looking at moving to a two battery setup in my car a mini battery for vehicle electrical and deep cycle or kinetic/batcap type battery in my trunk for the stereo

what i'm wondering is are EXIDE or orbital deep cycle batterys as good as optima?

the one i'm looking at has 950 CA and 700 CCA and its gunna be used soley to power my stereo, and its only like $120

 

Check out these guys too
http://www.brailleauto.com/

They have some nice stuff...who knows...maybe you'll find what you need w/o having to buy two.

 

Optima sealed batteries are awesome, never used one in a street car but used them in Landcruisers in mining/offroad/mineral exploration - you only had to buy one Optima per car, but you would go through several standard batteries for each otherwise, they don't leak from heat, getting shaken a lot etc. (so they stay cleaner etc.) They have great cranking power.

Look snazzy too.

 

yea i guess it would be cheaper to buy one optima rather than two new batterys

but question is are EXIDE deep cycle as good as OPTIMA?

PS which would be better for running the car and a system running two 1000w RMS subs? yellow or red top? what about kinetic or batcap?

 

Unless you intend to run the stereo with the car shut off, it really doesn't matter what battery you use, since the alternator is what will be powering the system and is what you need to be looking at.

 

i'm trying to avoid the pulsating headlights, which i currently have and i'm only pushing 800w RMS 1400w MAX

alternator you say... so where do i get an alternator thats pushing more than 110amps for this car?

 

you realize that capacitors will help with pulsating headlights. I have 1600ws and a capacitor and have no headlight issues. Capacitors probably cheaper then a battery anyways.

 

+1

 

i've got a 1 farad... but still never hurts to get a better battery lol... maybe bigger cap

 

Best bet is to buy a new OEM alternator and have it rebuilt to put out more power.

Also, a cap won't help much with headlight dimming, since caps are only made for quick bursts of power. A better battery won't help, either, since it'll still only put out 12 volts, which is less than the alternator (14.4v), and so you'll still have headlight dim. An alternator's output is lowest at idle, so the best option I see is to get one with a higher output.

 

Quick question: when the car is on, does it take the electrical power from the battery and then the alternator recharges the battery, or does the battery basically shut down and the power gets taken directly from the alternator?

 

probably could just pull one of a wreaked car...

any clue on what it cost to re-build an alternator?

would having an alternator that puts out more amps than stock be harmful to the electrical system in the car?

 

The alternator supplies all the power to the car, as well as recharging the battery. No power is pulled from the battery unless the power draw exceeds the alternator's abilities.

 

that's how you tell if it's the alternator or the battery. It won't crank means the battery is dead. when you jump it and the battery is dead the car will stay running for as long as you want, but it won't start after sitting for a few minutes. if it's the alternator the car will have trouble running at all even with a brand new battery after a little while using the lights and radio. with an aging battery it won't run for long at all regardless of what you have going on; the OEM ECU and everything else in the car require power.

 

Anyone notice that you can make the headlights dip/fade/flicker by trying to raise the windows when they are already up?