Mounting an amp under the rear dash?

[adjetta 10+ year member]

Okay so i'm getting ready to mount my five channel amp under the rear dash, and I was wondering if anyone on here has done it, and if so if they had any advice.

Its an infinity Kappa five, and my main concern is grounding it, i think its like a total of 400-450rms, I was wondering if the metal between the rear seats and trunk in between the strut towers was an ideal grounding location. I was also concerned about whether or not any issues could arise from mounting it upside down

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[RKaudioking]

You can mount the amp virtually anywhere as long as it fits as long as its not screwed into any metal surface that could cause the amp to ground out. When finding or determining a good ground location for your amp, just make sure the metal you are connecting it to is connected to the cars chassis, or else the ground will be weak. Clean all the metal and scrape any paint off to expose the most of the metal. And as far as mounting your amp upside down, it shouldn't be an issue. Just make sure there is enough space around the amp for it to breathe and cool down.

 

[nvturbo 10+ year member]

You can mount the amp virtually anywhere as long as it fits as long as its not screwed into any metal surface that could cause the amp to ground out. When finding or determining a good ground location for your amp, just make sure the metal you are connecting it to is connected to the cars chassis, or else the ground will be weak. Clean all the metal and scrape any paint off to expose the most of the metal. And as far as mounting your amp upside down, it shouldn't be an issue. Just make sure there is enough space around the amp for it to breathe and cool down.

Are you serious? Unless the amp has an internal cooling fan, DO NOT MOUNT it under the rear deck. Heat dissipation kills electronics. Try running your desktop computer without the fans if you don't believe me.

 

[jrdnhsnbrg 10+ year member]

Are you serious? Unless the amp has an internal cooling fan, DO NOT MOUNT it under the rear deck. Heat dissipation kills electronics. Try running your desktop computer without the fans if you don't believe me.

You gotta be kidding me... A computer and an amp are totally different components. Heat dissipation is how your computer (and amp) cools down, that's what a heatsink does. It dissipates heat over a large area, by allowing airflow over the metal fins. If the amp has sufficient airflow around it and the chassis of the amp isn't directly touching metal OP should be fine. It actually sounds like a good place to mount an amp, I've been thinking about doing it myself.

 

[jrdnhsnbrg 10+ year member]

Okay so i'm getting ready to mount my five channel amp under the rear dash, and I was wondering if anyone on here has done it, and if so if they had any advice.
Its an infinity Kappa five, and my main concern is grounding it, i think its like a total of 400-450rms, I was wondering if the metal between the rear seats and trunk in between the strut towers was an ideal grounding location. I was also concerned about whether or not any issues could arise from mounting it upside down

Tip for finding a good ground spot- run a small wire outside the car from the negative terminal of the battery to the trunk. If you think you've found a good spot to ground, scrape/grind any paint off the area and measure the resistance between the wire and the potential ground spot. The lower resistance the better. Try to keep the ground as close to the amp as you can.

When mounting the amp DO NOT screw the metal chassis of the amp directly to any metal part of the vehicle. If you don't have any other option mount the amp to a piece of wood or MDF and then screw the MDF or wood to the metal part of the vehicle. The MDF will insulate the amp from the chassis of the vehicle.

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

Shops mount amplifiers upside down in this location all the time. The ones that do this often also properly design and tune the system so the amplifiers aren't running hot all the time.

 

[CrossoverOre 10+ year member]

Whenever I mount an amp in that location I always make sure the orientation of the amp is facing up. Not as easy as just mounting it upside down there is something to what nvturbo said. Amps are designed to mounted in almost any configuration except upside down. Heat rises and with the amp upside down any heat generated will not be dissipated. Thats why you dont see heat sinks on the bottom of amps. They are always on the top or side of the amp. If you must mount upside down do like trumpet said and tune properly, which should be done anyway but you might want to tune them a little light.

 

[robert420 10+ year member]

Are you serious? Unless the amp has an internal cooling fan, DO NOT MOUNT it under the rear deck. Heat dissipation kills electronics. Try running your desktop computer without the fans if you don't believe me.

even if it did have a internal fan, they say you shouldnt mount it upside down. any other position but that... not to mention its in that small of an area. internal fan or not it will overheat

 

[Full Tilt 10+ year member]

Are you serious? Unless the amp has an internal cooling fan, DO NOT MOUNT it under the rear deck. Heat dissipation kills electronics. Try running your desktop computer without the fans if you don't believe me.

Do you know what dissipation means..?

 

[robert420 10+ year member]

^^^ not to mention he said DASH, not DECK...

 

[jrdnhsnbrg 10+ year member]

^^^ not to mention he said DASH, not DECK...

They're the same thing...

 

[jrdnhsnbrg 10+ year member]

Heat does not "rise" or "fall". Heat is not affected by gravity. Cool air falls, but the hot air does not rise on it's own. The temperature difference between mounting it right side up and upside down is most likely only a couple degrees, the only thing that would have an affect on heat dissipation here is lack of airflow around the amp. Your amp should have a thermal protection circuit anyway.

 

[robert420 10+ year member]

They're the same thing...

not the way i see it...

dash = dashboard (obviously)

but when i hear deck it seems like they're talking about the H.U

 

[CrossoverOre 10+ year member]

Heat does not "rise" or "fall". Heat is not affected by gravity. Cool air falls, but the hot air does not rise on it's own. The temperature difference between mounting it right side up and upside down is most likely only a couple degrees, the only thing that would have an affect on heat dissipation here is lack of airflow around the amp. Your amp should have a thermal protection circuit anyway.

incorrect about heat not being affected by gravity. The gravity of the planet holds our atmosphere where it is. the atmosphere is made up of elements we commonly refer to as "air". Because cold air is more dense than hot air it tends to "fall" below hot air and the hot air "rises" above the cold air. Thats why hot air balloons are even capable of flight, or floating. It is only because of gravity that we have buoyancy on earth, and because of that more dense things settle down while less dense things rise. Gravity affects everything.

 

[jrdnhsnbrg 10+ year member]

incorrect about heat not being affected by gravity. The gravity of the planet holds our atmosphere where it is. the atmosphere is made up of elements we commonly refer to as "air". Because cold air is more dense than hot air it tends to "fall" below hot air and the hot air "rises" above the cold air. Thats why hot air balloons are even capable of flight, or floating. It is only because of gravity that we have buoyancy on earth, and because of that more dense things settle down while less dense things rise. Gravity affects everything.

That's due to density of the air itself, heat is simply energy which has no mass. Gravity doesn't affect something without mass. Gasses and solids are totally different things here, gasses move much more freely which is what allows them to rise and fall with temperature changes. By the very definition of a solid this does not happen. The only problem with OP mounting has amp upside down is a lack of airflow over the heatsink.