voltage drop

[orioles26 10+ year member]

At hte batteyr i have 14.4 volts but when a check the volts at the amp, at most it will be 13.5 volts. Is this normal, or is there something i can do to fix this. I have 2 gauge wire from the battery that splits into two four gauge wires with a distro block. My sub amp is a hifonics 1800d and my component amp is a profile 150x2.

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[Fast1one 10+ year member]

You should be running 0 gauge...and do the Big three as well, upgrade your battery...for starters...

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

First - He has 14.4 at the battery, so thats fine. Second, depending on the amount of draw he has. 2 gauge could be more then good. Upgrading the ground might help. Fuses inline will cause a slight loss in voltage (check voltage after your inline fuse under the hood). When you check the voltage in the rear do so with the stereo off to make sure the draw of the system does not effect this reading. When current travels through a cable the resistance in the cable causes a loss over the run of the cable. Smaller cable and higher amperage makes for higher loss.

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

LOL - was the block made out of steel or something? Sounds more like you had a bad connection inside that block rather then the block itself. Most blocks are 3" in size, to lose 2V over a 3" span points to bad connection

Running double the same size wire would offer less resistance, but is not going to be any better then the right size wire used along with distribution blocks. And as stated if he has a fuse block, the fuse will cause a slight drop in voltage.