Son of Anarchy

Heres the deal, I bought a Sony Xplod 1000 watt amp, and two "12 1200 watt subs. Along with I think the 600 watt 6x9's. Do I need a capcitor and a battery, or what?

Timothayyy

iTrader: (2)

Is that peak power? If it is then I would need to know the continuous power to be sure. A capacitor will never hurt, but if you get another battery it will just die because it will have nothing to charge it unless its somehow hooked up to the alternator?

Overall I dont think you will need to do anything. But if you get it all in and your lights are flickering or something, then just go grab a capacitor.

all4u

Seeing as that audio is my thing, I'll answer this question. If you don't have to run the fans alot or the rear defogger, you'll be okay without a battery, and your lights might dim when the bass hits but you'll be okay. If you play the music at night on a warm day, get a battery. A cap isn't worth buying. Also get a deep cycle battery like an optima or kinetic. Make sure that you have excellent grounds and that you don't use cheap wire. That should solve everything. Any questions, feel free to ask. PM me pics of the install and maybe I can give you some pointers.

Al Hasse

Also, if you do decide on a second battery for your audio system, it's not necessary, but you might want to isolate it from your starting battery. I have a diode isolator (similar to an RV with hotel loads on a second battery) in my system which allows the alternator to charge one or the other battery as the demand dictates.

Iroctopless

I had that set-up in my previous car (alternator --> isolator --> two seperate batteries). What also worked great is that when having the secondary battery dedicated to the stereo, I could run my stereo when parked worry free. If the battery went weak or dead, the other battery was uneffected. I could still jump in, start my car, and drive away.
A 2nd cool thing is, if you know what your doing (must be done right or you may cause a dangerous short), you can boost yourself if you're main battery does go dead for some reason.

You can't do either of the above with a cap.

Iroctopless

My above post doesn't say anything about whether you need a second battery, just some points about that set-up.
As Timothayyy said, you might not need anything at all, or maybe just a cap, depending on what happens (as he mentions).

Cam-aro

iTrader: (4)

Haha. No, you absolutely do not need an extra battery. You have WAY to small of a system. A capacitor will help your lights from flickering at night, but even a cap won't make much of a noticeable difference.

Your fine bud, no worries.

crazyryceman

how dangerous is a dangerous short? and how would i know it happened?

REDTAIL

iTrader: (1)

no... but I would first up grade the alt. to 160-200 amp when you start running in to voltage problems unless you plan on running your system with out the car running.

Al Hasse

[QUOTE=Iroctopless;3732361]A 2nd cool thing is, you can boost yourself if you're main battery does go dead for some reason.QUOTE]

I have on a couple of occasions. I used a long set of cables from the rear to the front of the car (batteries are on the same side). Looking back, all I really had to do was undo one battery cable from the isolator and connect it to theother one, effectively paralleling the batteries.

Another idea to consider would be an isolator/combiner, which I've heard acts like an isolator in every situation except starting, then effectively combines the batteries.

http://www.hellroaring.com/

3rdgen383

with that setup, you wont need a cap or a deep cycle battery. stick with what your car has.