Can stock battery and alternator support another 15" subwoofer?

I have a 2002 tundra, im running a single skar 15 currently and I want to make my system way louder, any recommendations on upgraded tweeters and mids and more bass? Also can the stock battery and alternator support another 15 along with upgraded tweeters and mids?

 

I will preface this by saying, truthfully, you’d be better off asking audiophiles on a car audio specific platform. Those guys can really give you some info based on actual experience with multiple products/set ups.

But First off you’d have to figure out what alternator your tundra has. In an ‘02 it could be the 80? Somebody else would know or your owner’s manual should tell you. And then secondly it would be battery/power source. But that would tie in with what alternator you currently have/will upgrade too.

There are how to’s on changing you alternator to the much beefier sequoia alternator.

I currently run a SJoybring (scAmazon china brand) stereo, 10” Rockville underseat sub, and 4 SKAR RPX65 6.5’s in all 4 doors. For what I’m looking for. It’s more than enough

 

@bmf4069 has been summoned…….

 

@shifty` is pretty good on this kinda stuff too

 

https://www.tundras.com/threads/1st-gen-lunch-table-general-discussion.60450/page-1729#post-3324358

 

I didn't reply b/c "not enough info" and this sorta looked like a troll post from a departed friend. It arrived at the same time as another troll post from a departed friend, which was some uncanny timing and dealing with similar issues.

I'd first say loudness is subjective, and isn't a product of speakers alone; updating speakers, even if the sensitivity specs are more favorable, aren't going to make it "louder" if you're using a head unit alone for power.

I've had several single 15 configs that were obnoxiously "loud" as hell, legit high-SPL setups, in cars with cabins twice the size of OPs; I can't imagine a single 15 isn't "loud" enough unless OP has no aftermarket amp installed and they aren't doing proper LPF/cap on the sub. If there's no aftermarket amp here, then OP needs to stop throwing speakers at the problem, that's not the solution. I'm not necessarily interested in helping someone build a ride that's going to rattle every window in the neighborhood, shit is obnoxious.

Whether the stock alt will handle the load depends on the amp(s) used, not the sub. How well the amp performs to get clean power is a byproduct of whether you provide properly wired, clean power ... I've seen people feed their amp by t-tapping a 18-20awg wire off a power seat before, then complain about the output and noise. I've seen people use an 8awg power wire to feed power to their amp, then run a 18-20awg ground to a painted bolt under their seat and complain about the amp clipping in/out power. Proper pwr/gnd is crucial.

For what's ideal for mids/highs upgrade, I'd be choosing that based on the amp(s) used and the channels/wattage config they offer, and knowing which channels were being used for subs.

Cab type info would be helpful also. I assume if OP is running a 15, they have an access cab, but ... need more info:

• What cab type here?
• What model# of head unit is installed, or is it still OEM?
• What model# amp or amps are installed?
• How is the amp wired for power currently?
• Are the speakers wired using aftermarket wiring, or the factory wiring?

Answering those would help get us in the ballpark to make recommendations, if this is a genuine post looking for help.

 

I have a ct sounds amp, its the cab with suicide doors the amp is under the driver seat wired with a kit from walmart, i want more bass and louder mids and highs which would be the tweeter and door speaker replacements I just joined the forum and im genuinely interested on how to make my tundra speakers louder and wondering if my battery and alternator can handle more than my 1000watt amp powering my skar 15

 

Run your vin with a toyota parts dept, find the alternator part # and see what its amp rating is.

Figure out the amp draw of your system and go from there.

 

What’s the model number on your CT sounds 1000w amp? (So I can run specs)

Is the amp currently only powering the sub, not the other speakers? Like, head unit is powering your speakers, amp is powering the sub?)

What mode are you running the sub? i.e. is the amp wired to the sub for stereo, or wired for mono?

What model number is your head unit? (Or is it OEM? And if it’s the OEM head unit still, what brand and modem of LOC are you using to get RCA input signal to the amp? Or are you using high level/speaker level input?)

 

If your alternator is capable of 100 amps, then at 14v, you can get 1400 watts out of it (running at optimum engine speed to adequately spin the alternator fast enough to produce peak power). If you have a 120 amp alternator, thats 1680 watts. If you have a 150 amp alternator, that's 2100 watts. But remember, that's total peak power for to meet all the electrical demands of the entire vehicle. Budget 40 amps for basic car functions not including headlights or blower motor at full speed or electric fans if you have them.

If your CT sounds amp is class d, you can also assume 1/2 - 1/3 duty load at full power; Class A/B and you are 2/3 - 1/2 duty load. This means that if you have a 1000 watt amplifier, it will produce an overall draw of 1/2 - 1/3, or 500-333 watts of actually load on the alternator. So you can cheat a little bit that way. But if you listen to dubstep and the like with lots of continuous low synth bass, that's not quite accurate either.

I also agree with what @shifty` said. Depending on what model Skar 15 you have and what box you have it in, it should be plenty loud. The loudest system I've had was two 12" Lightning Audio Competition 12's (the ones actually made by Fosgate as a project line before they sold the brand). It beat the four 10" fosgate 10's as well as the four MTX 12's I before it, easily... Medium size ported box on 500 watts of Fosgate old school goodness would pop the seal on the back glass of my old accord. We put a single one of those 12's in a friends civic on 1000 watts in a box I spec'd and built for the sub after measuring actual T/S parameters and it literally knocked pieces off his car while doing hair tricks out the front window. He's a half-deaf bass junkie and it was just about enough for him. So methinks that simply adding another 15 to the mix might not be the best move. Yet. A little bit of test and tune would be helpful. Often times, tuning the system will do leaps and bounds more than simply throwing more parts at it. Also, DSP can be your friend...

