Will my 8 guage wire be enough?

[k00ranger 10+ year member]

I currently have an alpine mrd-301 amp that puts out 350 watts rms. I want to upgrade to an amp that puts out 500 watts rms. I want to say I have somewhere around 15 feet or so from the battery to the amp. I am planning on buying one of those Kicker ZX amplifiers to replace the alpine. Is the 8 gauge safe? It's not like I'm going to be using all those 500 watts. Thanks.

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[chillin 10+ year member]

Check out the table at the bottom of this page. If you had 10 feet, you would probably be fine. I would opt to use bigger wire than necessary rather than smaller.

Wire Gauge Tables

 

[k00ranger 10+ year member]

I just checked it's more like 10-12 feet.

 

[Davecubs14 10+ year member]

Should be fine.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

I would go 4awg if it was me. I very rarely use 8 awg for amplifiers, mostly due to voltage drop and how inexpensive 4awg is.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

I would go 4awg if it was me. I very rarely use 8 awg for amplifiers, mostly due to voltage drop and how inexpensive 4awg is.

 

[Adog94]

Is the wattage on the chart for peak wattage or for continuous wattage

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

go with 4ga then use your old 8g for speaker wire, that's if you want to be on the safe side that kicker is going to be a little more then the specified 500w

^that would be continuous^

That chart also applies to both your + and - power wire added together.