OK...I need an Answer to a question really quick....

[ruger 10+ year member]

other than that 3 way stinger block why do most distro blocks break it down from 0ga to 4ga?

 

[Bolognablake 10+ year member]

other than that 3 way stinger block why do most distro blocks break it down from 0ga to 4ga?

Unless each amp is pulling more than 150 amps, 4 awg wire is fine from the distro.

 

[draarong2004 10+ year member]

T block will be fine as everyone else has said, this way you can still run the 1/0 to your big amp, and the 4 awg to the smaller, 1/0 is a pretty good size wire, but effective nonetheless. and the difference between running 1/0 and 4, is the difference between having a burn in your carpet if the wire is near it, and not having a burn in the carpet, larger wire=a cooler wire.

 

[Bolognablake 10+ year member]

T block will be fine as everyone else has said, this way you can still run the 1/0 to your big amp, and the 4 awg to the smaller, 1/0 is a pretty good size wire, but effective nonetheless. and the difference between running 1/0 and 4, is the difference between having a burn in your carpet if the wire is near it, and not having a burn in the carpet, larger wire=a cooler wire.

Why would your carpet be burnt? Unless you're pulling more amps than the cable is rated for, the cable won't get hot.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

At 300A draw (well beyond what your PB will pull under normal use) there will be a .15V drop from the 4 ga wire assuming that it is 2 ft long. Basically a 1% loss at max draw. Unless you are competing very seriously, hardly worth worrying about. I would expect that the installer is going to charge you more (possibly alot more) if you make him run the extra wire the full length of the car. Are you grounding back to the battery as well? If not I wouldn't get all wrapped up in a 2 ft piece of 4 ga since the ground is going to be the weak link anyway.

 

[Fast1one 10+ year member]

Its only two feet, youll be fine.

If you must make two runs to sleep at night, do it yourself and save some $$$. Its not that hard...

 

[draarong2004 10+ year member]

Why would your carpet be burnt? Unless you're pulling more amps than the cable is rated for, the cable won't get hot.

going by how many current amps that amp will draw, yes i do think there will be heat issues, reguardless of how short the run of 4 awg wire he's running, its still too much of a current for a "bottleneck" to exsist, this is how fires happen.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

For heat to be created, there has to be resistance and power loss. That power loss is where the heat comes from (it IS the heat actually). At 300A and .15V equals a whole 45W. Hardly enough heat to worry about especially since it is going to be only for an instant and only worst case. Where you have dangerous problems is when you try to draw was more current continuously through a longer section of wire and get a serious voltage drop/power loss over that wire. That is where you have to worry about melting wire and burned carpet, etc...

 

[danteBirosel 5,000+ posts]

this is a great little informative thread. didnt know you can run 2 runs of power like that. So u guys are saying its better to run 2 seperate power lines to both sub and front stage amps? instead of running 2 distro blocks for the ground and power??

 

[Fast1one 10+ year member]

this is a great little informative thread. didnt know you can run 2 runs of power like that. So u guys are saying its better to run 2 seperate power lines to both sub and front stage amps? instead of running 2 distro blocks for the ground and power??

As long as your not drawing too much power, example multiple sub amps.....youll be fine with a distro.....If your running something like a 2500D which needs 0 gauge alone, you may have to run mulitiple runs of wire.
As long as you dont overdraw the capacity of the wire, meaning if a wire can carry 150 amps over 20 feet for example, you wont really gain anything by running seperate runs. On paper yes, in the real world, no //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[draarong2004 10+ year member]

For heat to be created, there has to be resistance and power loss. That power loss is where the heat comes from (it IS the heat actually). At 300A and .15V equals a whole 45W. Hardly enough heat to worry about especially since it is going to be only for an instant and only worst case. Where you have dangerous problems is when you try to draw was more current continuously through a longer section of wire and get a serious voltage drop/power loss over that wire. That is where you have to worry about melting wire and burned carpet, etc...

an instant? how is a spl burp power for an instant? thats current going through that wire for 5 seconds or however long the burp is, an amp doesn't take power for an instant and use it for a while, play that stereo with a 4 awg wire, then touch the wire after listening to it for a good 20 min, lemme know if its too hot to touch.

