2 12's in a civic, power problems?

[ruffriderGA]

I ran 8 12"s and 4400 watts on stock alternator on my 99 civic Si....No caps either. 3 batteries, and always made sure the car ran when it was playin. A big bank of caps would have helped, but the naked ear couldnt tell, it was LOUD!

so you can add batteries without upgrading the alternator?

[gobraves00]

it is recommended to upgrade the alt so that it can keep up with the recharging of the batteries

[Allstar3.8T]

so you can add batteries without upgrading the alternator?

Long, but it may help;
Yes, because the way most people will wire multiple batteries, makes the Alt see team as one big battery, not 3 separate ones. (Unless the use a battery isolator, then the Alt supplies each separately in theory)

Batteries supply power ...until they cant since they dont "create" power. The alternator supplies the batteries power once they feel a draw. Caps take a tiny "piece" of power from a battery and enlarge it, it does this in milli-seconds, gaining power, multiplying it (for sake of this discussion) and discharging it to whatever is drawing off it (amps typically), ready to do it again in millliseconds.

The reason I had a 300 amp max pull rated system (Amps as in amperage not watts) on 3 svt batteries w/o caps and a big alternator is simple. When the car is running, the alternator is. The draw WAS more than the alternator could supply at idle, but it'd take a few hours to kill the batteries since the draw vs supply was fairly close. Yes, it'd kill 3 batteries WITH the car running. When driving the car, (higher revs etc) it was fine, and honestly, you couldnt really listen full volume for great lengths anyway, it was loud....... like windows down, sunroof open, roof flexes 2"-3" loud.
Since I really didnt night drive the car, the lights dimming wasnt a big deal...they did some...but the 1,000,000 C/L driving spots didnt help either.
In a perfect world, I'd put a 140+ amp ALT on the car, but it isnt, so I didnt!
Hope this helps,
GC