Multi-amp Wiring?

EDIT: Ok I know it's overpriced just tell me what components I need for 2 amps.

Ok so i'm looking at getting something like this:
(SOMETHING, not this one, just the components that I need)
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_206PKD1/Kicker-PKD1.html?tp=1045

However. Do I need everything in this package? Is this for when you get 2 of the same amp and bridge them or could I power a 4-channel and a mono with this?
Heres my imaginary set up:
4-channel amp (which can be bridged) for:

90 @ 4 ohm and 120 @ 2 ohms.

My second amp is my mono rated at 800 @ 4 ohms and 1200 @ 2 ohms, 1500 @ 1 ohm

 

No, you don't NEED everything. It's useful if you plan on installing another amp later.

But, what you may need is a bigger alternator of you are going to be running big amps... And it also depends on what the speakers are rated at. If you aren't running a 2 ohm speaker, it doesn't matter. (or dual 4 ohm coils in parallel).

Besides those are peak numbers, how often do you really turn it all the way up? lol

 

Might be wise to run a capacitor as well. Not necessarily needed but will reduce stress on your system, and possibly clear up some distortion.

 

Bud, just send me a pm.

That kit is way over price'd

With wat we talked about earlier you will need something to setup 2 amps but you don't need some fancy kit for that. Also, you just need a good solid group 31 battery, big3 upgrade, proper gauge power wire and you are set. Do not install a cap please, Caps are like bandaids, and do just that.

 

The sizing of that kit may be overkill for what you need, but I highly recommend you get all of those components in the kit (or enough equipment to effect the same result).

Fuse/breaker near the battery is a must. It's there to protect your long power cable run in the event of a hot short anywhere along the wire. You don't want that cable to overheat and start a fire.

Distribution/fuse block near the amps is to break apart your powering and provide protection for individual amps. If one amp has a hot short then you want it removed from the electrical circuit immediately. Sometimes the short circuit current may not be enough to "pop" the main fuse at your battery, so what you get is a slow cable heat up overtime, which results in (you guessed it) fire. Each distribution block fuse should be sized according to the amp it's powering. Amp manufacturers typically have a recommended fuse size.

Depending on your total wattage you could get away with a 2 AWG kit. My single 5 channel amp is rated for over 1600W with all channels maxed, but I am only running a single 4 AWG wire because I know I will never push that amp all the way. I'd be surprised if I get over 800W out of that amp at my loudest listening levels.

Whatever power wire you choose, just make sure your fuse is sized properly for the wire. You want the cable to be able to handle more current than the fuse to ensure the fuse will interrupt any fault current before your cable catches on fire.

 

It's definitely overpriced I agree.

 

Remote gose to the amp .not battery.

 

Based on your drawings I would suggest a professional install.

That being said, if you must install yourself, I will try and help as best I can.

You are only running 1 cable from the battery, power. 1/0 is a bit much. I am running 1350 watts total and it's a bit much. That being said the approriate cable if you are installing amps in the back of the truck is 2 gauge and there are not very many 2 gauge kits. If you are installing under the seats 4 gauge should be ok. The longer the cable the the bigger the cable needs to be.

The battery is grounded up near the battery.
You should try and run your grounds as short as you can.

Your drawing shows a 200W fuse. It should be A as in Amps. 200A is a bit much. Running 1350 watts I use a 100A. I also fuse each amp individually after the distribution block. I use a 65A fuse for my 750 and a 50A fuse for my 600. This might be considered overkill by some because the run from the distribution block to the amp is so short ~2 feet. But, when I step down to the smaller gauge wire I like to fuse for the smaller gauge.

Your main fuse should be close to the battery.

Your power distribution block should be close to your amplifiers.

I do not believe that distribution block has a separate bus for each input. You can only use it for power or ground, not both.

You can ground each amp individually or you can ground them together. I usually ground them to the same place. Make sure you have a really good ground.

There will be two pairs of wires going into your crossover, 1 from the tweeter and 1 from the woofer. There will be one pair of wires going from your crossover to your amplifier, not two pairs.

With one component set and one subwoofer you will have 2 pairs of RCA's going from the head unit to the amps. One to each amp. If you add a second set of speakers you will run an additional RCA pair to the speaker amp.

In addition to the RCA to Amplifier you will also have a remote wire that goes from the head unit to the amplifiers. It needs to go to both amplifiers. Usually you just piggyback off one into the other.

Red is power.
Blue is remote power.
Black is ground.
Yellow is speaker wire.
Orange is RCA.



I drew each amp grounded separately, you can ground them together. It was just to visualize each ground.

As far as the kit goes. It is a quality kit, but I think it is overpriced. I prefer the Rockford Fosgate dual amp kits. Manethon has deals on shok industries wire which is worth checking out. He is honest and trustworthy. Knukoncepts and sky high also produce reasonably priced cables.

Again, I suggest a professional install. If you want to learn you have a lot of research to do.

 

No offence to you, let me just clean some things up here.

I'll clean it up tomorrow if i'm not too busy. This should clear a few things up though.

1/0 might be a bit much... but im also using a distribution block. I do plan to install the amps under my drivers and pass. seats and ground them the chassis.
So my block would be (1) 1/0 gauge input to (2) 4 gauge outputs correct?

Yep.

So not straight to the battery, but to the chassis?

My bad, but that's what I meant was amps.

My amps will be pulling in 180A, 1/0 is usually rated at 250A per 20ft. so im aiming for a fuse that higher that my amp draw and lower than my current. Correct me if im wrong.

