Shadowrwr

Alright, well here is what i need help with. Im building a system for an upcoming car, getting all the components now while i have my summer job money before school agian. With the help of Ashmo, im going with two RE XXX 12' and two PG 1200.1 amps. Thats the intial stage (most interchangeable part of stereo, (or the lacking part of most car stereos)). I plan after i get those to add another amp for highs and mids and get those speakers. Im going to run 0 guage wire to a distributer block. Thats where i need help. If im planing on running 3 or more amps whats a good distribution block that will take 0 guage and split for multipule amps? What size wires should i use after the distribution block (ive think i heard 4 guage somewhere not sure though)? What size wire should i use from the amps to the RE XXX's and what size wire for normal high mid speakers? What kind of fuse / circuit breaker should i use with the 0 guage wire running this much power (and what company)? And last is, What size wire should i use to ground the amps (i would image the same size that is going into them)?Thats all the questions i have so far, thanks for anyones input.
-Rich-

Paul350Z

iTrader: (1)

1/0 AWG Copper wire will carry 195 amps - about 2652 watts or about three times the capbilty of your alternator at 140F in free air. Using the more conservative "in raceway, cable, or earth" chart that same cable is rated at 125 amps - the carpeting acting as a heat insulator causing the wire to heat up more.

4 AWG gauge is good for 105 amps/70 amps which is 1428 and 952 watts each.

Your ground cables can be of smaller gauges as normally they're much shorter and suffer from less losses but normal policy is to use the same size. Make darn sure you've got a good ground or just run the cable all the way back to the battery.

Figuring you'll be running something like 2 ohm speaker loads which will run your current up high I would run as large as wire as possible to your speakers - minimum 10 gauge, larger if you can manage.

When you calculate your amplifier power requirements in amperes it's easy. Find out what the current draw for each amplifer is and add them up - that will give you the fuse size for the system distribution block/wire. I would mount the fuse as close as possible to the battery bank you're going to mount to run your amplifiers and your car at the same time. Do not use the wattage ratings of the amplifiers as they can be somewhat overrated and amplifiers are not even close to 100% efficiency. A good quality amplifier can run just 40% (class A), even the highest efficency/lowest quality amplifer (class D) will be about 80%.

The electrical reference I'm using is common old "Ugly's" - I've got the 2002 revised edition on my desk.

Paul350Z

iTrader: (1)

PS: Check out a Zapco amplifier owner's manual. You can download them from Zapco's web site in .pdf format. Near the begining they have a nice chart that lists out which gauge to get for which lenght of cable to supply how many amps.

Shadowrwr

Thanks for the info, that will be helpful. Do you by change know what a good distribution block is? Company, type etc..

Thanks

Paul350Z

iTrader: (1)

The StreetWires line is pretty wide and deep - cable, connectors, distribution blocks, kits - lots of stuff.

http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage....83400&desc=ASC