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High output alternator

rosepaule

By rosepaule
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rosepaule Enthusiast

rosepaule

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The Police Package Tahoe gets a 170 Amp high output alternator and 720 cold-cranking amps primary battery and 730 cold-cranking amps auxiliary battery (dedicated to emergency equipment) With all the gear that a police vehicle has to power, they have this pretty well covered, you might consider going that route? 
Thats the tahoe. We are talking about the 1500 trucks. Tahoes engine bay is going to be different than the 150p trucks im sure. The problem with our trucks is that there is zero space for a second batter under the hood. Im putting one in the back of my bed behind the cab on the right side underneath my bed cover.

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rosepaule
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Ok. Discovered that the 2018 alternator should be the same. Since ordered a 370 amp alternator and a Big 3 upgrade. Will install and let everyone know how it works. Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapat

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garyo Enthusiast

garyo

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I have the 170 alternator in my RST and asked my dealer SM if I could just install the factory 220 without any problems, like an ECU change. He did not know and said he would find out. These new trucks have something called a smart charging system so it makes me think the alternator may be controlled by the ECU. Any thoughts? I want an upgrade to power some communication equipment.

 

rosepaule Enthusiast

rosepaule

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I have the 170 alternator in my RST and asked my dealer SM if I could just install the factory 220 without any problems, like an ECU change. He did not know and said he would find out. These new trucks have something called a smart charging system so it makes me think the alternator may be controlled by the ECU. Any thoughts? I want an upgrade to power some communication equipment.
 
The built in fuse on top of the battery is only 200amp. I would only assume you would need to replace that assembly which is 900 bucks with the one for the higher amp alternator which comes on the snow plow package.

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Rodek Enthusiast

Rodek

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I know this may be obvious but have you visited your local Car Audio shop? There stands a good chance they have installed a high end audio system in a similar truck and may have some solutions. Back in the late 80's and 90's (my SPL days, we typically used an ambulance alternator, extra batteries and stiffening capacitors to provide extra juice. One of my bigger builds was a 1990 Geo Storm. It had (8) Kicker 12's powered by HiFonics series VIII amplifiers. Mids/highs were made by Savard (their Rap series).  I was knocking cans off grocery store shelves when cruising parking lots. Ok...enough reminiscing.   :) 

rosepaule Enthusiast

rosepaule

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I know this may be obvious but have you visited your local Car Audio shop? There stands a good chance they have installed a high end audio system in a similar truck and may have some solutions. Back in the late 80's and 90's (my SPL days, we typically used an ambulance alternator, extra batteries and stiffening capacitors to provide extra juice. One of my bigger builds was a 1990 Geo Storm. It had (8) Kicker 12's powered by HiFonics series VIII amplifiers. Mids/highs were made by Savard (their Rap series).  I was knocking cans off grocery store shelves when cruising parking lots. Ok...enough reminiscing.   [emoji4] 
I've got 2000 watts using my oem 170amp alt and its fine. I have the denali so its LeD all the way around and I haven't had a need to add my bigger alt or a second battery however I'm not adding more accessories so getting this resolved sooner is my next priority.

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Toomnymods Enthusiast

Toomnymods

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1 minute ago, rosepaule said:

I've got 2000 watts using my oem 170amp alt and its fine. I have the denali so its LeD all the way around and I haven't had a need to add my bigger alt or a second battery however I'm not adding more accessories so getting this resolved sooner is my next priority.

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This is the reason for my upgrade.. Sundown Audio SALT-6  6,000 watts RMS and 10,500 watts at 1 ohm mono..

its a power hungry sumbish.. at idle pulls around 150amps and 1000 amps peak. Has 3 1/0awg power wire inputs.
I also have two 45AH lithium batteries from Limitless lithium that have the same capacity of 

18 50lb AGM batteries. Really a no brainer as I dont want to be lugging around 800-900 lbs of batteries as these lithiums only weigh like 36 lbs combined. They charge fast as hell too.

 

D60AAD06-E99F-4FA7-BA27-2F2C6C66C298.jpeg

F1D6BC36-E88E-4336-913F-3FC1EF878BD6.jpeg

573D0271-069C-4D57-B67A-F2EE491AD93E.jpeg

Rodek Enthusiast

Rodek

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Sundown makes great gear. Will you be upgrading your mids/highs? 

