need more volts.?? how???

[1iwilly]

hello to all
i drive a company oil truck freightliner i'm trying to run my bare foot radio
but the truck is only charging at max with nothing on 13.75volts. which makes my radio key from 2 watts dead key swinging to 5 on a bird
but when i run it in my car charging at 14.50 volts i get 2 watts swinging to 8 watts rms. is there something i can add or make to add it in line to boost the volts on my oil truck.????thanks

[Cain64]

Ya just get a radio that will swing more then 8 watts

There really is not too much you can do because the alternator is only gonna put out what it is rated and designed to do. Any draw will drop it no mater what. If you can just find a radio that will do more then 8 watts swing.

[1iwilly]

Ya just get a radio that will swing more then 8 watts

There really is not too much you can do because the alternator is only gonna put out what it is rated and designed to do. Any draw will drop it no mater what. If you can just find a radio that will do more then 8 watts swing.

cobra 29 on bird rms 2 swinging to 8 on a 12 watt radio

[Texas Mobil 219]

Take your radio to a Teck and have him Peek n Tune the radio. Maybe put a swing kit in it to get more watts out of the rig.


219

[1iwilly]

Take your radio to a Teck and have him Peek n Tune the radio. Maybe put a swing kit in it to get more watts out of the rig.


219

been there done that the problem is the supply voltage from the oil truck i'm driving.re read the post at 13.75 volts =2 watts swinging to 5 watts rms
14.50 volts what the radio was tune at 2 watts swinging to 8 watts rms

[127]

Take your radio to a Teck and have him Peek n Tune the radio. Maybe put a swing kit in it to get more watts out of the rig.


219

been there done that the problem is the supply voltage from the oil truck i'm driving.re read the post at 13.75 volts =2 watts swinging to 5 watts rms
14.50 volts what the radio was tune at 2 watts swinging to 8 watts rms

2 swinging 8 on a Bird 43 is excellent! 2 swing 5 for a standard tune Cb is great too.

[Night Crawler]

the truck is only charging at max with nothing on 13.75volts. which makes my radio key from 2 watts dead key swinging to 5 on a bird
but when i run it in my car charging at 14.50 volts i get 2 watts swinging to 8 watts rms. is there something i can add or make to add it in line to boost the volts on my oil truck.????thanks

Why would you want to do that? The person on the receiving end is not going to notice the difference between 5 watts and 8 watts

[jessejamesdallas]

the truck is only charging at max with nothing on 13.75volts. which makes my radio key from 2 watts dead key swinging to 5 on a bird
but when i run it in my car charging at 14.50 volts i get 2 watts swinging to 8 watts rms. is there something i can add or make to add it in line to boost the volts on my oil truck.????thanks

Why would you want to do that? The person on the receiving end is not going to notice the difference between 5 watts and 8 watts

Right...Plus, Radios are not like Amp's, where if you stick a few more volts to the thing, it makes it louder...With a Radio, if you were to stick very many more volts to it, the thing is going to fry!

I would do like what Texas Mobil 219 suggested, and have a Tech install a "Swing Kit" or you can also have the finals changed out to "Dual Finals" or the Mosfets, and get it to swing 40+ watts with a 2w DK....and that would be with your 13.75v set-up you have now...

Either that, or like what was also suggested, and get a radio that already has Dual Finals, or a built-N-Amp...

[North Texas Mudduck]

hello to all
i drive a company oil truck freightliner i'm trying to run my bare foot radio
but the truck is only charging at max with nothing on 13.75volts. which makes my radio key from 2 watts dead key swinging to 5 on a bird
but when i run it in my car charging at 14.50 volts i get 2 watts swinging to 8 watts rms. is there something i can add or make to add it in line to boost the volts on my oil truck.????thanks

what kind of Alternator does the truck have
some trucks have leeces
that have a small voltage adjustment
wont be much adjustment but might get you into the 14.5 or 14.7 volt range
anything above 14.7 and 14.8 then the batteries tend to heat up and bubble and then you loose acid then plates burn into and then deadbattery

[1iwilly]

thanks for all the replies

[ny221 8pill]

ya the watt or two is not worth the time or effort.. a 13.8 to 14.2 charging system is doing its job, if u want a few more watts, you mine as well just look for a small little amp. a one pill or two.somthing cheap. that way you will atleast get a little better sig instaed of just a watt or two that no one would notice anyway.

[Shaft]

You shouldn't notice any difference between 5 and 8 watts. If you are noticing a difference, then I would check out your antenna.

['Doc]

Changing/adjusting the voltage regulator on that alternator on your truck is one way of increasing the supplied voltage. That 3/4 of a volt difference is unlikely to be the reason for the difference in apparent power produced by your radio. I would suspect that the difference in antennas is what's making that apparent difference.
Your radio also has a voltage regulator in it. That voltage regulator probably handles that extra 3/4 volt just fine and changes it to what it wants to see.
Also like the other posters, I seriously doubt if that extra 3 watts is gong to make any difference to what/how people hear you.
- 'Doc

[WL74]

hello to all
i drive a company oil truck freightliner i'm trying to run my bare foot radio
but the truck is only charging at max with nothing on 13.75volts. which makes my radio key from 2 watts dead key swinging to 5 on a bird
but when i run it in my car charging at 14.50 volts i get 2 watts swinging to 8 watts rms. is there something i can add or make to add it in line to boost the volts on my oil truck.????thanks

Sounds like you have a week alt... Thought about upgrading it? I thought that diesels had good big alternators for the most part.

[rubicon]

hello to all
i drive a company oil truck freightliner i'm trying to run my bare foot radio
but the truck is only charging at max with nothing on 13.75volts. which makes my radio key from 2 watts dead key swinging to 5 on a bird
but when i run it in my car charging at 14.50 volts i get 2 watts swinging to 8 watts rms. is there something i can add or make to add it in line to boost the volts on my oil truck.????thanks

Sounds like you have a week alt... Thought about upgrading it? I thought that diesels had good big alternators for the most part.

13.75 volts is a absolutly fine and proper charging voltage, vehicles that charge at 14.4 volts are not functioning correctly or the batteries are weak and requesting the alt to work harder to refill the ( tank)batt.
If you trick your altinator to charge at 14.4 volts all of the time you very well might injure or destroy the battery.

[MECHMAN]

Conventional flooded style batteries can easily be charged as high as 15.0 V continuously without damage. I have been running a vehicle with 3 flooded batteries at 15.3V for years with no problems whatsoever. They will go through water slightly faster than at lower charge voltages, but they carry a much hotter surface charge, and will rest around 13.1 volts instead of the typical 12.7 volts.


AGM batteries (such as XS power, Kintetik, Odyssey, etc..) are a little more particular. They will start gassing around 15.0 volts, and obviously cannot be re-hydrated. You can easily run AGM batteries at 14.7V charge rate continuously with no problems.

That being said, you can easily wire your Diesel alternator with one of our external voltage controls so that you can adjust charging voltage on the fly via- a regulator adjustment knob mounted in the dash. With your current setup, it won't boost radio performance much, but it will make everything else in the truck work better. (lights, fridge, fans, etc...) 14.7 volts is optimum charging voltage for most 12 volt systems.

[rubicon]

I stand corrected, good to know and good information. I am running dual trojan AGM RV batteries and never considered running over 14.4 volts. I deffinately dont plan to now.
My leese neville has a variable Pot on the internal regulator and when I installed it was set for 13.0 volts max, I changed that and set it for 14.0 max, The only time the leese kicks up to 14.0 is when Im fully loaded down with my 16 pill doing keydowns or when im driving around with lights on stereo bumping and the 16 pill dropping musical carriers. The latter is just when I get smart asses being DUCKS.
But I digress, thanks for the info.

[p71vic]

We bought an old ambulance to turn into a promotional vehicle. It had 4 batteries on a slide out tray and they were DEAD. Would not jump start. Had to hook a good battery by itself to fire up the old 7.3 and reconnected the old ones.
Jumped in it to drive it back and the ammeter showed 180. pegged.

Stopped about 30 minutes later and you could smell the stink. Went to autozone to buy some new ones and they kid slid the tray out and ran. They were literally melting and venting.

Put the new ones in and came home. We checked and the leece was set wide open.

I would check the output on a leece.

Volting a radio does BAD things to diodes. Wanna buy a formerly awesome dx 44 ? Kinda needs work.