X-awg wires

[RebelDogg 10+ year member]

I could look this up, I'm sure, so please don't flame. I'm sleepy and need to go to bed, but need to know this before I go to work tomorrow morning (at 5:30am)

I know it's best to use the biggest wire you can get. No harm in having too big a power wire right? Well, I planned on getting a 1ga wire to go from my battery to a distribution block to 2 4ga wires. The 4ga's would go to a 250w amp (pushing 85w x2 @ 4ohms) and a 400w amp (sub).

I worked out a deal with a guy on a trade for an old brokeen down Jag I needed off my property. He owns a shop and is installing free of charge a Viper 5900 alarm system and giving me the wires I need to hook up my 250w amp (coming UPS tomorrow)

My question, finally, is this: Do I NEED 1ga? The guy is telling me that if I run a 4ga from my battery I'll be fine. Then just split it to the amps. That's 650w on 4ga. Is that okay?

I wanted the 1ga, but I really just want everything to work properly. He sput a bunch of stuff about amps (not amplifiers... some mysterious kind that lives in wires) and lost me. So...

Thanks for any help. Send all flames and invitations to search to dev/null.

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[GMCJimmyslt2000 10+ year member]

4 gauge is more than enough for 500 watts

 

[97gp 5,000+ posts]

4 gauge is more than enough for 500 watts

fo sho

 

[RebelDogg 10+ year member]

4 gauge is more than enough for 500 watts

Okay. Thanks. I just wanted some reassurance before I sealed the deal. Although it's 650 (unless the 250w amp gets seen as 170w because of the 4ohm speakers... in which case it's 570w) but I assume it's still okay.

Alright. I'm so tired I can't see the screen. Goodnight and thanks again.