Wire size question...

[slikrider20 10+ year member]

Ok, so i have 4 gauge wire running to my distro from my batt. then i have a distro spliting it up to 8 gauge to the hifonics bx1505d and the kicker kx450.2.

I know that a class D mono amp should be fine under 1400wrms....which is about what my hifonics is, probably even less. But if you have other amps running too, do you add their's up with it? If so would i add the rms of the hifonics, plus the rms of the kicker (i'm doin 150W X 2 @ 4ohm...so 300Wrms.? But keep in mind that the kicker isn't a class D mono. Also note that on my hifonics it seems i have to turn the gain quite high to get any output outta the sub...And we d'mm'ed it it needed to be almost almost 3/4 gains....Which size wire should suffice my needs?

Oh and another question, if i run say 1/0awg to the distro, would then running a 4gauge wire to the amp in a short distance defeat the purpose of running all of the 1/0 since only 4gauge is goin into the amp?

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[slikrider20 10+ year member]

****, figured someone would reply.

 

[disturbedfuel15 10+ year member]

I'll go ahead and reply. You need to go by what is coming off of the distro. If I read this correctly, you've got 8 guage going to the hifonics amp? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/uhoh.gif.c07307dd22ee7e63e22fc8e9c614d1fd.gif You need atleast 4 guage coming from the distro to the amp. Also, yes, you do have to add up the RMS of all your amps put together. It all depends WHAT COMES OFF THE DISTRO. I know I already said that, but it is the key here. I would suggest going with 1/0 wire to the distro, and then 4 guage coming off of the distro to the amps. This will supply you with enough power //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif Oh, and I do know what I'm talking about, even though some of the more expirienced people will just restate what I just said in different words.

Good luck!

 

[slikrider20 10+ year member]

yeah what you said is what i was thinking, run 1/0 from the battery to the distro, then 4gauge from there. thanks for replying.

But what your saying is that, say if i ran 1/0 to my distro and still had my 8gauge wire to the amp, it would defeat the purpose of running the 1/0? not that i would do that, just trying to prove a point, well asking haha

 

[slikrider20 10+ year member]

yeah i just double checked it, i do indeed have 8 gauge goin to my hifonics amp.....in what way would i be limiting myself? or what would improve by switching to 1/0 and 4gauge to the amp

 

[05AztecRed 10+ year member]

You are limiting yourself by using the 8 ga. Installing 1/0 from batt. to distro. would allow you to easily add more amps/larger amp without running out of power. You can only draw as much power as the wire is rated for, anything more and you will be blowing fuses and burning wire...

 

[Thnking 10+ year member]

Add up the fuse sizes on the amps, then measure the lengths of the wires.

Use a voltage drop calculator online.

Keep the size at the level where the Vdrop on each wire is under .2V for the total fuse size on that line. That's a good rule of thumb in my book.

The wire running from the battery to the distro is going to be based off of all the fuses addd together. The wires running to each amplifier are going to be based off of the individual amplifier's fuses they are running to.

 

[the727kid 10+ year member]

I had 4 gauge to 4gauge and had votlage problems then did 0 gauge to 4 gauge n they went away. That should help //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif