power wire size help

[fatboyracing 10+ year member]

Ok I am installing a system in a boat nothing big 360watts rms on a ch. and a kinetik hc800 theboat had a little amp and a run of 8awg. is that a big enough wire to run to the battery and amp?

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[loopkiller 10+ year member]

Ok I am installing a system in a boat nothing big 360watts rms on a ch. and a kinetik hc800 theboat had a little amp and a run of 8awg. is that a big enough wire to run to the battery and amp?

8 gauge is good up to about 400W give or take, depending on the quality of amp. So you are right there at the limit of what 8 gauge can carry. Make sure to fuse it with a 50A fuse. That way if you do end up pulling more than the wire can handle, the worst thing that will happen is you pop a fuse instead of burning the boat down.

Now I am not sure if you were trying to wire the battery with that same 8 gauge too? If so, that would be too small for a battery to alt or battery to battery wire. You should use no smaller than 4 gauge for that purpose.

Hope that helps //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif