Uh oh .... :/

can you tell me how you wired up the fans thanks man

 

first make sure they are 12v, should say on the sticker where the middle of the fan is, if it doesn't .... I wouldn't take a chance really (I already knew the ones I have are 12v). It's pretty easy to wire them, black is always gnd and the red goes to your remote connection NEVER the 12v. You want it to turn on when the amp does. Don't worry about how many, they don't take up much amperage at all. ALso if your fans come with 3 wires (as some do) don't use the yellow one, you will only need the red and black wires.

 

you just wired it to the amp than right? that a smart ideal. I thought of this just never had a chance to install them.

 

you can hook it up to a rocker if you want too. I mainly put it to my amp remote so I don't have to deal with the on/off switch when I get in/out of the ride. Plus it's just like you would have the radio turn on when you turn the key to aux or just turn on your truck.

 

Man, it's just my opinion, but I don't see nothing but problems with stacking your amps like that, with that little amount of room for air flow between them....

Again, just my opinion but you very much SHOULD worry about hooking anything up to the remote wire from the radio... I've never seen one have more than 200mA of output, and back in my days of installing, anything more than 2 amps and we would wire up a relay to make sure there's plenty of power available. A relay costs, what, a buck maybe?? One dollar and 5 minutes of time to wire it up for the protection of your head unit.... far more worth the benefits to the cost (or potential cost).

Now if by "remote connection" you really mean your ignition, then you should be good.

 

I don't see much of a difference than it being under my seats. there's not much room in there either. I also had 2 fans wired up when I just had one amp installed and it worked perfectly (what I like about the amps I have currently is that they are vented, not much but it's enough to get air flowing through them - the 800f I might have to alter one of the end plates so that the air flows through like it does with the Hifi amp).

 

update, for the most done with the way its supposed to be but ran out of mdf, still have to upgrade the wiring also (from 4g big 3 to 0/1g, and so on).

 

progress has been slow, today I made some templates for the side panels to fit, also a homie is coming done to the pad with his jigsaw so I can get in my notches for the fans and cut out the side panel templates. all is looking good so far, one thing I may have problems with is running the 4g from one of the amps, trying to make one hole overall (not inside) so that I can combine all of them in loom to easily hide.

*need to purchase new RCA cables or get some 90 degree adapters

 

progress pics - notching the panel 1" where the amp knobs are so that the fans will fit in snug (2 for intake/exhaust), and putting on some velcro for the remaining panel area to hide it all. The other side will be a straight panel (may need to extend the other outside panel (having wiring problems, trying to make the 4g wires for the USX 800F to fit properly).

 

had to figure another way for the fan to be placed, just put them in the front on top. Have a slit where the amps split, so that will help circulate the air. Have to make new side panels with holes so I can tune the amps as well as continue the ventilation of the air.

 

You may have already figured this out but based on what you described your fuse was too large for the wire it was supposed to be protecting and the wire was undersized. So to simplify things if you had a 500w amp and you were feeding it power with wire rated for 400w and protecting it with a fuse rated for 600w, your going to melt wire. The fuse should be rated less than the capacity of the wire and the wire should be rated for more than the device your feeding. There are many charts online which will make sizing wire pretty easy.

 

Bingo.

80% is the rule.

The load should be no greater than 80% of the rating of the fuse.
The fuse should be no larger than 80% of the rating of the wire (and any relays or switches).

http://wiki.xtronics.com/index.php/Wire-Gauge_Ampacity
4ga wire is good for 80a = 64a fuse = 51.2a load
6ga wire is good for 60a = 48a fuse = 38.4a load

500w amplifier is going to draw a MINIMUM of 35a, but that would be at 100% efficiency with no parasitic losses. I would assume that the recommended fuse to protect it is closer to 50a, meaning that 4ga would be more than adequate and 6ga would be the minimum.

 

on both of those amps I will be using, the fuses are 60a (the Hifi has one huge 60a fuse to it, and the USA has four 15a fuses on it). I have a new dist block on it, which has 3 slots for fuses (going to be putting in 60a AGU fuses for the amps and one 80a AGU fuse for the compressors that will be going to the back). The min. wire gauge I am running to the amps and for ground is 4g. The main wire (Big 3) will be all 0g wiring ... once I get it that is.