 

[iamamp3pimp 5,000+ posts]

just do something, geez

lol ive been there with wire too hot, and its a nasty sight.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

an instant? how is a spl burp power for an instant? thats current going through that wire for 5 seconds or however long the burp is, an amp doesn't take power for an instant and use it for a while, play that stereo with a 4 awg wire, then touch the wire after listening to it for a good 20 min, lemme know if its too hot to touch.

Talking about SPL comp systems and systems used to listen to music are two very different things. If he were running 4ga all the way from the battery to the amp or running any length of 4 ga to the amp and then doing a bunch of SPL burps, that would be one thing. Listening to music is very different. A lot would depend on listening practices and music type. Would 0ga be better? Yes. would it be worth it to use a reducer and run 0ga from the 4ga output of the distro block? Probably. Would that cause any problems? No. Would 4ga suffice for most sane people listening to music that care about their hearing over such a short run? Yes. Having a system capable of producing 3kW and using all that on music are not the same thing.

Think about it. How hot do you think the fuse is going to get? How big of a fuse do you think he would blow under normal listening? I would bet he could probably get away with 150A. 150A is 4ga territory.

Now, like I said, wiring for SPL comps is a totally different ballgame. I would be running 2+ runs of 1/0 from the front and the shortest run of 1/0 from the rear battery or distro block to the amp as I could. I would do the same for the ground.

Another thing to consider is that the installer might actually know what he is doing and know that his shop could be held liable for any damage caused by using too small of a wire for a particular install. I'm pretty sure that he isn't going to risk his job, at the very least, and the opportunity to sell a bunch of 4ga and another fuse block to save himself the maybe 5 min extra time it will take (that he's geting paid for) him to run the 4ga right beside the 0ga while the whole thing is already apart.

 

[djman37 5,000+ posts]

OK...The Dude who I was taking my car to in order to get my system installed said that it'd be easier for him if I bought a distribution block, because I was running two amplifiers.He Said he would run my 0/1 AWG Amp kit back to my trunk and use a distribution block then run 4 AWG through to my Amp for my door speakers and my Amp for my subs. I told him I wanted to run 4 AWG to my door speaker amp anyways so that was fine, but what the hell would be the point of running my 0/1 guage amp kit ALL the way back to the trunk...just to connect 4 guage to my Powerbass XA3000D? Does this make sense? Why would he even consider putting a weak link....it would probably be about 2 feet...and then he would switch back to my 0/1 Guage ground for the Powerbass....but I haven't seen any distribution blocks with 0/1 guage inputs and 0-4 guage outputs. I would like to run my 0/1 guage all the way through to my Powerbass with no interruptions with the 4 guage while still using the 4 gauge for my other amplifier....how do I acheive this?

there are plenty of 1/0 in 4 out dblocks, fused or unfused. you could buy a 1/0 t-block and go 1/0 out to your PB amp and 4 ga. to the other. dblocks are list to the UP TO wire size, you can always throw 4 ga. in 'em.

 

[draarong2004 10+ year member]

Talking about SPL comp systems and systems used to listen to music are two very different things. If he were running 4ga all the way from the battery to the amp or running any length of 4 ga to the amp and then doing a bunch of SPL burps, that would be one thing. Listening to music is very different. A lot would depend on listening practices and music type. Would 0ga be better? Yes. would it be worth it to use a reducer and run 0ga from the 4ga output of the distro block? Probably. Would that cause any problems? No. Would 4ga suffice for most sane people listening to music that care about their hearing over such a short run? Yes. Having a system capable of producing 3kW and using all that on music are not the same thing.
Think about it. How hot do you think the fuse is going to get? How big of a fuse do you think he would blow under normal listening? I would bet he could probably get away with 150A. 150A is 4ga territory.

Now, like I said, wiring for SPL comps is a totally different ballgame. I would be running 2+ runs of 1/0 from the front and the shortest run of 1/0 from the rear battery or distro block to the amp as I could. I would do the same for the ground.

Another thing to consider is that the installer might actually know what he is doing and know that his shop could be held liable for any damage caused by using too small of a wire for a particular install. I'm pretty sure that he isn't going to risk his job, at the very least, and the opportunity to sell a bunch of 4ga and another fuse block to save himself the maybe 5 min extra time it will take (that he's geting paid for) him to run the 4ga right beside the 0ga while the whole thing is already apart.

alrighty then, but if the car burns down, it goes without saying "I told you so"