Ok guys and girls heres the deal. I've got 2 hella 500ff's on my front bumper right now. I'm gonna buy 4 130 watt KC Daylighters from Summit Racing here in the next few days. So I'm wondering, will my alternator be able to take all that power from all those lights runing at the same time and still be able to run everything else properly? By properly I mean no dimming of my factory head lights or interior lights. I will be mounting these on my roof and I would also like to know what guage wire i should use to run these? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I would say you would prolly need a bigger alternator or dual batteries. The stock alternator on our xj's are pretty wimpy for much of anything. I have the same dilemna and am thinking I am going to run dual batteries..

 

Thanks for replying duffman5001. How would you run dual betteries? Or where would you put the second battery if i were to run a second one?

 

I am still thinking about how I want to do it.. if i cough up the cash for optimas I would put the second battery in the cargo area. You run them in parallel, not in series... If you search dual batteries you'll find quite a bit of info on it. A bigger alternator would be easier but I like all the options running dual batteries gives you.

 

cool. thanks for the input

 

Why would running dual batteries help? unless you are running the lights off of the second battery. You don't pull electricity from the batteries when your motor is running. it comes from the alternator.

Luckenbill

 

What kind of alternator do you have? any other high draw accessories(electric fans, winch etc)?...

I think most XJ's came with a 90 amp CS130 and that barely squeaks by IMO. Right now your each 55w hella light are pulling 4.5 amps and every 130w KC is going to pull 10.8 amps...

4.5 x 2 = 9.1 amps
10.8 x 4 = 43.2 amps

That means you'll be drawing 52.3 amps over stock needs. That kind of load on a 90amp alt. could stall your motor, and all your lights would brown out. Your gonna need to upgrade your alternator as well as your battery cables and install a new fuse to protect the stock electronics. If you can, get a 140amp CS144 out of a 96 V8 impalla, they're better than the ZJ 136amp CS130D. Both the CS130D and the CS144 will bolt in with a little trimming.

Heres a good chart on 12v wire sizes
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/am...uge-d_730.html

If you want to know how to run dual batteries, the search function will answer that...lots of guys running duals

Your over-all load needs to be smaller than your alternator output or it will just be fighting a losing battle and likely end up stranded somewhere asking for a jump

 

Thanks for the lesson EVcherokee. For now i just have the hellas on my bumper. And as for the alternator it's just the stock one

 

Question for EVcherokee. trimming of what? to be exact. Sorry if its a stupid question but I am only 17 and dont know that much about electrical issues as well as mechanical problems.

 

Trimming of the mounting bracket. There are lots of threads here about grinding down the mounting bracket to make it fit a ZJ alternator; havent really seen one for the Impala alt.

 

I would go with a zj alt. just cause I dont know about a impala alt. but good idea to check out, you will have to ground the original alt. housing some to fit the zj alt. Then get a red top battery. and upgrade all your cables. I would check your alt, my xj has a 124 amp alt. good luck

 

I justed order a cs144 alternator from www.alternatorparts.com for my 92 cherokee. The person I talked to was great on the phone.
The stock alt has a lot of holes in the case and he said go with the cs144.
The cs144 I have on order is a heavy duty 140 amp and you can get bigger. It also has one fan that pulls air in from the back and pushes it out the front. He said I should be able to make a little duct to keep the back from getting so much mud into it. I hope to have it installed this coming weekend.

 

Ok I think I'm going to go with a zj alternator. but just one more question. is there any specific year that the CS130D alt. will be in the zj or is it in every zj?

Thanks for the input guys

 

http://www.bc4x4.com/tech/2004/jeepalt/

here is a great write up man!

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f11/1...ml#post2971839

here is another one!

 

I'm running 900 watts of stereo and two 100w lights on the front bumper and two rear facing fogs on my rack (55w each). I'm running the stock alternator too lol I'll probably upgrade to the ZJ one soon as my headlights do dim a little when the bass hits