Please help: Alpine V-Drive Head Unit

[gomer56 10+ year member]

Should I run a bigger power wire to the Alpine receiver with V-Drive? Crutchfield reccomends it. The information about the V-Drive head units, and the installation reccomendations are below. Will it hurt to just not do it? I do not plan on turning it up all the way to preserve my speakers. With the sound at normal volumes will there be a difference?

Please help.

Here is the info the unit:

V-Drive Hybrid Amplifier: A V-Drive MOSFET power unit is used to boost the incoming voltage from 14.4 volts (approx.) to 17.2 volts. The increased voltage allows the unit to deliver peak output of 60 watts x 4 channels. While providing high power output, this unit can draw a substantial amount of current, so the constant power wire must be connected directly to the positive terminal of the battery in your vehicle. For more info, please see the "Wiring Note" section below.

Wiring Note: While providing high power output, this unit can draw a substantial amount of current. Per Alpine, this receiver's constant power wire must be connected directly to the positive terminal of the battery in your vehicle, and 10-gauge wire must be used to make the connection. This requires a length of 10-gauge power cable, an in-line fuse holder with a 20- to 30-amp fuse and a ring terminal (the ring terminal is used to connect the cable to the battery clamp). Although all the pieces of a basic amplifier wiring kit will not be not needed, if you do not wish to assemble the required items separately, the power wire and in-line fuse holder from a basic 10-gauge kit can be used to connect the constant power wire to your vehicle's battery. For a secure, permanent connection, the 10-gauge cable must be soldered to this receiver's 16-gauge constant power wire.

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[Speedbump3]

Yes you should. It says it in the manual as well. Or at least in my 9836 manual. It should be a fused wire from the battery for the constant.

 

[gomer56 10+ year member]

So I hook up the 10 guage to the 16 guage on the wire harness? Since the wire harness uses 16 guage then why beef up the wire to it? I do not see any benefits. Will the factory wire get too hot and cause a fire?

 

[Speedbump3]

So I hook up the 10 guage to the 16 guage on the wire harness? Since the wire harness uses 16 guage then why beef up the wire to it? I do not see any benefits. Will the factory wire get too hot and cause a fire?

The 10 ga goes to the battery not the cars factory harness. If you mean the harness from the Alpine, it is bigger than 16ga for the constant. The others are 16 but the main and ground were larger ga than the other wires. It wasn't 10 and I guess the wire doesn't have to be 10. I said 10 because that is readily available. The point of running a separate power rather than using the cars factory harness is because these decks draw more juice than standard decks. Alpine tells you to do it for a reason. it doesn't say it in the manual, but I wouldn't use the ground in the cars factory harness either. I grounded it by itself.

 

[gomer56 10+ year member]

Ok I will do it but I do not think it will make a difference.

 

[Speedbump3]

Ok I will do it but I do not think it will make a difference.

Well it may be a remote chance of anything happening using stock car wiring, but there is obviously still some chance of ill effect, otherwise Alpine themselves wouldn't cover their ass by putting it in the manuals to decks with V-Drive. I for one will listen to the MFG. Do whatever you want, but do you really want to roll the dice and take a chance on your ride even if it is 1000:1 odds?

 

[bikinpunk 10+ year member]

That, or at least fuse the factory wire for the proper current rating.