Stereo
 

My amp on my stereo cuts in and out when playing the radio. I think its not drawing a enough power from the battery not sure what to do.

Most likely the power and ground wires for the amp are not large enough gauge wire.

Thanks I'll check that out hopefully thats it.

Had a similar problem a while back, turns out the battery (when engine not running) was bad, did not have enough voltage to run amp (amp wanted 12.1 or .2, and battery was only good for 12, amp would not "cut in". Funny thing was that the battery would start the engine and when running the amp was fine as voltage was 13.8 or so.

Not enough battery,,,,, the amp is clipping.

Try an Optima or something similar

Thanks guys makes total sense. I'm not sure what an Optima is though.

Nevemind a Battery

More then likely your voltage is dropping to low. Put a meter on your battery and test that then put it at the power terminals on the amp. If there is any voltage difference you have bad wires. If the battery idle is lower then 12 volts you have a bad battery.

PS. I would get the Sears high end batteries before the Optima any day of the week. They are made by Johnson and are some of the best batteries you can buy. They are about the same as the Stinger batteries that are also fantastic. They have a MUCH lower failure rate then the optimas.

X2

I never sell optimas to customers, they are garbage, HORRIBLE recovery rates. I use Interstate SRM-29 batteries for stereo power, they have great reserve and excellent recovery rate and they are in-expensive. I outplay everyone on the water all the time. Also make sure your ground is good I.E. tight and the correct size, poor grounding tends to be the #1 failure in car/marine audio, its often overlooked by many shops.

Johnson Control Industries makes Duralast seen in Autozone stores, Diehard - sold in Sears, Kirkland - the Costco brand, Motorcraft - which Ford sells, some of the EverStarts, Optima and Interstate.

We have had great success with Yellow Optima batteries for stereo systems, and we run 1000's of watts all weekend on them. JCI is local and we can always find someone to get them at cost for us.

On the other hand blue optima marine batteries don't seem to work as well for High watt systems and all day playing.
my $0.02

Did not realize that Johnson took over Optima. Maybe they have made some impovements since they did. When I tried them a while back it seemed that the plates would short out on them and they would die way to quick. Maybe this has been resolved because I have always had very good luck with almost any battery made by Johnson.

Jon

I have to agree with everyone here. I am running 2 sears platinum batteries and 1 blue top optima (which I use as my primary stereo battery) and it cuts out all the time. The other day I made the optima the primary battery and it wouldnt even start the motor! The sears batteries are wayyyy better. Needless to say Im about the replace the optima that I purchased just last year for $250! What a waste!