Frogman
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Does the word "overkill" mean anything to you audio freaks? 
Another Mark VIII Car Audio question
- Thread starter Trippen Out
- Start date
rayner601
Dedicated LVC Member
Just did a little searching and stranded 0 gage wire is good for about 150 amps.
150 amps at 12.6vdc (nominal battery voltage)= 1890 watts-20% for an efficient amp and you get roughly 1512 to speakers. That's peak, not continuous. That much power to a speaker or speakers continuously will turn your ears to mush quickly...guess what I am trying to get at is 0 gage wire in automotive situations is really not needed unless it's to the starter or alternator. It does make for a "good look" factor though. I won't say that I have 4 gigawatts of amplifier power. I only have about 300, peak. I have 10 gage wire on the amp through a standard household plug to the amp. I did this so that if I needed the trunk empty, I disconnect the RCA plugs, separate the electrical plug and remove the box and nothing shorts out.
150 amps at 12.6vdc (nominal battery voltage)= 1890 watts-20% for an efficient amp and you get roughly 1512 to speakers. That's peak, not continuous. That much power to a speaker or speakers continuously will turn your ears to mush quickly...guess what I am trying to get at is 0 gage wire in automotive situations is really not needed unless it's to the starter or alternator. It does make for a "good look" factor though. I won't say that I have 4 gigawatts of amplifier power. I only have about 300, peak. I have 10 gage wire on the amp through a standard household plug to the amp. I did this so that if I needed the trunk empty, I disconnect the RCA plugs, separate the electrical plug and remove the box and nothing shorts out.
Trippen Out
Dedicated LVC Member
nice. sitting in a show all day is a good use for having extra batts. im sure your system works fine but myself i would of went with at least 2awg to the back and used 4 for the shorter distances. i myself use 0awg all the way to the back where it connects to my 25 farad cap which has a built in block which then breaks it down to 4awg which i use for my subs amp and an 8awg for running my highs amp. so do you drag race with that thing or is it just a show car with some flash and a loud setup ?
your right about the fact that the max transmission is rated about 150 amps which is why i use 0awg ive seen my cap pull 130+ amps at any given time. also the look factor is kinda neat but considering most of the wire wont even been seen its really not a good reason to use. however i can tell you that it has less resistance per foot and less resistance is good. also if your getting 12x anything you might wanna get a better alt. i get pissy when im only about 13.5 and after i do the big 3 upgrade i ussally get between 14-14.7v which can translate upto almost 16 volts with the boots from my cap. when it comes to amplifiers the more volts it gets the more power it puts out. granted its possible to overvolt your amps and cause damage thats why i keep mine set right about 15v out put i find it provides what i refer to as good CLEAN power which is why i use the power wire. im not saying i couldnt get the job done with 2-4awg wire but then again i dont drive on 89 octain gas even tho it will get me where i wanna go just like 93 will
heres a picture of the old setup i had in my bronco. as you can see its not always about 0awg being used for looks. as you can only see about 3/4 of a foot worth its nothing special just a home made project but it sounded good
BAD97LSC
Dedicated LVC Member
stereo systems are over rated! i'd rather listen to some big ass pipes under the vehicle, now thats music!
Trippen Out
Dedicated LVC Member
must be nice. ive got an all stock exhaust i can fart louder then this car.
Warden
Dedicated LVC Member
I enjoy the sound of the exhaust too and keep the stereo off a lot. It’s also good to keep the stereo off often to listen to the car and catch sounds before they turn into issues.
I want a navigation unit, bass and highs. I will be replacing the audio system soon with a 4 channel amp for front and rear, a mono for a sub and I can't imagine using #4 again. I ran that once in my 88 tbird for the same setup as described above - IMHO....total waste. I was young and thought bigger was better. Waste of copper. Use #8 stranded to a distribution block in the trunk. Then branch off with #8 since you have some already - no sense buying different cable.
