1/0 gauge wire suggestion?

[BassAndBeer]

I heard that you should avoid skyhigh cable, knu is the way to go

 

[tc300 10+ year member]

I'm looking to perform the "Big 3 Upgrade" on my 1999 Chevy Lumina and I'm wondering what are good but inexpensive 1/0 gauge wires for this? Brand suggestions would be nice and if you've had any experience with them. Also, if I already have a fuse for my amp wiring, will I need another one for the Big 3?
Thanks!

Temco or electron beam welding wire are great..... Do you have the 3.8 series 2 motor in that lumina ???

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

I love seeing all this newb owning. Keep up the good work

 

[massivespl]

All this fuse talk. Lol only thing I fuse is battery bank to amps. I never burned anything up. Why spend all this money on nice thick wire and then put little dinky fuses in the way. Fuses are over rated.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

I only fuse where the battery can arch and catch fire. A fuse won't save the amp from blowing. I could burp my old 2500 on 35 amps and it held most of the time on 30 second drive by runs. That should tell you something.

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

Distribution blocks are different than stacking multiple fuses. You may be correct, as I said, stacking fuses is unfamiliar to me and something about it really doesn't seem ideal. I'm open to learning new things though, if you have any material that I can reference that proves/disproves stacking fuses as a safe effective way to increase the amperage rating please enlighten me.

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

Jarod, Mitchell...
Your hypotheses are totally unfounded in anything relating to fact.

Using a pair of fuses in parallel would be no better or worse than using one.

Look at fused d-blocks for example. If you're using two different sized fuses does the lower current side get choked for power? No.

So one fuse has maybe 1% more resistance. So? It would blow at 1% less current. It's not like it would for some unknown reason just resist all current flow leaving the other fuse to try to pass it all.

You don't need to understand ANY physics theory to understand this. Just use some common sense.

Totally baseless.

Move on.

Thank you!

I heard that you should avoid skyhigh cable, knu is the way to go

Only person who said that is massivespl, because he never got his. I've used knu, and sky high. Sky high is bigger.

All this fuse talk. Lol only thing I fuse is battery bank to amps. I never burned anything up. Why spend all this money on nice thick wire and then put little dinky fuses in the way. Fuses are over rated.

I fuse between the bank and amps, and also between my alt and battery bank. The alt to battery bank is in case my alt malfunctions, so the bank is not over-charged.

Distribution blocks are different than stacking multiple fuses. You may be correct, as I said, stacking fuses is unfamiliar to me and something about it really doesn't seem ideal. I'm open to learning new things though, if you have any material that I can reference that proves/disproves stacking fuses as a safe effective way to increase the amperage rating please enlighten me.

Common sense and first hand experience is my source.

Wild guessing is yours..

 

[JarodM]

Jarod, Mitchell...
Your hypotheses are totally unfounded in anything relating to fact.

Using a pair of fuses in parallel would be no better or worse than using one.

Look at fused d-blocks for example. If you're using two different sized fuses does the lower current side get choked for power? No.

So one fuse has maybe 1% more resistance. So? It would blow at 1% less current. It's not like it would for some unknown reason just resist all current flow leaving the other fuse to try to pass it all.

You don't need to understand ANY physics theory to understand this. Just use some common sense.

Totally baseless.

Move on.

you're right in that it would be "no better or no worse than using one" all I'm trying to get across is that if you need a 500A fuse, get a 500A fuse. Simply stacking (2) 250A fuses will not give you a 500A fuse. one is going to blow before the other, then the second one after that, both well below the 500A threshold you're trying to accomplish. just because someone does something and it hasn't failed yet, doesn't make it the right way to do it.

 

[BassAndBeer]

ive heard that from more than one person though, so.. idk ive never owned it. just kinda unsure weather to get some or not.

