Kicker Hideaway Protection Mode

I installed a kicker hideaway 10 and its been fine. I removed my interior today to install sound deadening and while the carpet was out I saw the factory ground under the driver seat and decided to move the amp ground to that location. Well now it goes into protection mode (red light) when I turn the headlights on. Works like normal when they are off.

Now I can easily move it back to where it was grounded before and most likely solve this issue, but can anyone explain why it's happening? I just can't make sense of it and would like to know just to understand it better.

Its getting power from an add-a-fuse installed under the dash in the empty fuse slot, and has been since day one. The only thing that changed is the grounding location.

Thanks

 

It definitely does not need to be getting power from an add-a-fuse under the dash. You want it going straight to the battery and properly fused there.

As for why it started acting strange, factory ground points can be hit or miss. They are normally COATED in paint and take quite a bit of work to get them to bare metal.

 

I 100% trust you on this and will move it to the battery as I've read the whole thread about the kicker key amp when I installed it in mine and learned who you were in that thread, so I want to be clear i'm not questioning your knowledge with this next question but would just like to learn more. Why is it that it needs to be straight to the battery instead of the fuse block?

 

That fuse panel is only designed to handle a certain amount of power being drawn through it at any point.
While the 15A rating of the hideaway isn’t much, it’s still enough that if several of the things fused in that panel are in use at the same time, it could pull too much power and cause the main fuse at the engine fuse panel to fail. And that would suck a lot if you’re driving down the road.

also, add-a-fuse connections are a great thing for a dealer to point at as the cause of a warranty issue, even if it is completely unrelated. They can deny service and even blacklist your truck from warranty claims if they want to be dicks.

long story short, it’s best to keep all aftermarket accessories separated from factory components. Makes troubleshooting easier and keeps the finger from being pointed at you if a factory component has an issue.

 

Understood, thank you.

 

No problem!

It’s not necessarily saying it’s the “wrong” way because if it works, then who’s to say it’s wrong lol
But it’s definitely not the best way, and an easy way now might create a big problem later. Poking that red kicker power wire through the firewall is too easy so my mindset has been to just do it the best way and be done with it. No problems may ever happen because of it. No dealer may ever look at it and blame you for something.

doing installs for a company as big as Best Buy made me extremely detailed and “correct” about my installs because people are trigger happy and just looking for a reason to sue a multi-billion dollar company like that.