When adding aftermarket audio equipment to your vehicle, it is extremely important to understand the limitations of your car’s electrical system. Stock batteries, stock alternators, and stock wires can only transfer so much power throughout the vehicle. By upgrading each of these three components in your car, it enables your vehicle to be able to safely have high-powered equipment installed. In this blog, I outline the Big Three Upgrade. Also installing an aftermarket alternator and a Car Battery are excellent choices, but not discussed here.
The Big 3 Upgrade is a fairly simple upgrade that involves replacing some of the factory wiring under the hood of the car. The following are the three wires that need to be replaced and installed in the car.
- Alternator Charging Wire: Replace the positive charging wire that connects the vehicles alternator to the positive car battery post.
- Battery Ground: Replace the cable that connects the battery to the vehicle’s chassis.
- Engine Ground: Replace the cable that travels from the engine block to the vehicles’s chassis.
You’ll need wrenches, sockets, ratchets, zip ties, and of course the big 3 upgrade kit. We recommend the NVX Big 3 Kit.
The important part of this upgrade is replacing the standard cable with thicker cable that is cable of higher currents. Typically, it is recommended to go straight for the thick 0/1 gauge wire to ensure compatibility with high-performance alternators and batteries. However, some systems with stock alternators and batteries can use 4 gauge just fine. Remember to use proper techniques when creating your new cables and grounding them. Be sure to keep the new power/ground cables away from anything under the hood that might melt, cut, or damage the newly installed cables. Be sure to make solid terminations with ring terminals at the end of each cable. Be sure to ground your cable to a proper surface cleaned of any dirt, debris, rust, or paint. A wire brush or some sandpaper will easily prepare the metal surface. After properly installing the Big Three Upgrade in your car, your audio system will receive more power, sound better, and your equipment will last longer. For more information on the Big 3 Upgrade, check out the following video from Allyn Rahim.