 

decided to start on making a door for the top amp (so I can get to it if I need to swap out the fuses if I just so happen to pop one or so).



sucks, cause right now the way I have it planned is that there will be a 3/4" or so mdf board on top acting as a full floor piece (sub box will go on top of that piece) and I want to hide the door hinges

 

got this done today, have to plan out the 4g for the amps. Still trying to get some info for the box, fairly close to getting all of it done imo. fan placement has changed, as well as some of the overall rack design. have to play the waiting game though (need more funds ).

on the way more 4g wire, neg. batt terminal, 200a circuit breaker

 

Turbo is 100% right

You do not want to run more than one amp off of your remote wire from your deck. hook it up to a relay with its own 12v power source. I run 5 different items this way and will never worry about frying the deck.

And your amp rack will needs fans or you will over heat them.
EDIT: Saw you added fans. Even then you should have more space between the wood and amp's. Having the wood butted up is going to trap a lot of heat.

 

Why don't you just run 0g to the back, then use a distribution block to 4g's for your amps? And really I don't think you need 0g wire. I run a Rockford T400.4 and a Alpine PDX m6, never drop below 13.2 volts when playing at full blast.

 

DAMN then I seriously think there is something wrong with my electrical. I don't have EITHER of my amps hooked up at all, yet when I finished this upgrade, I noticed that my voltage drops at times.

Scenario -
Cold start up - voltage is around 13.7/.8

I drive a little, come to my first stop - voltage DROPS to about 13.2/sometimes hitting 12.0 or so, then truck somewhat starts to shake... like a put put ride.

I push the gas to go - voltage jumps back to about 13.5 sometimes more



all things considering, I did get this once in a while BUT i found it was due to my brakes. Not sure if this makes any sense but this is my theory on why is was doing what is was doing (keep in mind this is when I had ALL 4g wiring). So I come up to a stop light and my foot is on the brake pedal. I do't know if it's just the way I sit or w/e but when I didn't have the brake pedal down as much (to me it's like shoving it to the floor ... but why when I am coming to a stop and such, not like I"m going 50 mph on reg. streets ...), I noticed that my truck would kind of shake some. it was odd but I pushed the brake pedal down more on the next stop light and no shakes. this time it might be like that but I am not for certain since my battery is about 5 yrs old (had it since I got truck from dealership as well as the alt. - OE) I know it needs changing as well as beefing up (I will also be using an air ride system, nothing crazy BUT I will have 2 compressors which come out to 80a and I am already pulling 120a due to my amps (both are 60a ea.). also my OE alt. I did some research and found that it's dinky compared to the TRD's.

 

I have redone the rack design since the last postings of it. It has 3 fans up top for the bass, and 2 for the mids/highs. the way the fans are placed on it now should prove to be a better way of having air flow through it. when I'm finished I will post up, but for now it's slow since I have to play the waiting game due to low funds.

 

You got something going on for sure. From what I'm gathering you have more than enough wire to run your entire setup already. Here is my suggestion on how I would wire it (This is how I have my system wired and I run into no issues). I'm only talking about your sound system right now. Even then I had a 98 Tacoma 4banger, fully air bagged, 3 compressors and a full audio system running off the stock battery and alternator, no issues. (I was pushing a lot more stereo in that 98 then your current setup so I know these trucks can take the abouse).

I would go get the battery and alternator checked at autozone or something to make sure they are working good.

I'd first start with ripping out all your old wire and making sure all your 4g wire is matching. Don't mix brands if you can avoid it. Inspect it to make sure that its in good shape. Since you melted some before there could be a point were the rubber coating over the wire is melted and close to grounding out on something. So to be safe, I'd start from scratch after I determine the wire is ok to use.

(bear with me on this drawing I did it on my phone very quickly) This is how my system's power is setup.


For the Power distribution block you want something like this, that has fuses (only pic I have) the bottom device is the distribution block, the other 2 are cross-overs for the front speakers.



For ground distribution block I went with this:

$11 Stinger SPD511 PRO Series Power/Ground Distribution T-Block with Three 4 Gauge Inputs

http://www.amazon.com/Stinger-Shoc-Krome-Gauge-Distribution-Block/dp/B001F6W4FW

When doing the ground make sure its into bare metal, and I suggest one of these
http://www.amazon.com/JL-Audio-XB-MGLU-Master-Bolt-On/dp/B002F5CUIS

I try to keep all the wire the constant size through out the car. If you have 1/0g, you can run that to the distribution block and then go 4g from that block to the amps. The amps power/ground wires need to be the same gauge wire, do not mix and match.

One other thing too, with your fan setup you want some fans pulling in air and some fans pushing air. They will need to work together or you can create more heat if its not done correctly.