Second Battery Wires?

[mccanng 10+ year member]

Would it be fine to have a Kinetic HC1800 in the trunk with a 4g wire going from the main (yellow top) battery to the back and the big 3 done with 4g wiring?

Thanks Greg

P.S. Was probably going to be powering a Alpine MRP1000 amp too. Currently I have a 600rms going to my sub.

Click to read more...

 

[loopkiller 10+ year member]

Best off going with 1/0 awg wire for the reduction in voltage drop. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[mccanng 10+ year member]

ok thanks

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

I would listen to loopkiller and do 1/0. Better safe than sorry with electrical. Also look up loopkiller's thread he made about adding a second battery. (I think it should be a sticky)

It will tell you everything you need to know about fusing, wires, and what not.

 

[loopkiller 10+ year member]

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/blush.gif.99bc659ee2012b7d826165e26fb5eebe.gif

(See the link in my siggy)

 

[mccanng 10+ year member]

lol ok

 

[SicAudio 5,000+ posts]

dude 4 guage is fine, all the run is for is to keep the rear battery charged, an amp that small is running off that battery and the battery will only draw about 10 amps from the alternator anyway. if you were running 2000+ watts i would agree with 1/0 wire but you dont have to have it for now. if you plan on breaking 2kw then go ahead and do it now other wise save your money and if you need to later on you can run 1 or 2 more 4 guage runs and still spend less on that than you will for a single 1/0 run and have less resistance and more wire.

alot of people that compete run as many as 16 runs of 4 guage as opposed to 2 or 4 runs of 1/0 all the time.

 

[loopkiller 10+ year member]

dude 4 guage is fine, all the run is for is to keep the rear battery charged, an amp that small is running off that battery and the battery will only draw about 10 amps from the alternator anyway. if you were running 2000+ watts i would agree with 1/0 wire but you dont have to have it for now. if you plan on breaking 2kw then go ahead and do it now other wise save your money and if you need to later on you can run 1 or 2 more 4 guage runs and still spend less on that than you will for a single 1/0 run and have less resistance and more wire.alot of people that compete run as many as 16 runs of 4 guage as opposed to 2 or 4 runs of 1/0 all the time.

It is not that he is going to pull more than 125A (4 awg max rating), it is that if you are going to pull wire, might as well pull bigger wire. Why? You will see less resistance across 1/0 awg than 4 awg, which means higher voltages. Higher voltages means less wear and tear on your amps. It means fuller charged batteries. It also means that if you upgrade your amps, you don't have to re-run new wire.

 

[mccanng 10+ year member]

Well right now I'm only running 600wrms but later I'm definitely going to upgrade to 1000wrms for the Type Rs and maybe the most I'll ever run would be 1650wrms (the 650wrms is a 4 channel amp for my speakers)

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

Run 1/0

 

[4OZGLOVES 10+ year member]

X2 On 1/0

 

[mccanng 10+ year member]

ok sounds good

Thanks guys

 

[SicAudio 5,000+ posts]

yeah may as well step to 1/0 even though you really dont need it. i have never ran more than 2 runs of 2 guage personally and i never drop below 12.3 volts on 2 - 2kw amps but i may just be lucky i guess. course i never run massive guage wires really i prefer multiple small runs due to cost.

a second battery draws 10 amps max unless your doing a serious system and if its only for daily then 4 guage is plenty. semi trucks are wired with 4 guage for 100 amp circuits all over the place and they have no issues.

not to dispute the issue loop just stating a known thing. most daily drivers will never need 1 guage.

 

[loopkiller 10+ year member]

yeah may as well step to 1/0 even though you really dont need it. i have never ran more than 2 runs of 2 guage personally and i never drop below 12.3 volts on 2 - 2kw amps but i may just be lucky i guess. course i never run massive guage wires really i prefer multiple small runs due to cost.a second battery draws 10 amps max unless your doing a serious system and if its only for daily then 4 guage is plenty. semi trucks are wired with 4 guage for 100 amp circuits all over the place and they have no issues.

not to dispute the issue loop just stating a known thing. most daily drivers will never need 1 guage.

Here is my way of looking at this issue. The overall cost difference is less than $100 (much less in some cars) to upgrade from 4 awg wire to 1/0 wire. If you figure that most cars need about 20 ft of power and ground wire, a total of 40 ft, and the price difference between 4 awg and 1/0 awg is about $2.00 / ft, then that would be a price difference of $80, plus a marginal difference in larger terminals. All in all, you can run your wire once, or you can run it over and over if you upgrade. Not to mention that even with a smaller system, the larger wire still affords better voltage savings.

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

then if you upgrade, you now have a good amount of 4ga you don't need (wasted money)