PaulpHebert Enthusiast

PaulpHebert

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18 hours ago, Toomnymods said:

This is the reason for my upgrade.. Sundown Audio SALT-6  6,000 watts RMS and 10,500 watts at 1 ohm mono..

its a power hungry sumbish.. at idle pulls around 150amps and 1000 amps peak. Has 3 1/0awg power wire inputs.
I also have two 45AH lithium batteries from Limitless lithium that have the same capacity of 

18 50lb AGM batteries. Really a no brainer as I dont want to be lugging around 800-900 lbs of batteries as these lithiums only weigh like 36 lbs combined. They charge fast as hell too.

 

D60AAD06-E99F-4FA7-BA27-2F2C6C66C298.jpeg

F1D6BC36-E88E-4336-913F-3FC1EF878BD6.jpeg

573D0271-069C-4D57-B67A-F2EE491AD93E.jpeg

Nice gear. I have an SD3-10 that will be hooked up soon.  What kind of subs you running with all that power?

Toomnymods Enthusiast

Toomnymods

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4 minutes ago, PaulpHebert said:

Nice gear. I have an SD3-10 that will be hooked up soon.  What kind of subs you running with all that power?

For now i will have 4 X8V3’s on the salt -6. I’ll keep this for the first 8 months to a year till I have the box for my 4 sundown 12ZV5’s and I’ll have to buy another sundown salt-6 to get the max spl out of these subs.

4 hours ago, Rodek said:

Sundown makes great gear. Will you be upgrading your mids/highs? 

 

Yes I plan on using Focal K2 mids and tweeters and still undecided on the amp for my midrange and tweeters.

Rodek Enthusiast

Rodek

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The Focals are a nice choice for mids/highs.  I had Hertz Mille Pro's in my last truck and was impressed with them. For the mids/highs amp, since I'm still old school I went a Class AB American Bass VFL 350.4. (175 x 4 or 500 x 2 Bridged at 4 ohms).  There are however lots of choices in Class D that will work as well.  

Toomnymods Enthusiast

Toomnymods

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3 hours ago, Paul 2020RST said:

Sundown also has their new full bridge line of amps.  I know there is a 4 channel in the group.

 

For the 4 -12’s, I’m assuming you are removing the back seat?

No the back seat will be staying and i’ll be cutting a port hole into the cab.

probably like 12” tall and 30” wide or so.

  • 1 month later...
DanHc Enthusiast

DanHc

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On 8/13/2020 at 11:49 PM, Toomnymods said:

No the back seat will be staying and i’ll be cutting a port hole into the cab.

probably like 12” tall and 30” wide or so.

Nice you will definitely be loud I’m also cutting the cab but I’m doing 2 JL Audio 13w7 4th order, hole will be 10x10 so not too bad

  • 2 weeks later...
LA_33 Enthusiast

LA_33

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Any updates on the high amperage alternator install?

 

I called Mechman 6-8 weeks ago, and as of now they have not resolved the smart charging issue on these trucks.  There has to be a way to install a big alternator.  Said they are working on it.

 

As of right now I am running Focal components in the front and Focal coaxials in the rear with two Focal flax 12's.  One Audio Control D4.800 and LC800.1.  Mids/highs amp is only using around 400 watts and the sub amp is putting out a little more than 800 watts.  So a little over 1200 watts at full tilt and voltage never moves from 13.9 at both amps.  I have an oldschool Cadence A7HC that makes really good power for a 20 year old amp.  I built an enclosure for two Sundown ZV5s for a guy recently, and tested it in briefly in my AT4.  Voltage was 13.8-13.9 at full tilt.  I did not clamp to see how much power it was putting out but I installed it in the other truck on a Salt4K, the Salt amp was definitely louder, but my old amp really surprised me.  This being said, I feel like we have pretty good stock electrical in these trucks.

 

If the 220 amp alternator would interchange, I think it could handle 3000 watts if a powerful AGM or Lithium was added.  I'm not saying the stock will handle the Salt6K by any means.  370-390 amp will definitely be needed for all of that gear.

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