Keep power cables away from communication cables to limit interference. Use premium cabling. If you use crap cable then you should go larger.
I want a navigation unit, bass and highs. I will be replacing the audio system soon with a 4 channel amp for front and rear, a mono for a sub and I can't imagine using #4 again. I ran that once in my 88 tbird for the same setup as described above - IMHO....total waste. I was young and thought bigger was better. Waste of copper. Use #8 stranded to a distribution block in the trunk. Then branch off with #8 since you have some already - no sense buying different cable.
Keep power cables away from communication cables to limit interference. Use premium cabling. If you use crap cable then you should go larger.
Trippen Out
Dedicated LVC Member
i managed to finish wiring up the passanger side im really impressed at how they did the panels in this car and how easy things are if you take your time with it. i managed to get the rca's 90 percent run just needs to get up in the dash and i figured out how i wanna do it i just need to get the other stereo out reach down and fish em up and im good to go. im still at a loss for the power wire tho.
what kind of power RMS are your amp's the more power the amp's put out the more power / current draw well be on you cars alternator
. 4Awg wire from the battery back to the trunk with a fuse block and then 8Awg wire to the amp's is a good start but it all depends on what sizes amps you are going to use.
in my truck I have 4 runs of 0Awg two power two ground my sub woofer amp
has 2 4Awg power and 2 4Awg ground the amp is a DB Drive 2000.1 - it's 2000 watts RMS at 1Ohm but I run the amp at 000.33Ohm and get about 4500 watts
I have an 220 amp alternator it takes power to make power
Trippen Out
Dedicated LVC Member
nice what are you running at .33 ohms and that amp is stable at that or are ya just burping it ? right now im running my highs amps which is 400 rms at 4 ohms 100w per channel and then i sub amp is a highfonics brutus which im running 1200 rms at 2ohms as states before i run the 0awg to the 25 farad cap then i run 4awg off that to my sum amp which is like less then a foot away and 8awg to my highs amp. i know to some this could be considered overkill but like i said im gonna grow into the wiring i plan on running an Fi Car Audio BTL fully loaded either a set of 12's or 1 15's the 12s would run down at .5 ohm and the 15 would be 1 ohm and they can handle some serious power. right now im using a stock 130 amp alt. i will be dropping a 220amp in there soon enough so i think im set for now. im running a set of polk 5.25 in rear and hifonics 6.5 up front ive also got another set of polks that ill be putting up on the rear dash as well with a custom box setup. the heart and soul of the setup is a pioneer 9800bt
so i did manage to get the power wire run today. i keep rereading the threads till i found one that said run it in side the fender behind splash guard and into a hole (i cut a hole in the grommit and used that for a plug) in the door jam. after a few hours of effort i managed to get it run down that little ass hole and out the kick panel on the bottom and straight to the back. all thats left is to run the remote and wire up the driver side speakers and ill be set.
playboy4aday
Well-Known LVC Member
What size fuses do you have in the amp, or in line to the amp?
Trippen Out
Dedicated LVC Member
on the hifonics i have 2 80amp maxi fuses in the amp. and a 250 anl fuse (yes i know its to big) and i forgot what i have in the highs amp. but to be honest with you it doesnt matter what the fuses are. and this thread wasnt about if my power wire was over kill or not. it was about how to get it from the front to the back. i have managed this task now. i just wish i had a cam so i could take pics for the next person who comes along wanting to do the same thing. im still working on the install pretty much doing 1 step a day except for today i will probabli finish it up. i just have to run the driver side rear speakers install the driver side door speakers. just finished running the main speaker wire for it just have to put the panel back on. and then run a remote wire and drop the box and amps in and go. i really can not wait to hear how it sounds. i love the spots for the tweets in the doors and i love finding sound damping materials all over the car. i expect this to sound way better then the bronco i had and it sounded damn good.
Trippen Out
Dedicated LVC Member
nice i thought about using a circuit breaker as well but ive yet to pop my anl fuse