I just got one 12" Alpine Type R SWR-1242D (dual voice coil) (4ohm), but I am very confused on my wiring options since I've never gotten a dvc sub before. I did some research but still I find my self lost.. here are my amps capabilities:
200 Watts x 2 @ 4-Ohms
320 Watts x 2 @ 2-Ohms
500 Watts x 1 @ 4-Ohms

Can someone please help me wire my sub. Thanks.

is the sub 4 Ohm per coil?

lol to funny I was just helping a friend with this same thing here is a link to the rockford fosgate site its a wiring wizzard all you need to do it input what kinda speaker setup you have an it tell you what its able to be wired as http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/rftech/wiringwizard.asp?WoofQty=1+woofer&WoofImp=Dual+Voice+Coil+-+4+ohms+x+2&image.x=15&image.y=7 here is one dual 4 ohm if you need any more just let me know

what kinda amp do you have you might just want to run one side of the voice coil to each side of the sub but what kinda amp is it

Its a swiss audio (son of audiobahn) smx 2400...you guys probably never heard of them since theyre new...... but I was amazed at their sema booth demonstrations, this amp is very tiny and weighs almost nothing but pounds hard. I used it bridged with my old single voice coil sub. So, by wiring the sub to a 2ohm load will I only need to use one channel?

Heres what my new sub looks like:
http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/products/2005/500/h500SWR1242-b.jpeg

Thats a really bad sub amp combination. You seriously can probably blow the amp by trying to push it @2 ohm bridged. And Wiring it in series would be underpowering the sub.

Underpowering a sub does not hurt it though.
2 chices, wire the sub in parallel and it will meet RMS ratings and should get pretty loud. (if the amp can handle it) the second your amp starts to get hot or blow a fuse or cut out turn it off and wire the sub in series.

Or wire it in series off the bat, it will be safe for both the sub and amp as long as your gains are set properly and not clipping the signal to compinsate for the low output of the sub.

Thanks alot adrian!!.... that really helped... I guess i'll be getting a new amp..

Just run the thing as 2 seperate channels off the amp. (Coil 1 as channel 1 and coil 2 as channel 2)

You will get 400 safe watts to it without having to worry about clipping and ruining an amp.

Well thanks for all the suggestions, I will try all to see which one holds up best.

Just run the thing as 2 seperate channels off the amp. (Coil 1 as channel 1 and coil 2 as channel 2)

You will get 400 safe watts to it without having to worry about clipping and ruining an amp.
see thats what I was saying you should be fine by doing that

I agree with that, 1 coil per channel. That's really the only decent way to match those up, cause like Adrian mentioned, those two aren't a very good match.

well i would have recommended the 1 coil per channel except with multi channel amps they run off stereo i/o meaning they will be out of phase depending on the song.... NOT GOOD for a woofer. Evem with 400 watts its still underpowering the woofer. The only safe way to do it if the amp doesn't have a MONO switch is to take the stereo RCAs and put a Y adapter on it backwards to make a single RCA then take another Y adapter to make it duel again and they will sync the signal to mono.

Unless the HUs RCA output is specifically meant for a subwoofer power amplifier. (MONO signal)