The only reason the original alt doesn't run a fuse is because there isn't enough amperage output to be dangerous, but when you up your amperage to 150 and up you can destroy things. I've seen one of my stupid friends purposely pump over 200 amps from some weird old generator thing into an old battery and it exploded, so that's why fuses are nice, they will trip before your truck explodes.

 

also the reason not to use a fuse is that the amps is constantly fluctuating. So what size would you use. If its to close to the amps output you could easily blow it which would leave you stranded. If you use one that is a bit bigger than what is the purpose.

Also you cant base you reasoning off of a battery exploding cause it was hooked up to something you dont even know what it is. The reason it exploded could be because it was putting out to many volts. If it was a generator it would but out around 110AC volts into a 12volt battery

 

Touche my good sir, touche.

Anyway, I've got a 165 amp alt and I'm running a 175 amp fuse and so far I haven't been stranded and the fuse has been in since September. But just to be safe I keep an extra 175 amp fuse and a 200 amp fuse in my glove compartment in case I do blow the fuse and need it replaced.

 

eh, im running 2 amps in mine, stock battery, stock alternator, about 1300 RMS and despite the voltage guage moving a little, no lower than 12v, i have yet to have any issues with my alternator.

 

How about a capacitor?

If your lights are dimming when you crank it then your electrical system is definitely feeling the load but most times adding a capacitor will take the load off the alternator when the load spikes.

A 1-ferite capacitor should be good if your only seeing slight dimming. Definitely upgrade the big three as well. I would upgrade the amp if you go past 1100 rms.

By the way, what are the impedance on your type r's? If they are 4 ohms then your not running 1000 watts, your running 250 watts. At 2 ohms 500 and at 1 ohm, 1000. I would check that before you spend money on an alternator that you may not need. Remember, if you wire in parallel, your 4 ohm resistance is now 2 ohms 4/2=2. If you wire in series, then your at 8 ohms.

http://www.bcae1.com/spkrmlti.htm

for info

 

capacitors are ****, read up online, all they do is just put a strain on your alt, needing to constantly recharge that cap. a second battery is better. i just bought a kinetik hc2000 for the rear of my blazer, i have stock alt, redtop up front, soundstream pcx2000d running at 1 ohm (2000rms) and a hifonics zxi4406 running 200rms to the speakers, i can idle and blast it without dropping under 13.6. big 3 is not done yet, no one should ever waste their time on caps. i will be trying out that larger gm alt swap soon

 

wow. So much wrong with this post.

first, its farad, not ferrite.

second, Have you read the section in bcae about caps? If you did you would realize that the cap is the very last resort you should try (after upgrading all wiring, batteries, and alternator). This is because a cap is a bandaid for a bullet wound.

There have been MANY discussions on this forum and many others about why you dont need a capacitor. My favorite is the fact that the "car audio cap" was designed as a marketing ploy, and it is still working to this day.

 

I'll read up on it some more then. If that info is wrong, so be it. I don't want to steer anyone backwards.

 

Do the big 3. I got 7' of Monster Cable 1/0 gauge for $20 including shipping on ebay and spent less than $20 at Parts Express for a few connectors.