No, I have no idea to what video you're referring to. I don't know about Rich's background but I've got 3 years of electronics classes from high school, a 4 year college degree in industrial electronics, and about 20 years of experience working with electronics, electrical components, test and measurement equipment.

There's two groups in the world on each side of this coin. Those like you, who believe that capacitors are useful in this application and those of us who know they're not. I will not argue the fact that a capacitor CAN be used to "stiffen" voltage drop in a circuit. They sure as hell can, do, and have applications in the real world where they are used for that purpose everyday. Such as DC motor control circuits and high powered lasers for quick examples. However, those applications do not have the repetitive high current draw and small voltage range issues that the car audio application has.

It's no problem though, if you know it's working for you then by all means continue to use it, it's your vehicle, your system and your prerogative.

 

No video was watched, its from my personal experience with electronics to know how a cap works. 3 years of electronics in highschool as well, and just learning things on my own to the point I now know how to build functioning circuit boards, and have, which is why the whole exterior lightning on my jimmy is all scratch built/designed LED lighting.

Alton hit the nail on the head in real world times when a cap is needed, and works.

But, in the end, its all good. If you think it is working, then stick with it.

 

Ive had major power issues in my old car untill i got my cap and have been using one in car audio for 5 years. never had this so called "low voltage" blow out. Not saying its the holy grail of battery replacments or anything but it has its benefits. I too have taken courses in electricity, in ABSA Candian standards Power Engineering.

 

Anyways went with a Optima Yellow Top high performance AGM battery for the 1250wRMS, if you were wondering. They do not have dekas here in Canadia. Seems to have solved my power problems just runs my alternator hard so ill be on the look out for a aftermarket one here.

 

If you have a local pull-it-yourself type parts yard around pulling an AD244 out of a truck that has one would be a cheap and simple upgrade and for no more power than you're pulling at the moment most likely more than enough until future upgrades.

Look for a 1999 and newer Full Size truck or SUV preferably with the LT and up packages as they have more of the fancy electrical options (power everything, heated seats, etc.) and would need the bigger of the two AD244's that came out in those trucks. Most also had the amperage output rating cast into the case as well.

Here's a quick post on a sister S-10 forum about the upgrade.

 

Thanks for the info ended up going with a aftermarket 200amp one. Figured i didnt wanna be stuck on the side of the road due to a ****ty stock alt or a worn out junk yard one. A little expensive but a necessity with large stereo outputs. Now maybe people wont think im flashing my brights at them all the time haha who am i kidding the projectors are bright as ****.

 

I was just skimming this conversation and thought that I would drop my experience from when I first installed my amps and subwoofers. I'm not nearly as sharp as these guys are. I installed my system shadetree mechanic style and had a sound shop look it over and fix my dummy errors. Before they fixed the small mistakes that I had made, they had a list of work that they were going to do and parts they were going to install. Most was simple and cheap stuff. The only real parts they installed was a fuse and box that they claimed was an improvement on the cheap one I bought and a splitter for my powercord where I did a funky y-split with electric tape in order to power my two amps.

They did highly reccomend a capacitor or second battery though. I was broke in college and had nickel and dimed this project to death so I said no since I didn't have the cash. I had a 850 watt Kenwood amp and a 2000 watt, I think it was, Q audio amp. The second was a cheapo that I got for free from my roommate because he wasn't using it. I knew it was an issue waiting to happen because since I had hooked up that system, the meter for my battery no longer sat in the same position it did before and when it was cold outside, my lights would flicker during long bass draws.

A year later, I had to install a new alternator and I've been kicking myself ever since for not getting a second power source earlier. Afterwards, I just took the system out for multiple reasons and it's still sitting in my spare bedroom.

EDIT:
To answer your original question, I drilled a hole through the drivers side of the firewall in the top right corner above the gas pedal. It was high enough that I could slightly pull the carpet back and see it. If you're interested, I can take a picture after work for you but I'm not totally convinced that's the best option. It just seemed like the best one at the time. It turned out to be an excellent spot to route the on-off switch wire for my Rigid Industries Duallys!

 

Thanks for replying chief ended up running it down the frame and through the passenger front seat. Super easy hole to drill and dont have to worry about sealing up the firewall properly.

Never ever ran a splitter before always went with electrical tape and never had issues. If you wanted it to be clean i could see going with a splitter but sounds like they gouged you for your cash but hey im no expert just been doing home installs for 5 years. But ****ing up is part of learning, i too made many mistakes in my early years. Not even gonna dab into the capacitor but personally i run one each to his own opinion though.