Guys...

Seriously consider what you're doing before installing one of these Scosche amp kits. I just removed the kit from the guy who owned my Z before me and ran some 0AWG (mixture of Rapter & JL Audio stuff I had...)

First off... take a look at the braiding in the Scosche line,,, not only is it thin but there were few strands and it was stiff as all get out. Not good. I looked it up at Wal-Mart.com and it seems to be an 8 gauge power/ground wire which they claim supports up to a 400W Amp... OUCH!

Run your power lines once... Do it right the first time... Don't make yourself go back through later and re-do it because you didn't want to spend the extra money the first time. Take pride in the quality in your Z!

And off my soapbox I go.. On to the comparison pics. (and battery is next on the list to be replaced)



Scosche Power Line vs JL Audio line.


Fuseblock vs fuseblock


Scosche Ground Line vs JL Audio line.

Now, I'm not shitting on Scosche here because I don't know what kind of stuff they make on the high-end... from the stranding I can see I doubt it's very good but nonetheless... If you ever wanted to see the difference in 8AWG and 0/1AWG. There is such a high fine strand count in the JL stuff... it's incredible.

 

i agree 100% with you on jl's 0 guage wire, or other size they make, i have my whole car wired with jl's meta wire......

like you said id rather not CHEAP out in the beginning than to pay double @ the end..lol...

i reccomend this wire to everyone, BUT ITS NOT CHEAP, but thequality is excelent and you can peel the outside layer and it will be clear so you can use it a ground also....

 

Usually the smaller gauged wires arent that flexible for one to keep cost down and even with the mid-level stuff you wont see braided lines until you get to 4 awg and below. Try kicker or knuconceptz wire its more flexible and easy to work with. While your under there I suggest upgrading your wiring to 0 gauge (big 3). It makes no sense having a run of 0 gauge and having 8 gauge grounds throughout the rest of the car. What amps are you running

 

True the Kicker lines are a better value if buying out on retail. I just so happened to have these second hand. Also I do plan to upgrade big3 this weekend when the new batt goes in. I'm running a Rockford Fosgate 5 channel Power 1000 25-Life amp @1500W RMS.

 

danm im tired of hearing that "JL IS OVERPRICED", we all know that the name is not cheap, your buying a name brand.
its like me telling someone that their VOLKS, WORKS, BBS are overpriced.... yeah th eres other equal competitors, but like in "LIFE" theres always something less expensive, but everyone knows JL's products are top knotch.

sorry for the rant but man i hear this everytime someone mentions that they have JL Audio.... and its pretty annoying.

 

Every thread in here mentions JL is overpriced... That's a moot argument. The Kicker power lines are a better value but if you saw the stranding in this JL line, you'd understand why it's so expensive... even comparing it to a Kicker line of the same gauge.

 

Just up too early to work on the car today... I'm sure once I pop the hood it will be blatantly evident but what lengths did You use for the big3? Any tips before I get into the garage today?

 

on my car if i remember right, i think we only used around 5ft for the whole big 3, we tried to keep the wire as short as possible, but hey its up to you..... i bought extra wire just in case.

 

I'm about to be done here shortly at work and plan to do 1/0 with short runs. The only thing holding me up are these grounding kits they sell... Might make more sense?

What do you think about those? A total of 8 grounds (don't think any + wires included but that's okay)

 

I'm with you Dave, Kicker vs JL new/MSRP pricing it's Kicker, hands down. I just so happened to have this stuff I bought off of someone else when he sold his car, and got a great deal on it.

 

Most of the wiring we are talking about is made in the same factory in China. Quality and basic materials are all the same! That said, The Raptor 4 ga kit is more like 6 ga. The Stinger 'cheap' series 1/0 is closer to 4 ga. Some of this stuff is aluminum coated copper (ACC) which is a very inexpensive way to 'bulk up' the wire. Aluminum is a poor conductor of electricity. Wire strand count is quite important as well for running high current systems.

There are a lot of factors that make one wire better than another. For me its got to be copper, flexible, high strand count and the guage that it states that it is! I use the new Scosche/EFX for 4 guage and Streetwires for the 1/0 guage. They are both priced very well, are super flexible (as flexible as the audison cable at 1/3 the price) and have a great thread count and quality copper.

Usually entry level wire from all big wire companies are crappy.

 

That Scosche EFX stuff looks good, didn't even know about it.