Electrical advice pleez

[Heeltoeclutch 10+ year member]

So I just learned my friend is going to be running a 1200 watt setup in his tC. He currently has low-quality 8-gauge wire and stock electrical, no big 3, no nothing. I yelled at him over text to stop being a sillypants and to stop trying to set his car on fire and ruin his equipment. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/furious.gif.fc81ca146dbff91fede3ed290dbc4f4c.gif /rant

Can someone please give me a general guide on what gauge power wire to use for a given wattage? Like 8 gauge for _________, 4 gauge for ______, 2 for ___________..... I'm sorry to ask this as I know you probably have answered it a million times but I didn't have much success searching. I think he'd be fine on 4 gauge but 1/0 would be a good idea... 1/0 is not necessarily an available thing though because of money for him.

I know he needs to do the big 3. Is there anything else he needs to do to handle the power? I don't have experience with setting up much more than 500 watts. He has the stock battery and I'm afraid it's going to poop on him soon if he doesn't upgrade.

Thanks guys. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

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[SPL140.2 5,000+ posts]

0 guage is the best way to go, gives you options for upgrades later such as a higher output amplifier etc... just run 0 guage from the battery to a distro and 4 guage to the amp should be sufficient for 1200 watts

egg

 

[ShiningBuick 10+ year member]

Here's a decent chart to go off of... generally you just add up the fuses on the amp and that's the amperage you base your selection off of.