I would never run more then 120 amps through 4 gage, that's just too much for the wire.

Also unless your playing test tones or sweeps, your amp will never draw 100% of the power needed to run it, except for quick burps. When your alt can't provide the amperage, it'll dip into the battery, you do that too often and the batt will go dead. If your in that situation, get two batteries, get a better alternator, upgrade the big 3.

 

x 1 million.

Get the GM 2nd battery tray to mount under the hood and buy 2 Optima Yellow Tops or equivalent battery (not the red top). Wire the 2 batts together in parallel and get an Iraggi Alternator of your choice. Iraggi has good customer service and a solid product...

 

i have been running 3 amps on 0 ga. wire to a dist. block on the stock alt. and a single yellow top batt. for about 6 months now with out a prob......eventually i am goin to get the alt. rebuilt but i just dont see the need right now as my lights dont even dim since i put the batt. in......

 

I have never had a problem with 4Ga. I am in a System change right now and I have 0Ga. but I am running a stinger spv70 under the hood and i have 5 Stinger SP1700 in my bed havnt decided what alternator I am going to go with but im looking at a Stinger, or a Powermaster??? I work in a stereo shop And the rule of thumb I always went by was you can not draw any more amps than what your alternator can put out. and plus 0Ga. Is a Bi**h to run.

 

i think im gonna be ok with 4ga. for now i have a digi rockford 1 farad cap im gonna use and a single yellow top. i think i should be ok. i do have a 2500 which gets a little bit beffier alt correct?

 

should be a 145 on the 2500's i beleive. on my 1500 i have a 110.....you should be just fine with that and a yellow top......

 

What about what the car's stock electronics draw? That is a very general rule of thumb. Most of the time, for daily driver systems, you can get away with just the stock alt, upgraded big 3 and maybe a better battery - but that isn't always needed. Caps are just a bandaid solution. Sure they look cool, but if you really want to get more consistent power to your amps, get a better alt.


I hear you about the 1/0. It took me like 3 hours to run it through my truck on the weekend, and it almost didn't fit under my running boards. But it is beautiful, seeing that giant *** wire coming off my battery. Makes me proud

 

mmmmm.......ran my 0 ga. under the carpet in about 15 minutes, wasnt that bad really it was some kind of kicker super flex or something but i dont remember it taking that long to run

 

The bad part for me was blasting through the grommet. Having one set of hands made it slightly difficult. I was also trying to see the best way I could do it. I wanted to avoid drilling the firewall at all costs, and go through the original grommet. Hiding the wire took about 5 minutes, I absolutely hate hate hate exposed wire that isn't there for a reason. You can't see the wire until it pops into my amp rack...just what I like.

 

Yeah I hate Caps you can never tell the difference and you are screwed if you ever short it out BOOOOOM.