Ok so as of right now i have a sony headunit, 1000 watt sony amp with 2 10' mtx blue thunders. I just bought pioneer 4x6 for the dash and 6.5 for the front doors. Now, from time to time, my bass will just cut out for a couple seconds then come right back. It just happened today since i put everything back in my truck and tuned my amp the other day. I tuned my amp a couple days ago and it was fine, the lights flicker but it never cut out until today. now it is a little hot out today and i did have the back windows up when it started cutting out. could it just of been gettin too hot? my amp is mounted on the back of my sub box so is it possible that with it turned up and the back windows up thats all it is? Also whats better a capacitor or bigger alternator?? I know i need one or the other to get my lights to stop flickering but whats better? what works better? cheaper? sounds better? any thoughts?

 

Ok, well, you really need to look at your amp while its beatin and see what it does when the bass cuts out. Either you have a suspect ground, the voltage is dropping too much (not likely) or you amp is going into thermal protect.

What kind of truck are we talking about? Year and number of doors?
Where is your ground wire for your amp?
How do you have your box situated and where is the amp actually facing?

On power issues, a cap is a band-aid for a bullet wound. If you are getting large power drops, which is unlikely with the equipment that you are running, I would suggest Doing the Big 3 upgrade,(adding to factory batt to alt wire, engine to chassis ground wire, and batt to chassis ground wire) with the biggest wire that you can find(just so you dont have to do it again).Then look at your voltage when you are beatin your subs real hard. The Big 3 will usually help you out.

An alt is by far superior and better in the long run, but also more expensive. You can look into pricing herefor an idea on pricing. Great company to deal with.

 

i have a 2002 4 dr 4x4. my bos is located in the back(obviously) facing the tailgate. the amp is mounted on the back of my box. my box is pushed back against the rear seats. Where can i get bigger wire for your big 3?? how big should it be? and what is involved with swapping the big 3 out?

 

You can get bigger wire, might as well get at least 4 gauge, maybe 2 or even 0ga, by the foot off of ebay, or local stereo shops. Or you can go to your local welding supply store and ask for 1/0 ga welding wire. prob need at least 8 feet, I would just go ahead and get 12 or so. Where is your amp grounded at???

To do the big three, a few sockets, ring terminals to fit the wire you got, wire brush for sanding the grounds down, cutters. thats about it. pretty easy.

 

i would go with the big 3 first and your power wire to the amp
Get a 100 or higheramp alternator
upgrade the amp
those MTXsubsare killing the sony amp
and if you want a cap get it off ebay or from a friend (got one off ebay for 12 bucks brand new!!!)

 

any suggestions on a better amp?

 

before you go buying a new amp i would 2nd what hillbilly said. If you go ahead and upgrade your amp, there's a 99% chance your problem will get worse..

 

I would say the big 3 first then the alternator if that doesn't help as much as needed.

What does everyone here that installs Stereos use to Crimp the ring terminals on bigger wiring such as 0,2,4ga? Crimping on 16 ga and so on is easy to do but the bigger (thicker) provides different challenges. Stereo was installed by a shop but I want to do the big 3 myself.

 

Bench Vise, hammer. Or you can just get theterminals that have set screws like these.

Clickyfor 1/0 ga

Clickyfor 4 ga

 

yea the bench vise comes in very handy for crimping 1/0 lol