# subwoofer and air ride



## SeanKirk23 (Oct 13, 2008)

I have an Optima Red Top that's actually a little bigger than what my car calls for. But I am still a bit worried that powering a sub and an air setup off the same battery that powers everything else on the car is going to be overload.

Anyone here running one battery and still have a sub with their air setup?


----------



## [email protected] (Nov 19, 2010)

SeanKirk23 said:


> I have an Optima Red Top that's actually a little bigger than what my car calls for. But I am still a bit worried that powering a sub and an air setup off the same battery that powers everything else on the car is going to be overload.
> 
> Anyone here running one battery and still have a sub with their air setup?


You should be fine. Kevin here is running a sub with his air ride setup and he has a Yellow Top. If your lights start to dim when your sub hits you should look into getting a capacitor. Are you running one or two compressors?


----------



## SeanKirk23 (Oct 13, 2008)

[email protected] said:


> You should be fine. Kevin here is running a sub with his air ride setup and he has a Yellow Top. If your lights start to dim when your sub hits you should look into getting a capacitor. Are you running one or two compressors?


One Air Zenith OB2.


----------



## [email protected] (Nov 19, 2010)

Should be legit. Just pick up a capacitor if the lights dim. They're not expensive and worth it


----------



## VW-Pssst (Jun 10, 2007)

SeanKirk23 said:


> I have an Optima Red Top that's actually a little bigger than what my car calls for. But I am still a bit worried that powering a sub and an air setup off the same battery that powers everything else on the car is going to be overload.
> 
> Anyone here running one battery and still have a sub with their air setup?


I am running my air and a 10" 1000w sub with a 600w amp off my stock battery, and never once had ANY problems with any light dimming. mind you the tank is only filling for 2 minutes maybe. Not really stealing that much power. 

All functions mint, been doing this for over a year now and no troubles :beer:


----------



## SeanKirk23 (Oct 13, 2008)

VW-Pssst said:


> I am running my air and a 10" 1000w sub with a 600w amp off my stock battery, and never once had ANY problems with any light dimming. mind you the tank is only filling for 2 minutes maybe. Not really stealing that much power.
> 
> All functions mint, been doing this for over a year now and no troubles :beer:


Good to know :thumbup:


----------



## 07silverbullet (Mar 10, 2010)

I'm also running an OBD2 with a 12" sub and no problems what so ever on a stock battery...:thumbup:


----------



## WS4 (Apr 22, 2008)

Yea I've got two 400c, sub/amp on my stock battery. I haven't noticed any problems. Been running it for 6 months so far.


----------



## John Reid (Jun 30, 2010)

You should be fine as is.

Don't know what model/ generation VW you have, but my '09 MKV JSW has a stock 140 amp alternator. 

My sound system totals 1900 watts... 3 JL HD amps feeding two 15"s, two 8"midbasses, two 4"midranges, and two tweeters. No dimming issues at all, and it makes my arm hair move when I need it to.

As far as caps, they're a band-aid... it a topic that's been argued heatedly since the 90's, so I definitely won't get into it here, but they can in fact place MORE load on you battery, especially the crappy caps that are produced these days.

If you want more juice for "on-demand" applications, look into these batteries:

http://www.visionxusa.com/


----------



## blue bags (Jul 1, 2009)

youll be good. just run a sufficient power setup. I was running a 600 watt kicker amp with a 12" sub with dual viair 400s with no issues for a long time, and that was on a stock sized walmart battery


----------



## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

I am running dual OB2's in my car and the stock 90A alternator could barely keep up with the compressors without my stereo even on. MY 200A alternator keeps my volts at a solid 13 even at idle with my stereo running hard. 

I am not 100% sure about a single OB2 however, you will have 35A less draw so you will probably be ok


----------



## eurotrsh (Dec 25, 2004)

Pick up a Stinger power cell over a capacitor, about the same price as a good 2 farad cap and works SO much better. 

$199.95 retail, 6"x3"x7", and comes with a metal sleeve to mount it. 

http://www.stingerelectronics.com/productDetails.aspx?ProductId=138&CategoryID=4

For what its worth, my girlfriend has a single OB2 and an Alpine PDX-5 with no power issues on a fairly new OEM alternator and Bosch battery.


----------



## JohnStamos (Feb 3, 2010)

[email protected] said:


> You should be fine. Kevin here is running a sub with his air ride setup and he has a Yellow Top. If your lights start to dim when your sub hits you should look into getting a capacitor. Are you running one or two compressors?



Capacitors are hogwash, and comparing a Yellow Top to a Red Top is like comparing a plane to a weedwhacker.


----------



## joelzy (Aug 20, 2007)

running air and amp off a refurbed econo battery with no problems other than the lights dimming a tad


----------



## SeanKirk23 (Oct 13, 2008)

JohnStamos said:


> Capacitors are hogwash, and comparing a Yellow Top to a Red Top is like comparing a plane to a weedwhacker.


I can tell you from experience that Yellow Tops suck. I had two of them in my car before I went to a Red Top and haven't had any issues since.


----------



## _Dirty_ (Sep 30, 2009)

SeanKirk23 said:


> I can tell you from experience that Yellow Tops suck. I had two of them in my car before I went to a Red Top and haven't had any issues since.


I have a yellow top and upgraded my alt to a 120amp, running two 400s and have a 1000w amp powering interiors and sub. no problems on my end :thumbup::thumbup:


----------