 

orangeglo has some pretty good comments on your wiring. I don't know the details of your amps so I can't comment on whether 1/0 is overkill, but you have the right concept on main fuse sizing. It should be more than your total current draw and less than the wire's capacity. I recommend you ground both amps to the same point - even if it results in one ground wire being longer than the other. Not all points on the cabin are of equal voltage potential and you may run into ground loop issues if they are not. The resistance of a 4AWG ground cable is not going to change much by a couple of feet.

 

Okay, even with a distribution block?

I plan on buying/borrowing a multimeter and checking the grounding points.

 

Correct.

Correct. Just make sure it a good clean ground.

You are stepping down to a lower gauge wire, unless you are going to fuse the wire to each amplifier it is best to keep the run as short as possible.

This will help give you an idea how wire gauge, wire length and current are all related.



Here is a good resource for general car audio knowledge:

http://www.bcae1.com/

EDIT: I just saw you had already seen this site in the custom sub thread. I'll leave it for anyone else that hasn't seen it.

 

Thanks for the rep,
AS for our wire, we mostly only have kits left until the new shipment comes through.

I will be helping the Op with a few things if he chooses so.
He already has the Beastly triton 8s, and its just a matter of which direction he wants to go with the rest.

 

New wiring diagram. I deleted the other pictures to cover for this one. Prices were attatched to paper and hence, whited out. Sorry about the crappy quality of the picture. RCA's are in black sharpie, remote turn on in blue, speaker wire in black ink.

 

the main power wire should be sized based on your total amplifier current draw. if your amps are rated to draw 180A at full load, then size for higher than 180A.

note cable ampacity is independent of length. a 1/0 AWG wire at 20 ft does not have a higher current capacity than a 1/0 AWG at 1 ft. the reason you go to a lower gauge at longer length is for voltage drop considerations only. a thicker cable has less resistance per foot, which equates to less voltage drop across the cable. for example, if your battery is putting out exactly 12 V, then a 1/0 AWG cable will give you 11.5 V at your amps, while a 4 AWG will give you 11 V - purely hypothetical numbers, but you get the idea. most amps will shut off if they sense an undervoltage condition.

i would highly recommend you also fuse at your distribution block, too. if you're stepping down from 1/0 AWG to a 4 AWG wire, then the fuse will protect the 4 AWG wire. for example, if your main power cable is fused at 250 A and you develop a hot short on your 4 AWG wire after the distribution block, the 4 AWG cable will need to carry 250 A in order for that main fuse to protect the whole system. i don't believe a 4 AWG cable can carry that much current. so what will happen instead is your 4 AWG will start melting and probably start a fire. i would err on the side of caution when it comes to safety.

 

Personally I would not use a basic distribution block for the 1G to 4G cable split. I would use a fused distribution block. That way if an individual 4G cable, or the amp itself shorts, then that leg of the circuit would blow. However if the main 1G cable were to develop a short, then the primary fuse at the battery would blow, protecting everything.

If you have 180A of draw for the amps, then you will DEFINITELY need to upgrade your alternator. At 180A I would suggest a 250A alternator. Granted you won't probably be powering your system at full capacity all the time, but you really do want your max amp draw to be less than 75% of your alternator output if possible. This keeps you from dealing with the dimming headlights and other electrical issues that are voltage-related.

I'm really surprised that the above chart on recommended gauge size has excluded the 2G cable, which is very popular with my Stage 1 and Stage 2 Kits. 2G welding cable is capable of operating a 250A alternator at full capacity (15.6V) with lengths of 10 feet without developing any excessive heat.

 

If the OP has the tow package, Has his big 3 done and has a good group 31 battery he wouldn't need an upgraded alt for 180A draw.

I Demo'd my truck for long periods at a time, Ran Bass race FULL tilt with over 6KW on a stock alt with a xs power 3100D and 2700D under the hood Which has about roughly 200 Amp hours @ 20 amp draw. I never Ever dropped below 12.6v, 12.6 isn't great but is within an acceptable realm of voltage drop.

 

Yep I was reading about that on bcae1. (The voltage drop) and the fusing of the block would be the path I'd take, but what size fuses?

 

yes voltage drop is one of the main enemies of a 12v system...
As for fuses, wait until you have your amps in hand or know exactly how much current they draw then buy some fuses

 

The only really "upgraded" cable for that package is a larger alternator output cable. The starter and ground cables are the same size as all of the other Tacoma trucks. If the OP is going to run high output amps then he should consider upgraded cables.

I am looking at your demo truck and am crunching the numbers. If you were running a full 6000 watts of power, at 12 volts, you would be drawing about 500 amps of current. So how long were you running "for long periods" because that is a hell of a lot more of a power draw than the factory alternator could sustain for periods of more than 2 minutes before the alternator would begin to over-temp and fry. Even the stock alternator is only rated to put out peak output for short periods of 2-3 minutes. The batteries you mention that can put out 200amp-hours would only be capable of sustaining 500 amps for 24 minutes before they would be totally drained. An alternator putting out 180a peak output is generating only 2160W of power, and that is at it's peak. That leaves almost 4000 watts still being drawn from the batteries. (i.e. 333 amps) and at 333amps the batteries would only be capable of staying at about 12V for less than 10 minutes. Just doing the numbers here. I'm seriously surprised that if you are truly pulling the watts you mention that you haven't friend an alternator and smoked a few batteries.

The big-competition guys that I have seen running 8-10k watts are usually running 2-4 big batteries, and dual high output alternators just to maintain the required output without smoking them.