really confused on wires, plz help knukonceptz

[SQBubble 10+ year member]

im about to change my 8gauge power wires to 4gauge power wires, and i want to know how many amp should i get in a fuse holder?

1amplifier has 2x30a

1amplifier has 4x30a

it is either i get this:

http://www.knukonceptz.com/productDetail.cfm?prodID=KNF-12

with this

http://www.knukonceptz.com/productDetail.cfm?prodID=KOL1/0RS

from battery to dist.

then this to amplifiers pos.

http://www.knukonceptz.com/productDetail.cfm?prodID=KOL4RS

and this for ground

http://www.knukonceptz.com/productDetail.cfm?prodID=KOL4BKS

or should i get all 4gauge wires and forget the 1/0gauge

or should I get all 4gauge wires with in-line fuse holder for each pos. amp

im really confused so plz help me out for the best thing to do!

Click to read more...

 

[Lurius 10+ year member]

180 amps is a lot for 4 gauge, I hear its best to keep it under 120amps, r not much over that for the max combined fuse rating. I'd say go with the 1/0 gauge.

-Lurius

 

[SQBubble 10+ year member]

180 amps is a lot for 4 gauge, I hear its best to keep it under 120amps, r not much over that for the max combined fuse rating. I'd say go with the 1/0 gauge.
-Lurius

but im worried if i use 1/0gauge for pos. than divide by 2x4gauge, and when it goes back to the ground, and use 4gauge, will it mess up somethin?

cuz it starts with a big wire(1/0gauge) and finish with small one(4gauge) kind of?

will it affect something?

thx

 

[killahbean 10+ year member]

no wont really effect much cause the 4 gauge section is just a short section of it....If you wanna do all 0 gauge and ditch the 4 gauge, you can just get a o gauge-4 guage wire reducer and connect that to your distro....

heres the reducer...

http://www.hifisoundconnection.com/Shop/Control/fp/tcat/28074/SFV/30046

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

Use the 1/0 to the rear, split it with the KNF-12 and run 4 gauge from there. Ground the amps with 4 gauge. 180A is too much for 4 gauge at long runs. Under 10ft you can run 4 gauge at that amount of power making it fine for grounding since that would be about 3-4ft max.

You could run two separate 4 gauge wires for each Positive, but it gets messy that way.

 

[slc72005 10+ year member]

Stop kidding yourself and do it right the first time.

0GUAGE for everything then use distro blocks to split it up, you should also do the big 3 with 0 GUAGE

 

[SQBubble 10+ year member]

Use the 1/0 to the rear, split it with the KNF-12 and run 4 gauge from there. Ground the amps with 4 gauge. 180A is too much for 4 gauge at long runs. Under 10ft you can run 4 gauge at that amount of power making it fine for grounding since that would be about 3-4ft max.
You could run two separate 4 gauge wires for each Positive, but it gets messy that way.

my battery is already in the trunk, so lentgh isnt a problem..., and i really dont think i need 0gauge...4is enough for my setup i believe, right now i have 8gauge and its pretty nice...

i thought again and I think im gonna to straight 4gauge pos. with in-line fuse holder for each amplifier, no distributor thing... and 4gauge to ground

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

Please explain what you have in your car - battery wise and how are they connected.

If you have a battery in the rear - what gauge is connectng that to the front? I would check your voltage in the front and in the rear under load to make sure that is sufficient first. If it is then yes, if you just have 5ft to go to each amp from battery, 4 gauge is fine. Length has a big role in what size wire is OK.

 

[SQBubble 10+ year member]

Please explain what you have in your car - battery wise and how are they connected.
If you have a battery in the rear - what gauge is connectng that to the front? I would check your voltage in the front and in the rear under load to make sure that is sufficient first. If it is then yes, if you just have 5ft to go to each amp from battery, 4 gauge is fine. Length has a big role in what size wire is OK.

