battery opinion

Going for the "obnoxious" award I see.........lol (I would just go with whatever fits....are you changing the alternator?)

 

Simply adding a battery might not be the answer... Deperding on the output of that kicker and how much talking you do you may have to get a second alternator as someone else indicated. minimally I would think you would need a high output or custom wound replacement alternator.

As for battery brand... I like Optima gel batteries. They can take a lot of charge/discharge cycles and keep going. Got em in my 4 by's as they can take some radical angles without losing acid, The are expensive but you get what you pay for.

A marine deep cycle battery would also be a good choice.

Consider a battery isolator switch also... It allows you to select batytery A Battery B or both.

 

Have fun with it. I've got a Texas Star 667V sitting in the basement. May get a big ol' power supply and use it when I get my base station set up!

 

I hear that... Have an old D&A tube mobile I bought brand new many years ago. I have run it indoors 2X on a 60 AMP supply. It works well... But I am just getting too old too monkey around with multiple alternators. Have a high power stereo and off road lights. Also a winch. Not that I envision running them all at once, but I just don't want to kill a lot of batteries by starving them either. Other issue is to get this amp really working well, I upped the voltage to 15.0 volts. More mods needed to the truck...

I am very disappointed GM did not consider my linear amp needs when designing the electrical system in my truck!

 

I get up every morning with nothing to do and by bed time, I'm only half done!

Seriously, I haven't really got into any of the projects I had planned. But I seem to stay busy?????....... I'll get around to it, Lord willing.

 

First off GM does have a manual for RF installations, it describes a lot of things for 2005 to date vehicles. they didn't forget to consider amps in their vehicles.

Second the alternator would be the best place to start, a second battery unless you are running high power (meaning 2kw) would help but you need to use the battery less and the power from an alternator more. You could go with all kinds of different options but finding someone who knows really what to do to either build you or get you a low speed high output alternator would be the best thing to do. Delco has been making them for the last 5 decades and every one (like Leece Neville, Autolite, and others) has or had a few in their catalogs. You may need to change your pulley setup to get the lower speed that is needed to get the thing working right (meaning the amount of amps you need to power the amps) but overall it is the best place to start.

Oh and the battery isolator, forget that. YOU need them all connected together.

OH and before I forget, don't do the optima thing, you will fry the battery sooner or later. The thing about optima batteries (and any AGM for that matter) is that you can cook the battery if you don't have the right charging system. What I mean is that the charging system in cars that use acid type batteries are setup for a different charging profile while the AGM can be cooked if there is too much voltage for a long period of time (the same goes for running it down below 50% and then hitting it with a hard fast charge - which you do in radio setups like CB/amp combos), one reason why people with an AGM setup have a proper regulator installed for their charging system and take their time charging it. So pretty much forget the battery idea until you get the right power.