whats the easiest way to beef up my amperage ?

right now im running a kicker l5 solobaric 10. single sub dual 4 ohm voice coil .. now i want to get 2 more and get a much bigger amp.. i already have a 2.4 farad capacitor running in line from my battery and it does fine with the 900 watt amp im running for this single sub .. i want to step up to a 3000 watt or so amp. Is the wattage jump going to call for a bigger battery. a second battery? i just want to get around buying a higher amp alternator,, and if i have to whats the biggest amperage one you can get for the 98 blazer .

for a blazer i am pretty sure there is atleat a 200 amp alternator. but for 300 rms a 300 to 250 alternator will be better because then your car won't have to fight over the electricity. and more then likely i would get a yellow top battery under the hood.

normally, the biggest alts for domestic cars is 300A and 200A for foreign (mostly japanese). Try excessive amperage or iraggi (sp ?)

A second battery is only for if the car is off, it is actually another load when the car is on.

capacitors do NOTHING for SPL (bass volume)

why are you dealing with 10's for bass ? I would think one good 15" would be better ....

i like these 10's because i dont listen to rap music im more a slipknot, double kick in your chest kinda guy. my last set up i ran a cap and got alot more voltage out of my system so i dont know where you get the idea that it doesnt do anything for spl ...when the demand for power goes up if there is none there you actually lose spl . so when the demand goes up for power and the cap steps in and beefs it up i dont see where it does nothing . thanks for the advice but i think im going to have to go with a bigger alternator maybe some 0-2 gauge wire. ill post some pics maybe do some you tube when i get it all set up .

the only thing a cap somewhat does is keep the voltage from spiking as much.

Upgrade your alternator first because upgrading your battery (one or two) puts more strain on your alternator plus that is what's running the system most of the time anyway.

You may want to head over to www.blazerforum.com and talk to hillbillyinohio in the audio section. Those fellow owners can help you find a more powerful alternator and suggestions for upgrades.

A cap discharges far too quickly to help SPL, the only thing it's really good for is extracting that last 5% for dynamic peaks in a sound quality setup. If you're cap has a voltmeter on the top, then the effective ESR will be so high (from the associated electronics) that it will be useless for anything.

The stiffening caps were a marketing ploy by a guy named Richard Clark, His Buick GN never lost in IASCA comps so he had a lot of name recognition.

well i guess different strokes for different folks as far as the cap goes .. i just know when i ran my 4 12's and didnt have a cap my car failed as far as power goes ,, when the installation ppl at the local store added the cap it blew the subs . didnt adjust gain or anything at all. i guess i will be looking for a stronger alternator this winter ,, for right now ill settle for what i have cause kicker l5's arent cheap either

well i guess different strokes for different folks as far as the cap goes .. i just know when i ran my 4 12's and didnt have a cap my car failed as far as power goes ,, when the installation ppl at the local store added the cap it blew the subs . didnt adjust gain or anything at all. i guess i will be looking for a stronger alternator this winter ,, for right now ill settle for what i have cause kicker l5's arent cheap either

why do i doubt that really happened. and l5 are mad cheap now like the price of type r's 100-150. and you probelly blew the subs because the amp clipped because of the lack of power.

you can doubt whatever you'd like and go to crutchfield .com and l5's are 250 a pop .
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-p6wHtdWjJtA/cgi-bin/prodsearch.asp?sp=lnav&cm_re_o=TkB_zkEzM*kwufEzM*lwzygt&search=kicker+l5
i thank you all for your advice and tips but dont think that because youve heard something or you think you know .. your not always right .
for instance get an amp with digital readout on it ,, run it without the cap turn up your volume to a good bumping level.
then run the cap play the same music turn up to the same volume and see what happens . i bet the digital readout on the amp goes up ,,, more power =more bass .
thanks again

Crutchfield? Crutchfield is like the most expensive shop on the block. You can get stuff they sell for a lot cheaper. Plus, I trust info that PaulD gives.

I agree with PaulD.
All caps do is store electricity so there is a reserve of power for musical peaks. That will keep your haedlights from dimming, etc. you can't give an amp more power that it calls for. to play X note at X volume(Determined by the gain controls on your amp, head unit, etc) it requires X amount of current. All you're doing with a cap is making that current available so your battery is not as strained.
And yes the cheesy voltmeter on an amp will show a higher voltage because the power needed to maintain your car's voltage is supplied by the cap. It's not giving you more power, its maintaining the power you have.

I added a cap to my system and all it did was keep the voltmeter on my dash from bouncing every time the bass hit. It didn't get any louder, just more consistant.

I am willing to bet your amp and sub combo is not properly mached, I don't know the specs of either, but it sounds like your subs either overheated, or bottomed out because the box wasn't right.

that most likely was the case the amp had the capacity to pop the speakers but wasnt running at full capacity because of lack of current. i understand now what everyone was saying that it doesnt help with spl .. in all actuality i got the cap just for the purpose of keeping my other electrical from failing . i am going with the 2 l5's anyway with a powerbass 1 ohm monoblock .. i may get the optima battery suggested in an earlier post to help out a little bit but honestly im not going to go loud enough to require a bigger alternator . i figured out a few ways to keep from getting my stuff jacked too . i will post a few picks of my install when its done .

oh and playstation3 the stock blazer alternator even with a/c and power everything is 100 amps .. thanks anyway though

Why do you want so much bass if you listen to metal, my one 15 puts out a great amount of bass. If you where riding around trying to be heard from a couple blocks aways then go for it. But your going to put so much bass into the system that you wont be able to hear crap even with upgraded speakers.

If you decide to go this route use ebay to get the subs, and depending on the amp you might not even be pushing 900 watts. I have an 89 blazer and it did fine with 1k watts with no upgrades. After i did the big three my lights stopped dimming completely.

Dont believe what half these stores emplyoees or what a website says, remember they hire most of these people off the streets and they dont know but what they are told. And crutchfield and other websites only list what the manufacturer tells them. All they want is your money.

i just like the effect i am a "bass" head i play bass in a band and i play a 1000 watt head in that too ,, i just like the effect and i got my speakers and my amp and everything ,, i think the only thing ill switch out is my head unit it seems old and doesnt have enough crossover features , i love the super tuner 3;s .