Custom Power Pack

Select some music to play while you read: 

Aaliyah - Rock The Boat

Ace of Base - Cruel summer

Ace Of Base - Dancer In A Daydream

Ace Of Base - Dont Turn Around

Ace of Base - Lucky Love

Pump that power to those speakers!!!!!!!! ............Or go back to homepage

How much power ya gonna get on dead batteries?????????

This little article will help you understand power and provide some solutions to help you to make a better system for less money. The whole issue is power. You want your woofer's to make all windows you pass a passive secondary speaker (playing the same music in the buildings you pass). You want to lift skirts on the sidewalk on each puff of the woofer’s power and transform your passenger seat into a vibrator to turn the girl next to you on. You want car’s next to you to vibrate from the pavement up! That takes power! If you enter formal competition, the competition is broken into 1-150, 151-300, 301-600, and 600+ WATTS. Wattage can be measured many ways, expressed as P (in watts) = I (in amps) x E ( volts ), more on this later.  If you are going to compete, start by estimating the projects TOTAL cost. Review the rules and determining what your budget will allow you to produce as a final project that was conceived within your budget. Ask yourself: “Would I like to win in a lower class, or find out I can’t afford to finish the project properly to compete”. You need to do this BEFORE YOU BUY AN AMPLIFIER WITH MORE WATTS THAN YOUR BUDGET ALLOWS. However, if you simply want to momentarily blast a hole in the pavement behind you in the road, drawing all attention to your new sunglasses, than a different approach in design and budget can occur.

Peak power is just that, what is the highest product of IxE, even if it can only be delivered for such a short time that a speaker can’t respond to it. Average Power, or Real Power, or RMS (Root Mean Squared) is the measure of real deliverable power, the average delivered over one cycle, or the average over time under the power curve.

So that provides a beginning to understanding power. Batteries are not rated in watts, alternators are not commonly rated in watts, but amplifiers are. Most alternators are stamped with the amperage rating. This rating may not be accurate for many reasons, but is usually close. Assuming it is, you can read the number and know the amps it will sustain for a short period, NOT CONTINUOUS. Let’s say it says 45 amps. P=IE. Assume it is 45 amps at 12.6 volts ( the static voltage of a good battery ). This is a whopping 567 watts. The manufacture designed the car with a large enough alternator to over come car load plus a small allowance. This means there may be 10 to 15 amps in this case for use by your amplifiers. P=IE or 15x12.6=189 watts. Oh but wait, nothing is 100% efficient neither is a peak rating always available. If your amp is a 100 watt, look at the fuse or amperage draw, it’s probably 10 to 15 amps, the reserve capability of your alternator. But what is this rating of the alternator? It is at maximum RPM and sustainable till heat kills it. At engine idle, this alternator would probably deliver no more than 15 amps, the 45 amps is only available at high engine speeds.

Let me use an analogy to help you understand things better. We will use a pond with an incoming stream and a variable flow water wheel running “load” out of the pond. Think of a pond of water with an incoming stream - the alternator as a stream filling the pond - the battery as the pond. The pond has an outflow that varies, which is the load on your car’s battery for running, cooling, lights, accessories and the like. All these lines drawing water from it - the load in your car drawing from the battery. The analogy is not perfect because the alternator’s regulator controls the pond level by shutting down the inflow from the alternator rather than using an overflow out of the pond. A capacitor is like a break water, it smooths out the waves in the vacinity of the capacitor ( the fancy voltage controlling capacitors do more ).

Battery to the rescue! No! A battery is not a life jacket here, it is just a bigger pond of water! Capacitor to the rescue! No, a capacitor is just a wave breaker. The alternator is the only thing filling and maintaining the level of the pond. Everything else drinks up that water, including the wave breaker capacitor which leaks. A better analogy for the capacitor is placing a water silo next to the pond with underground connecting piping. As the pond level rises, the level of water in the silo will rise. This is going to equal the level of the pond depending on the size of the pipe and silo after a time. As the pond level falls, it will yield it’s storage back to the pond. The capacitor has the ability to dump it’s water into the pond instantly or to fill instantly, or nearly so.  Basically all the capacitor does is take or put energy into the system extreamly quickly to smooth out any waves (ripples) in voltage until it's charge is the same as the voltage of the battery. The capacitor does support quick peak loads, but nothing in the audible frequency rage is sustained merely by the capacitor. The fancy "Capacitors" with voltage control usually are a DC to DC converter. Depending on your system design, such as a two battery split system where the capacitor and system feed a battery bank used only by the sound, then capacitors will provide an output voltage to the stand alone amplifier closer to what you desire. This will be at the expense of the vehicle’s running battery and your alternator and your body computer and hundred of other things that don't like low voltage. Push this limit to far to often, and you may be buying some car parts and paying a top notch mechanic $60.00 an hour to find the problem.

If you take out water of the pond ( battery ) more than the incoming stream can put in ( alternator ), the level of the pond drops ( battery voltage and remaining battery power rated in amp hours ). So after a while, the pond runs down. Even after you stop taking water, the stream ( alternator ) tries to fill up the pond back to the regulated level. So the alternator’s fill effort continues at full throttle, or are you at an idle? Another factor which is on almost every car on the road today, is undervoltage protection. This is a feature usually in the regulator that controls the alternator when the battery voltage cannot be maintained by the alternator. If the battery voltage falls below the threshold level, usually 11 volts or less, and remains there for a period of time, the alternator is shutdown, protecting it from overheating trying to remedy a situation it cannot. Usually, a dash light comes on indicating a charging problem.

A typical alternator’s output curve is attached. It turns on at an RPM usually just below engine idle so that it has an output capability if needed at idle. At a higher RPM, the alternator can do more work. Pulley diameter, belt loading, belt slippage, fan cooling, ambient air temperature under the hood, and other factors fight the margins of the design. The balance must be correct or the equipment malfunctions.

Simple solutions sometimes exist, but not often! The simple solutions are dependent on the system design. For instance, a smaller diameter pulley on the alternator will make it spin faster, and be able to generate more power at lower engine Rpm’s. But some systems will shut down unless the computer and the alternator of your car agree as to what RPM the motor is running at. Also if the belt slips to much, it causes heat in the alternator killing it sooner and belts fail in hours instead of months. Usually a modest reduction in pulley diameter will help only modestly anyway.

Even in the 1 to 150 watt class, you may encounter problems. In the 151 to 300 watt class you will not be able to sustain system voltage(you can only flex your music muscles). Above 300 watts, all you can do are short demonstrations. If you want to use power, you need a "Power Pack".

We make the "Power Pack". There are over a million different alternators. Our solution is a system designed for your car meeting your criteria. The whole purpose of this method is to place the appropriate "Power Pack" in your vehicle at the cost you choose. Most importantly, to provide a bolt in replacement when possible, quite often your original, changed slightly.

"Power Pack 140-411-A" This 140 amp unit is small, will fit the largest variety, and is our best seller. It has been redesigned for cooling. Order PP140-411-A $245 plus Frt.Buy Now!

"Power Pack Upgrade" The least cost upgrade is to uprate the originally designed alternator. In every way the same as the original except custom rebuilt for a larger output, but with Original Equipment spec parts. The range of costs for these solutions run from $100 to $350. Most will be $150 to $250 and carry a one year warrantee.

"Power Pack Domestic" For some domestic applications, a few simple things may be investigated and aftermarket parts of higher output ratings figured as another optional solution. The range of costs for these solutions run from $150 to $400. Most will be $200 to $300. Some of our part numbers for these are: ALTDR15SI140, ALTDR12SI120, ALTDR12SI130THERM.

"Power Pack Max" When the power demand or ease of installation is not satisfied by these options, the next level of solutions are discussed. This level usually requires mounting changes. A partial list of our bracket kits listed below will help. Various High Output units are available up to 380 amps at the time of this writing. All are large frame units. For more output see Power Pack Dual or Dual Power Pack Max.

Bracket kits are also available. These usually fit the alternator, and have to be fit to your mounting points.

BK-S-1508 Universal kit for Delco-Remy 10DN, 10SI, and Ford units.

BK-S-1509 Belt Tension Bracket for BK-S-1508.

Spacer kits are available. These kits provide shimming for pulleys for optimum alignment.

Spacer-Kit-17mm/670 Used on Delco-Remy, Ford, Chrysler and all others with a .670" or 17mm shaft.

Pulley/spacer kits are available. These provide a pulley and related spacers.

Adapter and/or repair harnesses are available for some.

Warrantee is an option on "Power Pack Domestic" & "Power Pack Max". We offer it two ways, "Protected" and "Unprotected". Thermally "Protected" is not always available.

VoltageKit For those of you who want to "Drag Race"( maximum db for short competition - ie blast over the top of the guy next to you): Use when you want the maximum output decibels, at a minor expense on battery life, we offer a diagram and kit for $12.00. You can install on nearly all alternators unless it is a "one wire hookup" alternator. This modification changes your regulation set point.

"Power Pack Dual" Another option is to install "Power Pack__" as a second alternator. The simplest design is a one wire hookup. A second alternator is the most drastic measure and is the hardest to complete. It is however, one of the most reliable solutions and has the benefit of staggered RPM impact.

"Dual Power Pack Max" Such Systems can produce over 8000 watts of power. All systems here are totally engineered to your needs.

Order your"Power Pack 140-411-A" today. Buy Now!

Call 607-625-4658..or How to contact us: >> homepage

Lets us help you - the smart way! Costs are proportional to your criteria ( sustained power ). Finding out what the smart options are before you buy may be a wise investment. What this means is that you call us or mail in the data sheet we need to research your options and inform you of the solutions. This has a fee of $29.00 or $59.00 (first level or second level research). You can then buy smart.