can anyone tell me what i need?

[silverlude56 10+ year member]

i currently have 4ga. power and ground wire ran thru my car along with 2 rcas and the amp remote turn on. i have no fuse holder. im going to be buying an amp for my SE at 600-800rms. later on i will want another amp for my comps and 6x9s. that means with 2 amps...will i need 2 power wires and 2 ground wires and a total of 4 rca's? i need a distribution block correct? what ALL will i need? also if i purchased a cap the guy at best buy told me i wouldnt need 2 grounds and jus a ground going from the car to the cap to the amps or some shit. lol thanks for ur imput...

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[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

you should be ok with 4awg, but it wouldnt hurt to run something bigger.

 

[Vestax 10+ year member]

i currently have 4ga. power and ground wire ran thru my car along with 2 rcas and the amp remote turn on. i have no fuse holder. im going to be buying an amp for my SE at 600-800rms. later on i will want another amp for my comps and 6x9s. that means with 2 amps...will i need 2 power wires and 2 ground wires and a total of 4 rca's? i need a distribution block correct? what ALL will i need? also if i purchased a cap the guy at best buy told me i wouldnt need 2 grounds and jus a ground going from the car to the cap to the amps or some shit. lol thanks for ur imput...

First off, always fused the power source for your safety and to protect your investments.

If you plan to have two amps later on, you have two choices: Run 2 separate 4 awg for each amp or 1 0awg to the back and split into two 4 awg. Either way would work.

A cap can act as a d-block except it won't be fused. With a cap, either 2 set up of wires would work without a d-block although it'd be nice to have a fused d block in the back.

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

Can you say "Overkill"? Before you guys send this fellow out to spend mad cash on 0 or 1 guage wire, you might just want to find out the fuse size of his two amplifier first. Once you know the amps that you have you'll be able to choose the wire size based on this. A 4 gauge line can run current up to 120 amps in a lot of cases. And the ground wire is just as important as the power wire so don't forget the proper BIG 3 (or BIG 4 if necessary). The BIG 3 is more important than any cap could ever hope to be, spend your dollars there. Ignore the cap altogether, channel your dollars more effectively.

 

[Vestax 10+ year member]

Can you say "Overkill"? Before you guys send this fellow out to spend mad cash on 0 or 1 guage wire, you might just want to find out the fuse size of his two amplifier first. Once you know the amps that you have you'll be able to choose the wire size based on this. A 4 gauge line can run current up to 120 amps in a lot of cases. And the ground wire is just as important as the power wire so don't forget the proper BIG 3 (or BIG 4 if necessary). The BIG 3 is more important than any cap could ever hope to be, spend your dollars there. Ignore the cap altogether, channel your dollars more effectively.

You're right that to resourcefully spend your money there would be other things can be done to have your electrical system run more efficiently.

But saying "overkill" is a little bit excessive.

Consider some factors first.

The power current draw of 600 to 800 wrms is 96 to 128 amp respectively with an 50% efficient amp. You have to consider the length of wire used in this set up. With over 12 feet of wire, he should be using a 4 awg to maximize his current draw. If he plans to add another amp to power his interior speakers, say for example 100x4, he would need another 4 awg of wire with a run over of 12 feet. Buying a 0 awg would be ideal since he already has a 4 awg wire in his car, he could use that to wire both of his amps off the cap, and he would have left over to upgrade his magic 3. An 1/0 awg can be purchased through Welding Supply for a cheap price. He wouldn't lose as much IMO.

 

[silverlude56 10+ year member]

i guess i posted a more complex question then the one i need. sorry. i jus want to kno if im supposted to run a fuse holder to a distribution block and then to the back? or is the distribution block a replacement to the fuse holder? then after i have that figured out i run it all to the back...but what to do about ground?

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

W h a t a r e y o u u s i n g f o r a m p l i f i e r s. No need to be sorry, just be accurate. If we tell you something we need to base it on the demands of the known system and not look into our crystal ball and see what you hope to use. A single fuse goes up front at the battery. The power wire then goes to the rear of the vehicle where a distibution block may be used. A ground wire is = to a power wire. A good solid ground is of major importance. Do the BIG 3 or BIG 4 upgrade. Not familiar with this, do a search on the topic or read a grounding topic on http://www.the12volt.com in the car audio forum.

 

[silverlude56 10+ year member]

i plan to get a 600 to 800rms for my SE thats coming in the mail...and then later get a 50rms by 4 amp for my re comps that are also coming and my 6x9s later on.

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would this work??

run the 4ga from battery to a fuse holder and to the sub amp...

then.....later on....get the 4channel amp and take the same setup but throw a distribution block inline...and run the same 4guage thru the distribution block to the sub amp but throw in some 8 guage and run it to the multichannel amp

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

Ok, a 50w x 4 will have a fuse size of about 50 amps and will only ever draw that much at full pull under very limited conditions. A amp of about 800 rms will have fusing of about 90 amps (maybe a little less) and again will only draw this much current under full pull and limited conditions. Both amplifiers will not draw this much current on a continueous basis. Kind of makes a huge monster power / ground wire a colossal waste of cash. If a deal could be found on 2 gauge wire, well maybe go for it. Something to consider here though is that you could have a 0 gauge wire run like some people want you to have, is the alternator capable of delivering this current?

4 gauge to a circuit breaker or fuse holder of a minimum of 140 amps. This should be no further than 18" from the battery. Continue to the sub amp. Later on throw in the distro block that has a 2-4 guage in and 4 and 8 gauge out.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Yea I agree. 4 gage fused with 100 amps should handle both amps. A distribution block splitting it down to a fused 8 gage would be fine for the smaller amp. My 65 X 4 amp is on 8 gage and fused for 30 amps. Wire never even gets warm.

So... fuse up at the battery feeding your big wire. Then fuse again where you split off to the 2nd amp.

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

No need for the fuse where the wire splits unless the amp does not have built in fuses. The only reason for the main fuse is to protect the vehicle and the occupants. The fuses in the amp look after each amp. While it does not hurt to have a fused distro block, it is not a must have.

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

No need for the fuse where the wire splits unless the amp does not have built in fuses.

Or unless the wiring gauge drops.

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

No that still has nothing to do with it. The wire will only carry as much current as it needs, it does not all of a sudden have extra current crammed down it. Think of it this way. If you have a fire hose split into two with a y and one side has a fire hose and the other a garden hose and the hydrant is opened, it is going to try and throw a ton of water down those lines and it will infact put pressure on the garden hose. In our case of power wiring for amplifiers this is not the case, what we have here is the exact opposite. We have the same hose setup but now we don't have a hydrant, we have a pool (the battery). At the other end of the hoses, we have two pumps (amplifiers), one that sucks a large volume of water up the fire hose and another pump that sucks water up the garden hose. Thus each hose will only draw what water it needs. The same thing goes for your amplifiers and their power / ground wiring, they will only draw what they need and thusly only need to be protected IF the amp has no internal fusing or if something wild has been done to the electrical system in the rear of the vehicle.