Howdy yall

So I just put a significant number of lights onto my 2000 XJ. I put too 50 watt fog lights in the lower bumper, two 100 watt Pilot off road lights, and 4 50 watt Pilot off road lights on a bar on the roof. Looks great and is amazing for night fishin!!



Problem though, if I turn them on and press the gas, the belt squeals like a banshee I was on break at work and was talking to a guy in the parking lot, and he said I could remedy the problem by adding a capacitor to the circuit.

I have a limited understanding of electricity (I'm two years into my engineering degree), but would the capacitor pick up the initial load that I put on the battery when I add load to the engine during acceleration? If this works, where do I add the capacitor in the circuit, in the line to the battery?


Thanks guys, it's no fun to turn on my lights for people when it sounds awful the second I hit the gas.

Isn't a capacitor more well suited for an accessory that needs momentary amperage?
Unlike lights which have a constant draw..

You got a good battery?

That's what I thought, because they're constantly going. But, for example, if I'm driving at a higher RPM (lets say 1500), and I flick everything on, the belt doesn't squeal at all.

Try checking and adjusting the belt?

It's not the belt that squeals it's the altenator since there now is a huge load of electricity. You might want to look into doing the v8 grand cherokee altenator swap since that altenator puts out 136 amps which is quite a bit.
Or you could have you altenator rewound for a higher output.

all alternators have an output curve. low rpm = low output and vice versa. a capacitor will supply the required amperage like dan said, momentarily but won't help recharge your battery. you need a high idle switch or source an alt that can put out more amps at lower shaft speeds. if the battery can't get back to full charge after you drained it with your lights and your stock alt can't charge it properly before you turn the truck off, you'll get plate sulfation in the battery cells which can be hard to reverse.

So a bigger alternator is the only way to go?

U can go for 2001-2003 dodge Durango 160 amp upgrade. It's plug and play but u would need to grind down on the bracket to hold it