What size fuses and where?

[DR OBLIVION]

Very noob question. I'm running an Arc Audio KAR 400.4 and a US Amps 150. I have a 4 awg power cable coming in tomorrow to help with the new amp. I currently have the Arc amp set up with an 8 awg wire kit but I'm upgrading the wire to accomodate the addition of the US Amps 150 to power my new front components.

Question:

1. What size fuse at the battery?

2. Should I split the power with a regular distribution block or get a fused distribution block and have a seperate fuse for each amp at the block as well as at the battery? I'm not sure if there should be just one fuse at the battery or a fuse at the battery and at the distribution block as well.

Im a super noob when it comes to fuses and electrical. I just dont want my system to fail on me on my 4 hr drive to Los Angeles and not have the proper fuses in case one blows. I think Im currently running an 80 amp fuse at the battery from the Alpine MRD-M500 I just removed in place of the Arc.

Thanks for any help.

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[VWBobby 10+ year member]

If the amps have fuses built into them, then technically you only need a fuse within 18" of the battery and that's it. Some people like to fuse the battery, distro block, and have the fuses in the amps themselves. This is so if you have a short in one of the wires coming from the distro block, it'll pop the fuse at the block and not your main fuse(s) at the battery. You can also run 2 + runs from your battery with a fuse on each one and not run any distro block. I have (1) 4ga run for my sub amp and a 2nd 8ga run for my speaker(s) amp.

 

[DR OBLIVION]

If the amps have fuses built into them, then technically you only need a fuse within 18" of the battery and that's it. Some people like to fuse the battery, distro block, and have the fuses in the amps themselves. This is so if you have a short in one of the wires coming from the distro block, it'll pop the fuse at the block and not your main fuse(s) at the battery. You can also run 2 + runs from your battery with a fuse on each one and not run any distro block. I have (1) 4ga run for my sub amp and a 2nd 8ga run for my speaker(s) amp.

Thanks for your help. I think running two power cables off the battery terminal will be the easiest way for me even though I already ordered the dist block. I think I had a pretty good idea of how to tackle this issue I guess I just wanted to be sure I wasn't going to do something incorrectly. Really appreciate it.

 

[VWBobby 10+ year member]

No problem. In a bind, I've bought this "dual amp kit" from Walmart of all places that has 4ga wire and a 2-post distro block. That way you can run 2 amps, up to 4 ga wire (about 1000-watts @ 12 feet). Its really cheap and comes with everything you need.