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

Distribution blocks are different than stacking multiple fuses. You may be correct, as I said, stacking fuses is unfamiliar to me and something about it really doesn't seem ideal. I'm open to learning new things though, if you have any material that I can reference that proves/disproves stacking fuses as a safe effective way to increase the amperage rating please enlighten me.

I believe I thought of an example you may accept as "proof"...

Fuse protection on an amp with multiple fuses.

How do you think those are wired?

About every major manufacturer seems to believe multiple fuses are an acceptable form of protection.

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

you're right in that it would be "no better or no worse than using one" all I'm trying to get across is that if you need a 500A fuse, get a 500A fuse. Simply stacking (2) 250A fuses will not give you a 500A fuse. one is going to blow before the other, then the second one after that, both well below the 500A threshold you're trying to accomplish. just because someone does something and it hasn't failed yet, doesn't make it the right way to do it.

Good luck getting 500 amp fuses cheap

ive heard that from more than one person though, so.. idk ive never owned it. just kinda unsure weather to get some or not.

What have they said is bad?

 

---------- Post added at 09:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:32 AM ----------

 

I believe I thought of an example you may accept as "proof"...
Fuse protection on an amp with multiple fuses.

How do you think those are wired?

About every major manufacturer seems to believe multiple fuses are an acceptable form of protection.

Yes, my ampere 4 channel has three 30 amp fuses, not one 90 amp fuse

 

[JarodM]

Good luck getting 500 amp fuses cheap


What have they said is bad?

 

---------- Post added at 09:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:32 AM ----------

 

Yes, my ampere 4 channel has three 30 amp fuses, not one 90 amp fuse

Amazon.com $17.40.

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

Amazon.com $17.40.

That's not bad, but a few 300 amp fuses are cheaper. Also, I would need 600 amp fuses for the 2/0 OFC

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

Okay say you're right, I always appreciate an intelligent discussion. Here's where I find a problem with it, you mentioned that a fuse may have 1% more resistance than another, maybe that's not a lot or enough to make a difference but if you think about it and how electricity flows you should know that it's not a direct relationship. A 1% increase in resistance does change the way electricity flows. Remember that it follows the EASIEST path to follow, our fuse with less resistance. This means that electricity will first follow our fuse with less resistance, and yes it will carry more current at any time than our other fuse with more resistance. This means (in theory) that our less resistible fuse will carry the majority of the capacity until its resistance increases enough to cause the current to flow into the second fuse (if the first fuse heats up, saturates, or most likely, blows). Then you have one fuse blown and a second fuse that's half the rating of what you need and it blows immediately. You can't dispute that the resistance is going to cause one fuse to carry more current than the other, but you can dispute whether or not that would cause a premature failure of one fusee before another. That is what I want to know, and although your analogy makes sense there are a lot of different variables when it comes to running fuses in parallel on a circuit board and I am not an electrical engineer.

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

Okay say you're right, I always appreciate an intelligent discussion. Here's where I find a problem with it, you mentioned that a fuse may have 1% more resistance than another, maybe that's not a lot or enough to make a difference but if you think about it and how electricity flows you should know that it's not a direct relationship. A 1% increase in resistance does change the way electricity flows. Remember that it follows the EASIEST path to follow, our fuse with less resistance. This means that electricity will first follow our fuse with less resistance, and yes it will carry more current at any time than our other fuse with more resistance. This means (in theory) that our less resistible fuse will carry the majority of the capacity until its resistance increases enough to cause the current to flow into the second fuse (if the first fuse heats up, saturates, or most likely, blows). Then you have one fuse blown and a second fuse that's half the rating of what you need and it blows immediately. You can't dispute that the resistance is going to cause one fuse to carry more current than the other, but you can dispute whether or not that would cause a premature failure of one fusee before another. That is what I want to know, and although your analogy makes sense there are a lot of different variables when it comes to running fuses in parallel on a circuit board and I am not an electrical engineer.

Electricity will flow through both.

You see cars with 10 runs of zero gauge to the back. Do you think that electricity is only flowing through one wire at a time??