4 ga for just 50 amps?

[I Like Waffle]

I can smoke the tires from a 60mph kickdown with 2 passengers and 300lbs of audio in the trunk, i notice a slight but minimal difference in power with all that added. Bigger wire isnt gonna hurt, it will just save you money in the end. Go ahead and upgrade to some 0 gauge atleast, it will help you in the long run and keep good power to your amps.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

a great sound system and a light weight racing car do not go hand-in-hand. either you make sacrifices to have both, or you choose one.

 

[Z1NONLY 10+ year member]

Sacrifices? Sure. -But not sacrifices with no benefit to either speed or sound.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

sorry if no one actually answered your question. as you can see from the chart, wire sizing is based on both current draw and distance. JL recommends 4 awg to minimize voltage drop back at the amp.

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

this^^^i calculated my weight added...between wires, just shy of 30lbs, sub 46lbs, box 52 lbs, amps (3) 32 lbs, battery, 57.3 lbs..

add up quick. at 217.3 lbs... lost a good deal of power in a celica. cant squel tires between 1st and 2nd, and 2nd to 3rd anymore. lulz.

Well there's your problem right there.

 

[akheathen Premium Member]

well, look at it like this- the rating of the wire is the most you want to run through it. now, that is realistically a short-term rating. if the wire sees that for longer periods, it could shorten the life-span, and also the current carrying capability (ampacity) keep in mind, that zr is going to see 60%efficiency on a good day. sound **** good doing it, but that is the numbers. means, you are going to have to feed it a bit of current, likely even 8a just to idle. if you are looking at weight, i would pick something else, though i rweally like the amp. using up current robs hp from your engine, as well. that being said, you should get by with 4awg ofc, i might just ohm/inspect it once a year for a resistance increase.

 

[Z1NONLY 10+ year member]

The ZX460 is stable down to 1 ohm. (That's when I would expect close to 60 amps draw from that amp) But I'm only going to run it @ 4 ohms into each of it's 4 channels)

The 500/1 would modt likley smoke my 10w3v2 @ 500 watts, so I'm going to set that up for ~300 watts.

Neither amp should really be wotking too hard, so the 110 amp estimate is very much a worst-case estimate.

Come to think of it, I didn't have any 60 amp AGU's when I instaled the ZX460 and just used a 50 amp fuse. The ZX is running 2 ohms X 2 for the highs and 2 ohms bridged for the sub...and the 50 amp fuse is still going.

I doubt I will ever get anywhere near 110 amp draw with my setup.

 

[Mr12voltwires 10+ year member]

If the MFG recommends a 4 gauge, run it. Just like horsepower, too much is just enough.... I'm using a 1/0 to a PDX-4.150 & PDX-5. If you've not already done so, add a battery ground that's whatever gauge your system is using.

 

[Mr12voltwires 10+ year member]

a great sound system and a light weight racing car do not go hand-in-hand. either you make sacrifices to have both, or you choose one.

My car audio guru/teacher used to race his SVO Mustang and compete IASCA in the late '80's. His solution was to make his amp rack & subs modular and removable by using AMP/Tyco CPC connectors.

Amp-Tyco Cpc Connectors

It was a lot of work, but he saved a lot of weight on Sundays and won a handful of IASCA events too.

 

[Z1NONLY 10+ year member]

Rather than use the existing 8 gauge as a "pull string" I could just run a separate 4gauge cable for the 500/1. It would actually be cheaper too, since I already have an extra AGU fuse holder and will need much fewer new parts. It will still seem weird running the thinner cable on the amp that's rated for more current. Oh well. I know the existing 8gauge won't cut it for both, so I have to pull more cable regardless.