The MIDI style fuse has two hooks, one at each end and a small plastic body in the middle. Glass cylinder style fuses (also known as AGU Fuses) are usually available in 40 amp, 60 amp or 80 amp ratings and are usually designed for fuse holders that can accommodate 4 or 8 gauge wire. This is kind of important because fuses are only available in certain sizes and in certain styles. If you had two 40 amp fuses, you’d want to get an 80 amp inline fuse. What size fuses are on your amp? If you have two 30 amp fuses on the side of your amp, you would want to have a 60 amp inline fuse on your power wire. How do you know what size fuse to use at the battery on your inline fuse holder? Easy. Besides using the proper gauge power and ground wire for your car audio amplifier, you also need to get the right size fuse for your inline fuse holder. When you restrict the output that your amp is capable of you risk clipping the amp, which causes distortion which can blow your speakers. If you don’t, you end up starving your amp for power. Don’t you want to get all the power you paid for? If your amp is capable of 1000 watts RMS then it requires 4 gauge wire. When it comes to amplifier wiring for your car stereo system, don’t cheap out. And guess how much a decent 8 gauge wire goes for: $1.49 per foot. The cheaper DB Link wire at $1.99 a foot, with less wire and more aluminum, is as effective as a decent 8 gauge wire. You can see the Stinger wire has more strands and they are tighter and more compact. The weight difference has a lot to do with the wire being 100 percent oxygen free copper, which is heavier than aluminum, and also has to do with having more strands of wire. A decent 4 gauge kit with RCA, fuse, fuse holder and 20 feet of wire usually weights around 8-10 lbs. A good quality amp kit should be pretty heavy. The cheap DB Link wire is feather light compared to the real copper wire. The other tell tale quality difference which you can’t really see, but can easily feel, is the weight of the wire. The cheaper stuff has much less shielding. The other important thing to note here is the difference in the shielding. This means the cheaper power wire is not capable of carrying as much current as the Stinger power wire which is 100 % oxygen free copper wire. Maybe you haven’t heard, but aluminum is not nearly as conductive as copper. That silver wire you see mixed in with the copper is aluminum. The cheap amplifier wiring has some silver mixed in the strands. What’s the difference? Why should you buy the more expensive amplifier power wire? Take a closer look at it. The other is DB Link 4 gauge and it runs $1.99 a foot. One is Stinger 4 gauge wire and it runs $2.99 a foot. Over 1500 watts RMS you need 0 gauge and a few other wiring and vehicle upgrades. From 1000 – 1500 watts RMS you should be running 2 gauge. In the 500 – 1000 watt RMS range, you want to run 4 gauge. For up to 500 watts RMS, 8 gauge is sufficient. Many amp kits are labeled with wattage ratings on them to entice you to buy, but what’s actually on the package is not always the whole story. How do you know what gauge wire you need for your amp? What size fuse do you need for your inline fuse holder? How much wire do you need? So you just got your amp and your sub and now you need to hook it up. How the quality of your car audio amplifier wiring can effect your whole car stereo system.Įstimated read time: 6 minutes 15 seconds. Determining the proper gauge wire for your amplifier, fuse size, wire length and more. Grounding the auxiliary battery to the engine block would mean both batteries would NOT be connected in parallel.Notice the Stinger 4 gauge wire has more copper tone and a thicker sleeve How to buy the right amplifier wiring kit for your car audio amplifier. My understanding of "parallel" means that the positive terminals of both batteries are connected, as are the negative terminals. That first bullet says to connect OEM and auxiliary batteries in parallel but the last bullet say to ground the auxiliary battery to the engine block. So my question surrounds what I read as a contradiction between the second and last bullets. To minimize electrical resistance and maintain full output voltage at electrical devices, auxiliary batteries should be securely grounded to the vehicle engine block." ~ When the auxiliary battery is used exclusively to power electrical devices added by the Upfitter. ~ When the auxiliary battery is used strictly as a back-up source of electrical power for engine cranking. ~ Under the following conditions, the auxiliary battery should be connected to include within its circuit a device (such as an isolator, relay or switch) that will electrically separate it from the OEM battery: ~ Always connect auxiliary batteries in parallel with the OEM battery. ~ Use only General Motors OEM-approved connecting devices whenever making connections to the auxiliary battery.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |