alternator issues

[yellowx16]

I just wired up my roof lights a few days ago, and have recently had a lot of trouble with electronics in my truck. 1st my battery died and needed to be jumped twice. my stereo shuts off but turns back on after a few seconds when I initially turn on the roof lights. and just this morning, when I turned them on the accelerator took and revved to 6000 RPM, but immediately jumped back down. I'm not positive if this is an alternator issue, but I definitely need to get it taken care of. i an thinking about doing a quest alt swap, but not sure if thats the best option. also a mean green is out of the question for now as i lack the funds for it. here are the specifics of electrical upgrades I have on the truck.
4-55w halogen spot lights on roof
2-55w HID lights on bumper
these are both wired together on one switch
2-rigid duallys
1-400w 4 channel amp
1-500w mono amp
1-500w rms 12" sub

any help is appreciated!

 

[yellowx16]

*edit* I will also be doing the projector retrofit sometime next week with 35w HIDs. if I'm correct that should help as they are lower wattage than stock headlights?

 

[Roadwarrior]

Your alternator shouldn't be causing your issues, as you should have enough power to keep all of those running.. UNLESS you ha e all your lights on and you are bumping your system.. I have 4 55w hellas and had a 2000 watt monoblock amp pushing two Kicker L5 subs (essentially 15s, due to the surface area of the sub..) and I never saw my lights dim or flicker when the bass dropped.

I am thinking you need a battery, but that wouldn't cause the high revving problem (to my knowledge).

 

[TKDx00]

Check your battery to see how/if it holds the charge might be a dead cell. Then check your alt. With what you're running it wouldn't hurt to upgrade if it's a stock output alt.

 

[yellowx16]

the battery was brand new in may. just did a voltage test, on start up I am at 13.8. with stereo bumping I am at 13.7. with headlights and rigid LEDs I am between 13.6 and 13.7. with HIDs and roof lights turned on it drops to 12.9-13.0. any ideas? I am awful with electronic things, so I appreciate the help!

 

[yellowx16]

could it maybe an issue of poor wiring? ill be honest my wiring is a mess, should I consider redoing it with a dist. block and more relays?

 

[Prime]

With things cutting on and off like that it definitely sounds like some faulty wiring. You've got some kind of short or something that isn't on a fuse otherwise it would just blow and not work at all. You need to take a serious look at your wiring.

Every new circuit should be on a new fuse that has enough amperage overhead for all the lights you want to run on that circuit. To figure out the draw your wattage divided by 12v will give you your amperage. A pair of 55w lights is 110w total so 110/12=9.16A. To be on the safe side, I'd use a 15A fuse for that. This also means you can run 4 55w lamps on a single 30A relay so they are all together on the same circuit. Of course at running 4 you need to have a larger fuse in play. You'd be under 20A with 4 of them. So a 20A fuse should work, but again I'd do a 30 just for some extra overhead.

Running that much stuff you should be running a new fuse box or home running everything to the battery with an individual fuse in each line.

 

[TKDx00]

Since the battery seems ok...I'd follow what Prime says. Does seem like a wiring issue. Make sure your wire gauge will handle the amps as well. Wire Gauge Chart

 

[yellowx16]

thanks for the link Tkd, it looks like I will be redoing my wiring then. is it a bad idea to have my hids and roof lights on one switch?i have a total of 6 55w lights which equals 27.5a correct? they are on a 40a relay but only 14 gauge wiring. if I keep this gauge of wire I am assuming I will need to wire these to their own switches to lessen the load on the circuit correct?

 

[Prime]

I would put the HID's on their own circuit and relay just because the ballasts tend to have a pretty heavy amp draw on startup. You can jump the trigger wire from the two relays together so that they both trigger from the same switch, even though they are two seperate circuits. The 14GA wiring should be fine from each relay to the lights.

 

[yellowx16]

cool, so basically just take the roof lights off the 40a relay, leave the hids on that relay, but put the roof lights on a separate relay? that should be easy enough.