Boat power & ground wire question

[drpeeb 10+ year member]

Probably a dumb question, but I've never installed an amp in a boat before, just wanna make sure. It's a Kicker MX700.5 5-channel marine amp.

Amp in a car, ground as near to the amp as possible. You can always find a good ground nearby.

Amp in a boat, with 4 gauge wire, the nearest suitable ground is the battery's negative terminal ... 17 feet away.

So ... my entire circuit will be 34' long: 17' of 4 gauge power to the amp, then 17' more 4 gauge ground wire back to the battery.

Do I need to increase the wire size due to the 34' run?

(Putting the amp by the battery won't work: Toooo hot)

Click to read more...

 

[Compjake 10+ year member]

I usually go by the longer the wire the larger the gauge, being 17 feet I say if the amp has 4 gauge terminals use 2 or 0 gauge wire with proper fuse and use a gauge reducer at the amp so the larger wire will fit.

 

[drpeeb 10+ year member]

I usually go by the longer the wire the larger the gauge, being 17 feet I say if the amp has 4 gauge terminals use 2 or 0 gauge wire with proper fuse and use a gauge reducer at the amp so the larger wire will fit.

Well cr@p, that's what I was afraid of.

I already have 80 feet of 4 gauge.

It's always friggin' something.

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

2x 4ga per run //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

since you have the wire to do it... (2x 4ga > 1x 1/0)

 

[LGK 10+ year member]

what brand wiring is it... holler at me when your done with this project because your bound to have left over wiring //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[drpeeb 10+ year member]

2x 4ga per run //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif
since you have the wire to do it... (2x 4ga > 1x 1/0)

Now there's an idea!!

Just noticed, though: Kicker's manual says "Fuse90A" and "PowerGroundWire 4GA"

(Yes they've gotten creative with text formatting!)

Could it be this would apply with very short runs of 4 gauge wire?? (Not 34 feet?!)

 

[drpeeb 10+ year member]

what brand wiring is it... holler at me when your done with this project because your bound to have left over wiring //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

I bought this 100' roll

Hopefully it's not junk?

Man, it is some flexible stuff. It's so flexible it almost feels like you could like break it, or break strands within it, or something.

Figured I'd use what I need for the truck install (see sig) and then sell the rest. Of course, instead it turns out having the extra wire in my possession has caused me to come up with other projects since, "Hey, why not, I already have the wire."

 

[LGK 10+ year member]

100% copper? 1.5k+ strands in 4g? $50 a roll of 100ft?

am i tripping or is that a hell of a deal?

 

[drpeeb 10+ year member]

100% copper? 1.5k+ strands in 4g? $50 a roll of 100ft?am i tripping or is that a hell of a deal?

Was the best deal I could find, and I was crossing my fingers it wasn't too good to be true.

It's installed and powering the PDX-5 in my sig right now, so far so good ... But then I am still working on it:

- Only using the sub and 2 of the 4 main channels; Need to finish installing the front doors speakers.

- Haven't set the gains yet on any channels (obviously not the front door speakers!)

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

pic of this wire next to a quarter?

 

[drpeeb 10+ year member]

pic of this wire next to a quarter?

Will do 2nite

 

[Sparc]

With a boat you should always use marine grade cable. There is a lot of bad stuff in boats that will degrade a cheap wires jacket. Also, if you are installing these amps somewhere near the 12v panel there should be a common ground block there that you can ground the amps to.

 

[pentavolvo 10+ year member]

With a boat you should always use marine grade cable. There is a lot of bad stuff in boats that will degrade a cheap wires jacket. Also, if you are installing these amps somewhere near the 12v panel there should be a common ground block there that you can ground the amps to.

odds are it will be fed with a small ground

IMO 4ga will be ok

 

[TNTR70 10+ year member]

i don't see that amp drawing that much power, 4 gauge should be fine...boat don't come with high output alternators usually and it not like your building an spl system either

 

[drpeeb 10+ year member]

pic of this wire next to a quarter?

OK, here it is ... Measures just under 0.25" diameter. It's flexible as h3ll, but tough to cut and remove the jacket. What do you think? Junk? OK?

In any case, I'm gonna go ahead & run just one run of this wire, fuse it so the boat doesn't catch fire(!), & only add a 2nd run if the fuse blows.

As said above, this isn't an SPL system, & I won't be enterin' contests or crankin' it constantly, so it should work I think.