YACAT: (yet another car audio thread)....

[geno]

Quick question - when grounding an amp, does the ground cable have to be as thick as the power cable? I have a distro block with the 4 gauge power cable coming from the battery, from the distro block I have ONE 8 gauge wire powering my amp (I'm adding another soon, hence the distro block)... so for now, will I have to ground my amp with a piece of 8 gauge? I just wanna make sure I have a thick enough ground wire so I don't blow any fuses or anything.

Also, I'm planning on running 2 amps in parallel, powering 2 subs. I have 1 capacitor. Can I use one cap to power both amps or should I run 2 after the distro block (one for each amp)?

Any help is appreciated - thanks

 

[Howard]

I don't think you can blow fuses if you don't have a big enough ground...

 

[Howard]

Also, I'm planning on running 2 amps in parallel

Also, I'm planning on running 2 amps in parallel

How does one do this?

 

[geno]

heh I know I made that sound weird (parallel as opposed to what? sequential amps? ), I'm running one amp for 2 subs right now, but I'm gonna add an idential amp to the setup, and have each amp power a sub.

 

[bmacd]

1) no...the ground cable does NOT have to be as thick as the +12v cable, but don't skimp on wire cost here. If you have an 8 or a 10 guage wire, use it. I personally wouldn't run anything smaller.

2) the one cap can be split between the two amps easily. I was running a 1 farad cap to my two amps and another 1/2 farad cap to my neons last year. The neons are now gone, but the 1 farad cap is still running with my two amps.

-=bmacd=-

 

[gogeeta13]

why would you run a cap for neons, unless they beat to the msusic...

 

[d33pt]

i would make the ground wire just as big as power... why? because the same amount of current that flows thru the positive side will go thru the ground side also.. just makes sense.. and you only need a couple of feet so why not?

and when you install a cap, it is in parallel with the electrical system so in fact it's powering the whole car's electrical system.. not just your amps.. you can't selectively install caps to power certain equipment.. it's just closer in proximity to your audio equipment..

 

[geno]