, a real easy way to improve the electrical health of your system is to at least upgrade the wire from the battery ground to the chassis. At least your electrical components won't be fighting as much to return the voltage to the battery. Yes upgrading the + and - from battery to alt is very beneficial, but a must is to upgrade the chassis to battery -.

Oh and in response the original post - the suggestion is junk. If you're only running 12awg, and you're system is drawing anything more than 30A, there will not be enough current allowed through that wire to charge the second battery quickly. If you try and shove more than 30A through 12awg you'll really be heating things up and at risk of a fire.

And since most amplifiers these days are fused at 40A and up, you can be guaranteed that the second battery will be looking for more than 30A to replenish it's amperage stock. A dangerous suggestion and the poster hasn't thought through the implications of why we use the wire gauges that we do.