 

Yeah, but if he’s powering the mids and highs off the head unit’s puny amp and using the 1000w amp to power the sub, things are gonna sound relatively quiet in comparison to the sub

That’s why I’m pushing on the amp model number, and wiring setup. It’ll answer a lot of questions. Hopefully OP can address my last questions so we can get to the bottom of this. Some of those questions I’m asking for the 2nd time and still waiting on answers. It makes it really fucking hard to help out when you can’t get complete answers.

 

I guess I should also reply in sort to the original question about louder mids and highs. Speaker sensitivity (or efficiency) is your friend if you want loud. Higher sensitivity ratings for mids and highs means you can produce more volume with less power, or much more volume with the same power. Pro audio gear is generally more sensitive than car audio gear unless you are looking at SPL-oriented car audio mids and highs. Several companies make them but they aren't usually in a kit or finished system like you would find a regular coaxial of component speaker set. You would either need some knowhow to build a crossover network for them, be able to run them active, or purchase separate crossover networks or modules for them.

The other solution is simply adding multiples. If you have one set of components in the front, add a second set adjacent to the first. Or a third. Or a fourth. Back in the day, this was the way all the cool kids got really loud systems before a lot of time and development went in to SPL specific gear. I remember seeing featured builds with a quartet of mid basses in the lower door panel, a handful of tweeters on the dash, and a plethora of midranges scattered between the upper door, dash, center console, overhead console, headrest, and B pillar, flux capacitor, and wherever else you could think to shove a speaker. As long as your amp can support the final impedance load, this is acceptable at the expense of good imaging (being able to pinpoint where a sound is coming from).

 

But it says 50 watts x 4 on the head unit...!?!?

Ok, I kid. Ya, I totally agree. I don't think I remember the last time I ran my front speakers off of the head unit; I guess it's something I forget that people do... I put two RF HX12's in a friend's Eclipse one day and found out he was running the factory 4" dash speakers off the head unit. It sounded like poo. And he didn't know why. Even when I explained it to him...

 

Yeah, that's my concern here, and why I was saying picking components with higher sensitivity (which could legitimately help) probably isn't going to solve the problem. But we can only guess, until we get answers.

We know an aftermarket amp is at play. We don't know how the signal is getting to the amp. We don't know what the amp is feeding other than the sub. We don't know the model number so we don't know what channel configurations are supported on the amp and can't give advice. If the door speakers are being fed from the amp, we don't know how they're wired, is OP using an amp bypass at the HU, or are the speakers direct-wired? Even if we knew those basic things, there's still other questions to ask. Any system requires understanding what options are available, what options are in-use, so we know what options to adjust.

At the end of the day, the solution here may be to have OP simply turn the gain on their amp all the way down, enable LPF, and use the HU volume knob to control things. This could be another one of those cases of running speakers off the factory HU, with a LOC pushing signal to the amp, and the amp powering the sub with the gain (/level) on the amp all the way up so the HU doesn't have a chance in hell of matching the sub output.

 

Can it? Yes.
Should it? No.



Here's my voltage output when it's maxed out with my 1000w amp.

https://youtu.be/MEw9PYJHM7g?si=pYw5iRt9dkIVol3_

 

I haven't seen it mentioned, but all of these amps go through the positive and negative cables. If they're stock with poor connections the amps will be constricted, the cables will get warm and the amp will be power starved.

Whether it's running a snowplow or a big sound system, performance will likely improve by upgrading the terminals, increasing the cable size and ensuring all connections are shiny. The positive battery cable to the starter, the positive cable to the alternator, adding a ground, etc. I don't have all the key changes needed on a Tundra but these are sometimes called the big three cabling improvements with the audio geeks.

Here's a look at cable improvements on my F250 plow truck: mil spec battery terminals, 2, 4 and 6 awg cables with terminals properly crimped. I know it seems like a PITA when all you want to do is install a big amp and speakers but depending on how big you go this may be necessary scope creep. There are other ways to skin this cat with tons of write-ups and vids on the internet.



Avoid cheap terminals like this, they'll fail eventually.

Here are some links on cabling improvements:
https://www.google.com/search?q=site:tundras.com+big+three+connections+wires+cables&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#ip=1

 

Good grief...2 15's??? I have a single HO 10" and it's too much sometimes.

 

I have a single 10 under my seat and it too can get outta hand sometimes. I couldn’t imagine having TWO 15’s lol that’s asking to not be able to breathe during some notes

 

I think some folks just want obnoxious bass that everyone can hear...

 

People do like attention. Loud exhaust, loud stereo, etc. I once was that child who loved attention, negative, positive, I didn't care. Just attention.

Clearly I'm getting old, because I think I like a bit more balance these days.

 

Here's it running at full tilt.

https://youtu.be/5d4MOF9MzVU?si=VgoKpJ49KvFZcASy

And yes, I'm a 15 year old trapped in a 43 year olds body. Being 43, I play it respectfully. I turn it down at lights and in residential areas. I turn it all the way down in my neighborhood, lest the trailerhoodrats get ideas. It's loud enough that 2 songs at max starts to hurt. And yes, it makes it hard to breath.

 

sounds like fun...

 

I appreciate you doing that out in the middle of nowhere, not in your driveway

 

i must experience this lol

 

Anytime you're in Amarillo hit me up. @JakeJake got to experience it.

 

Huh...so was the screen name 10insubtundra already taken when you first joined this website?

 

Not sure the next time I drive to the CO to see family but I’ll have to PM when I do

 

I don't know where the 2002 model lies, but my 2000 tundra came with a larger battery tray (and hence battery) than my 2004 tundra did.