Ok,

First of all, its a Maxima, it already has 4gauge wires(stock), but its some crazy *** freakin hard 4gauge wires, I had to cut it with this http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1794411467.1155315959@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccgladdiiflmejkcgelceffdfgidgin.0&CNTTYPE=PROD_META&CNTKEY=misc/searchResults.jsp&MID=9876&N=2984+5521&pos=n18

(I wanted to redo my negative terminal for ease acces)

Then I have an Isolator under the hood,

evrything well connected,

pos. 4gauge from hood to trunk with 150amp in-line fuse

now were in the trunk,

my ground to neg. batt. is about 1feet long, and the 4gauge from hood is connected to pos. batt.

then, I have 8gauge from neg. to the 2amplifiers

and I have 8gauge to distributor block, divide by 2 8gauge(with 50amp agu fuse) that goes to the amplifier pos.

Battery is a deep cycle nautilus.. i had a good deal so ya!

1thing is weird, the back battery goes no more than 13volts when car is running(usually stays between 12.80volts and 13volts) and if I turn on the car, and wait a bit, incriment of .01 are made every 1.5sec-2sec and when reach 13volts, its hard for it to go up, dunno why it is like that, but, I think its the Ground, imma try changing ground, and change wires in isolator, cuz the front battery is receiving 14volts easily, so ya thats about it(btw do I lose output when voltage is 12.9v compared to 14v?)

 

[slc72005 10+ year member]

i dont see why you would use a 4 guage from the front to the rear.

ok so the 4 guage was tough to cut and?

if you have 2 batteries and 1 in the rear it should be connected with atleast 1 0guage of each positve and each negative, and its better to actually run the - from the front to the rear instead of just grounding the second battery.

and you have 8 guage running to the amps ? i have 8 guage wire in me set up too, but its used for the sub speaker cable.

the longer the distance of the wire the higher the resistance. for a second battery in the back thats wire would be atlest 17ft long, YOU NEED 0GUAGE!!!!!!!!!

8 guage wire is used on flea market amps that have 40amps of curreent draw.

you say it sounds good now, do you know that you are probably not getting the full potential out of your amps because you are starving them?

from the second battery yuou should be using 0 guage to a distro block then 4 guage out to the amps.

get rid of the 8 guage it is doing you more harm then good.

 

[SQBubble 10+ year member]

i dont see why you would use a 4 guage from the front to the rear.
ok so the 4 guage was tough to cut and?

if you have 2 batteries and 1 in the rear it should be connected with atleast 1 0guage of each positve and each negative, and its better to actually run the - from the front to the rear instead of just grounding the second battery.

and you have 8 guage running to the amps ? i have 8 guage wire in me set up too, but its used for the sub speaker cable.

the longer the distance of the wire the higher the resistance. for a second battery in the back thats wire would be atlest 17ft long, YOU NEED 0GUAGE!!!!!!!!!

8 guage wire is used on flea market amps that have 40amps of curreent draw.

you say it sounds good now, do you know that you are probably not getting the full potential out of your amps because you are starving them?

from the second battery yuou should be using 0 guage to a distro block then 4 guage out to the amps.

get rid of the 8 guage it is doing you more harm then good.

alright man, will do, and ground of them amplifiers should I use 4gauge or 1/0gauge?

 

[wesl56 10+ year member]

do it all up in 1/0 its not that much more than 4ga and you wont have to worry bout it anymore

and do 4 from a distro to the amps

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

Before we go further, I would recommend removing the Isolator, it is taking atleast 1/2 volt from the system thus why your voltage is low to start in the rear, then using 4 gauge to the rear will cause further loss during a load. From what you have told me you have a voltmeter handy. So do this measure the voltage at the front battery and then at the output of the isolator to the rear battery and finally measure voltage on the INPUT of the isloator. This will show you what loss you have to start due to the isolator. THEN measure voltage in rear compared to the rear output at the isolator. It sounds like a lot, but takes 5 minutes.

All that info will show you why isolators are not that great for audio use, they require power to operate. If you have a big voltage difference from Isolator out compared to the rear batt voltage, upgrading to 1/0 might be in order.

Why 4 gauge is ok right now, your ALT is probably less then 150A so the 4 gauge can support what the battery needs. However the system is going to draw from both batteries after the Isolator is gone, thus upgrading to 1/0 is advised and run 4 gauge from rear batt to amps.