Hey guys, looking for advice

[Nickcsmith9014]

Hey guys and girls, I'm nick. Not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but it seemed fitting. So I'm having an issue and before I drop money on anything I'm looking for opinions. I'm currently running a single American Bass XFL 12", it's 1500w rms, 3000w peak. I was running it on an audio pipe amp for a while but I just snatched a Kicker KXA 2400.1 which tested at 25xx watts at 2 ohms. My question, as I'm tuning the amp if I raise bring the gain or boost up even slightly close to where I want it (speaker isn't arguing ) the amp pops into protection for about 5 seconds and comes back on if I turn the level down. Now. I'm aware I should be running 1/0 awg wiring but I'm currently on 4awg with if I remember correctly a 150amp in line fuse. Could my wires being too small cause it to go into protection? It's obviously not blowing the fuse. It just cuts out til I turn the levels down but at this point it's not even making the power the audio pipe was. Wondering if it's maybe something to do with the amp or if I just need 1/0 awg wiring

The amp is brand new, just installed it today.

Thank you in advance guys any input is helpful!

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[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Most of the Kicker mono amps I've used or seen around are not designed to play below 2 ohm. Sometimes you can get away with it but they can get a bit protect happy. Probably the issue is your sub is the wrong impedance for that amp and you're trying to drive it into 1 ohm (or less).

 

[Nickcsmith9014]

Most of the Kicker mono amps I've used or seen around are not designed to play below 2 ohm. Sometimes you can get away with it but they can get a bit protect happy. Probably the issue is your sub is the wrong impedance for that amp and you're trying to drive it into 1 ohm (or less).

The sub is dual 4 ohm voice coils, if I'm not mistaken I have it wired in at 2 ohms, but I'm not the best at understanding how that works. The way I have it a 2 to 1 connection with both voice coil grounds and both powers. However as far as I can think, you can't wired dual 4 ohm coils down to 2 ohms? But I did watch this amp be tested and it ran at 85% efficiency at 1 ohm.

And as for the other question I had, would under sized wire cause this?

Thanks again

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

If your sub is D4 then yes you're at 2 ohm. Inadequate power or ground may cause the amp to power down (possibly protect?) I've only had issues with those protecting from low impedance myself.

Just re-read where you say you only have #4 cable. That is completely inadequate and possibly unsafe for that size amp. You will want to get into 1/0 gauge cable all around, make sure you have a good, solid, clean/bare metal ground as near to the amp as you can get and then you may start opening 150a fuses when you get on it hard so have a plan to up that fuse size until you stop opening fuses.

 

[Nickcsmith9014]

If your sub is D4 then yes you're at 2 ohm. Inadequate power or ground may cause the amp to power down (possibly protect?) I've only had issues with those protecting from low impedance myself.

Just re-read where you say you only have #4 cable. That is completely inadequate and possibly unsafe for that size amp. You will want to get into 1/0 gauge cable all around, make sure you have a good, solid, clean/bare metal ground as near to the amp as you can get and then you may start opening 150a fuses when you get on it hard so have a plan to up that fuse size until you stop opening fuses.

Thanks man, I kinda figured I needed to run 1/0, I wasn't sure if that could actually cause the problem I'm having or if possibly something was messed up with the amp and I needed to send it back. And if I'm gonna run 1/0 I'd run a 200 amp fuse with it. I do appreciate your advice, considering it may be unsafe it won't be used til I upgrade the wires

 

[LFR]

X2 on 1/0g wire and ground is as important as power.

 

[winkychevelle 10+ year member]

If that fuse doesn't pop it will melt if you keep running it that way.