Anyone done Big 3 Upgrade?

I did a quick search in the 3rd gen forum and couldn't find any posts about the big 3 upgrade. Has anyone completed the big 3 on their 3rd gen? If so, could you reply with a little explanation and details of your power wire routing? TIA

 

Not needed and wouldn’t do it either. Electronics are way too sensitive to voltage changes.

 

This piqued my curiosity... what's the big 3 upgrade?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm2f0UMQGj0&t=30s

 

I was going to, but went with a bigger battery instead and that solved my dancing voltage. I think it would be beneficial to have once youre drawing significant amperage.

 

Definitely not even thinking about something like this with a 10 year warranty

 

@Goobax I going to have to. I putting in a sound system upgrade, and although it isn't going to be a competition build, the amp will pull enough juice that the skinny OEM wiring is not sufficient enough to handle. Since an alternator upgrade is non-existent for the 3rd gen Tundra, a Big 3 upgrade is absolutely needed. I don't see how putting larger gauge wiring that allows better flow with less resistance, can do any harm even though the electronics in this truck are sensitive.

 

It can, if you bypass current sensor(s) which impact alternator commands.

 

I have 1800 watts worth of amps. I added and AGM battery and JY power NXT, zero issues with dimming or voltage drop. If you’re changing out the wiring, you have inline voltage sensors that can, and likely will be thrown off. If you’re not upgrading the alternator, I’m personally at a loss of what you hope to gain but go for it and report back on results.

 

I'm not drawing more than 150A with my 1500w amp and my voltage would dip at idle when bass would hit hard. Maybe it was a weak 3yr old oem battery, but the x2 battery (SLI27FAGMDP) solved that. Big3 on an oem battery would be a waste, imo.

 

Agree, that’s why I did the AGM and JYT as a redundancy to make sure voltage was constant. I’m not at all saying you won’t need to upgrade SOMETHING with a relatively high draw system. Just saying a big 3 isn’t needed, especially on stock alternator, and likely to just cause issues

 

@Goobax I will have almost 4K watts (1200 watts to the mids & highs, and 2700 watts to the subs) being pulled from my amp. I will upgrade the starting battery, as well as, add a second one for the sound system, but I believe that is still asking a helluva lot from the OEM 8awg or 10awg power & ground wiring. I am not planning to simply replace the OEM wiring, but instead "piggyback" with 1/0awg or 2awg from starting battery to alternator and the grounds. I will also run a fused 1/0awg from starting battery to secondary battery behind rear seats and then from secondary battery to distribution block. I only have to power the amp and DSP, but I'm afraid the power the amp puts out is more than what the stock OEM battery, alternator, & wiring can handle.

 

I see, would be interesting to see how the stystem keeps up with everything but wish you well on the journey. Happy to be proven wrong and learn from the process and your experience with the set up.

 

OEM wiring is likely adequate for the charging capabilities of the oem alternator...maybe look into swapping a Lexus alternator, if they have higher output @sudobash ? . You're not gonna get more juice (amps) than it can already squeeze and the oem straw (wiring) is good enough for that...make sense? Def oversize your batt to amps setup though.

That being said, I think the oem current sensor is on the ground side...so you could upgrade the oem alt-batt cable w/o issue and the body to frame/block grounds as well....but the ground going to the battery is the one I'd be cautious with. I ran into this issue when I bypassed the current sensor on my silverado...charging was wonky and would see 15v+ at times and send the amps into protect.

BTW, these trucks love upping the voltage when you let off the gas, I've gone into protect once or twice on decel because of the sudden spike...not sure if it was the lc2i, epicenter or epic1500....but one/all of them quit for a few secs when it happened. I've been able to replicate this at times when the truck is charging the battery and I let off the gas....voltage gauge/bar in my dash moves up and bass cuts off....not a problem if I'm idling or on the gas though.

 

There is a 240A Alternator but the main fuse for it is not compatible with the Tundra/Sequoia fuse box. It's within a fusible link and is a different length.

 

easily addressed

 

That it should be.

 

If you watch your voltage you will see that the tundra does interesting stuff with charging. The voltage will climb when decelerating or braking and remains lower when on the gas. Seems like a sort of regenerative braking scheme. The alternator tries to do most of it's charging when you are using the brakes to save some infinitesimal amount of fuel

 

@eddiefromcali I've heard that if switching to an AGM battery, then you have to swap out some diode to keep the battery from receiving to high of a charging voltage. Do you know if this is accurate, or have any info on this subject?

 

nope, never heard of doing such thing. My X2Power handles lower 15v charging....at least on paper.