Combining power cable to make 1?

[FLiP 10+ year member]

4guage wire is realy expensive but I happen to have a whole real of 8guage laying around, could i just cut 2 strands of 8 and tape em together and connect em to the same fuse holder? would this be as good as using a single strand of 4awg?

Would I also need to change the fuse I have? My amp has 2x25 amps fuses in it and I have 1x25amp fuse on the power line.

Its a 700w maystar qxt amp.

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[req 5,000+ posts]

you fuse the WIRE for the ammount of current it can hold, not for what amplifier is on the end.

id really suggest just getting 4guage. but your makeshift 'idea' will work. but it will be a pain in the *** to do.

http://www.weldingsupply.com has 4 guage wire for extremly cheap - and it works just as good as any other wire. i suggest a single 4awg wire, but its your install.

 

[FLiP 10+ year member]

Well i wld buy some but i rly wanna just use up what i got for now.

Would 2 8awg cables tied together = 1 4awg cables or doe sit work differently?

 

[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

more like 2.8 8awg = 1 4 awg

strap three together.

 

[LoudCrownVic 5,000+ posts]

In a friend of mine's car we used 6 strands of 8 gauge laid flat instead of 0 gague because he didn't want a fat *** wire bulging through his carpet. It doesn't really matter all that much. Just get good contact and it shoud be the same. Unless you are running something through the roof 2 8 gague will be fine.

Just get good contact.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

like i said, its not going to hurt, but its going to be a pain in the *** dealing with extra cables and what not.

i used 2 strands of 8guage once for a temporary ground (ran out of wire) and it worked fine.

just make sure its on there well. and use a 4guage crimp connection at the end.

 

[FLiP 10+ year member]

yeh i know its guna b a pain but i would be handle to lay the strands flat and ile have to go out 2morow and hunt down some 4awg crimp connections. need to find myself a 4awg fuse holder aswell but shld give me something to do for the day. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[klassic 10+ year member]

I already had two 8 gauge wires ran from my previous 2 amp install but my new amp required 4 gauge power wire. I just put a single 4g to two 2g distbution block at the front and rear and a short piece of 4 gauge wire from the block to the amp and two short pieces of 4g wire from the block to the fuse holder then the fuse holder to battery. Same difference. two 8g wires should handle the same current as a single 4g wire all things being equal.

 

[FLiP 10+ year member]

Ok It turns out the wire I have is 16awg, so my question is how many 16awg cables would i need roughly to make up 1x 4awg cable?

Also am only using this 16awg cable at the moment to power my 700w amp, so does this mean my amp is probably realy underpowerd at the moment?

 

[Moe Lester 10+ year member]

Ok It turns out the wire I have is 16awg, so my question is how many 16awg cables would i need roughly to make up 1x 4awg cable?

Also am only using this 16awg cable at the moment to power my 700w amp, so does this mean my amp is probably realy underpowerd at the moment?

forget it, buy some 4g.

 

[bcarpenterfhl 10+ year member]

find out how many strands are in your 16 gauge wire, and divide the amount of strands in 4 gauge wire by the amount in 16 gauge. that'll give you how many wires you need.

 

[InhumanAcura 5,000+ posts]

the money you save using multiple runs of a cheaper cable, your going to have to spend it on fuse holders...

 

[bcarpenterfhl 10+ year member]

why couldnt he just run one 4 gauge fuse holder?

 

[InhumanAcura 5,000+ posts]

why couldnt he just run one 4 gauge fuse holder?

he can, but what are the 8g's going to be fused with...

 

[FLiP 10+ year member]

Haha yeh this is getting a bit stupid now am just guna go and buy some nice new 4awg cable at my local store its £5 a meter tho so guna cost me around £50 to do both my amps //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif