2 GA wire
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Gold Member Username: CenusHicksville, Ohio Usa Post Number: 1109 Registered: Jan-05 | any1 know a place where i can get about 25ft of 2ga wire for around $50, i can't use ebay. |
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Gold Member Username: Chaunb3400Huntsville, Alabama U.S. Post Number: 4667 Registered: Jul-05 | i cant find any that cheap, why no ebay |
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Gold Member Username: SouthernrebelMonroe, Louisiana USA Post Number: 1902 Registered: Mar-04 | http://store.solar-electric.com/wc--2.html 2ga...$1.15 per foot + shipping...25ft minimal orders. http://store.weldingdepot.com/cgi/weldingdepot/0001x.html?id=WUjM2ex9 1/0...#$35.75 for 25ft http://store.weldingdepot.com/cgi/weldingdepot/scan/fi=products/st=db/sp=results /co=1/sf=category/se=Welding%20%26%20Power%20Cable/op=eq/nu=0/bs=1/ml=25/tf=desc ription/to=x/se=1/sf=inactive/op=ne/sf=tax_category/se=1/op=eq/va=banner_text=/v a=banner_image=.html ^lots of different welding cable...CHEAP! |
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Gold Member Username: CenusHicksville, Ohio Usa Post Number: 1110 Registered: Jan-05 | thanks for the site marshall, see i'm trying to get my jeep wired so when i get my RE 12.1 amp i'll be ready, and the reason i want 25ft is so i can upgrade my big3 while i'm at it, and the reason i can't use ebay is because my dad won't let me, i have a hard enough time getting him to let me order stuff off any online site, any i was thinking of welding cable but my dad says it won't be flexiable enough, and i really don't wanna pay $2.90+ per foot for 2ga wire from my local stereo place. |
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Silver Member Username: Kirbdog22New Bern, North Carolina USA Post Number: 159 Registered: Nov-05 | do yall think 2 ga. wire would be big enough to pull 2000W |
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Silver Member Username: PelonaPost Number: 183 Registered: Dec-05 | how long is it? |
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Silver Member Username: Kirbdog22New Bern, North Carolina USA Post Number: 160 Registered: Nov-05 | 20 ft ground and + |
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Gold Member Username: RovinTrinidad & T... Post Number: 5072 Registered: Jul-05 | i'd pick 0 gauge to be sure http://www.the12volt.com/info/recwirsz.asp |
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Silver Member Username: Kirbdog22New Bern, North Carolina USA Post Number: 161 Registered: Nov-05 | yes but it does not say how much wattage can pass thru 0 ga. |
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Gold Member Username: RovinTrinidad & T... Post Number: 5075 Registered: Jul-05 | www.bcae1.com no. 16 might as well get either 0g which will handle anything more in the future ...... |
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Gold Member Username: SouthernrebelMonroe, Louisiana USA Post Number: 1911 Registered: Mar-04 | yea...i would go with 1/0 wire like rovin says. especially when you can get 25ft for $35.75+ship. |
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Silver Member Username: FandimReno, Nevada United State... Post Number: 626 Registered: Jun-05 | just a note - most vehicles chassis act as only a 4 gauge ground wire.. so you're gonna need to run two lenghts of 0 gauge, one for the power, one as the ground. Just food for thought. Seth |
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Silver Member Username: N2audioLawrence, Ks USA Post Number: 415 Registered: Mar-04 | Street Wires says at least 1/0, other tests have found it as conductive as 2/0 weldingsupply.com - 25' red 2 ga - $25.30 shipped 25' red 1/0 - $43.06 shipped |
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New member Username: Safe_crackerChicago, IL US Post Number: 2 Registered: Jan-06 | "just a note - most vehicles chassis act as only a 4 gauge ground wire.. so you're gonna need to run two lenghts of 0 gauge, one for the power, one as the ground" ------------------------------------------------- Wouldn't it be easier to upgrade the - battery cable and add a couple extra ground straps from the engine block to the firewall? Polo.. |
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Silver Member Username: FandimReno, Nevada United State... Post Number: 631 Registered: Jun-05 | Polo, adding all the grounds you want from the engine or battery to the chassis, wont make the chassis any more conductive. That would be your bottle neck. It would be like adding more 0 gauge wire to a length of 16 gauge wire (just an example) and hoping that the 16 gauge wire would somehow conduct better. |
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Silver Member Username: N2audioLawrence, Ks USA Post Number: 440 Registered: Mar-04 | [b]"Street Wires says at least 1/0, other tests have found it as conductive as 2/0"[/b] That was in response to the conductivity of a typical car's chassis. Here's the article... Quoted from Esoteric Audio (Street Wires) Article Date: 1997 The current Esoteric Audio web site no longer has "White Papers" like this one. Best Place to Ground Your System The floor pan of a car will generally carry more current than a 1/0 cable of any sizable length. You always want to minimize resistance by keeping all runs as short as possible. This includes the chassis. You always want to connect all ground cables to the same chassis part. This confuses some people, so let me explain, If you have a truck, always run the ground cables to one of the frame rails, or the floor pan of the cab. Do not run the ground under the hood to the left frame rail and the ground cable in the back to the right frame rail. Sometimes you will want to use the body as the ground. There is nothing wrong with this, but be sure to connect to the same piece of metal in the front as you do in the back, such as the floor pan. There are not very many cars with a full frame anymore, so we can pretty much exclude that here. I firmly believe that the most important points to remember in this case are to connect to the floorpan of the car both under the hood and in the trunk, and to remove all paint and any contaminates such as body filler or grease from the point that the cable is connected to the body (or frame). In fact the removal of the paint from the metal surface will probably have as big of an effect on your voltage drop as anything. This is an absolute must and should be done in every case without question. I can not think of a single car that I have seen that did not have a single large piece of sheet metal for the floor pan. Knowing this you always want to attach your ground in the front and rear of your vehicle to this piece of metal. The reason for this is simple: fewer connections and therefore less resistance. I will make a way over-simple illustration here. Joe grounds his front battery to the strut tower on his Grand Am. In the trunk, he grounds his system to the fender well with a bolt. In both places he removes all paint and filler to be sure he makes good contact. His ground is not as good as it could be because he has current flow through an unknown (and possibly variable) number of connections. Some are spot welds, some may be bolted (who knows?) but the fact is that there are quite a few unnecessary "connections" here. By making sure that you connect your ground points to the same body panel, you will assure yourself of the best possible ground. We ran a series of tests to put some actual numbers to some of the methods used by installers . This data may surprise you. Here is some of the data, and the outline of the procedure. We have a lab grade machine custom built by a company in Atlanta that is capable of measuring voltage, current and voltage drop through a circuit in real time. It will repeat these measurements in the 500 amp range with remarkable precision. The current level is infinitely adjustable and all of the units (voltage, current and voltage drop) are given in real time using real numbers based on a reference taken at the outputs. The cables that we used for our measurements were measured before and after the test to assure that we could "back them out" of our measurements and determine an actual value. We used a 1985 Camaro for the test vehicle. We chose a spot in the front of the car that an installer may choose to ground the alternator and battery under the hood, and also one in the back of the car where someone may ground an amplifier. We then measured the voltage drop @ 300 amps with the cables connected using various methods. The first two tests were done with both ends of the reference cable fastened in the same fashion. Test 1-- Sheet metal screw to non sanded metal- .25 volt drop Test 2-- Sheet metal screw to sanded metal- .13 volt drop All tests below this point were done with the front connection fastened with a 5/16 bolt through sanded metal. Test 3-- 5/16 bolt to non sanded metal- .23volt drop Test 4-- 5/16 bolt to sanded metal- .09 volt drop Test 5-- 6mm existing stud painted and not sanded .24 volt drop Test 6-- 5/16 bolt to sanded metal, on a spot welded bracket-- could only attain 244 amps, voltage drop was approximately 5 volts. Test 7-- 3/8 bolt to non sanded seat belt mounting nut--.15 volt drop These tests were done using the floorpan as the ground path (except #5 and 6). Other tests using panels attached to the floorpan of the car revealed various voltage drops. We measured drops up to 1.25 volts during the testing. I am quite sure that this will be different for every vehicle on the road today, but has shown that the best place to ground your system is to the floorpan, and shown that doing the extra work to sand the paint from the metal pays a rather large dividend. ©1997 Esoteric Audio USA |
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Gold Member Username: RovinTrinidad & T... Post Number: 5089 Registered: Jul-05 | great article ^.......... |
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New member Username: Safe_crackerChicago, IL US Post Number: 4 Registered: Jan-06 | Ihave known this for a long time and that is the what I use to ground my system. I was a 3rd generation grease monkey before I broke my hip (motocross racing). I know steel is not as conductive as copper, brass or lead but the total summ of material adds to its conductivity. You can pass a great deal of current through the available metal in your car! Now if you ground your system through the body panels then you WILL need to upgrade your ground straps and negative battery cable because this is the path the current will be taking( neg to pos). This is for a typical system, not talking about the guys who are running 20 amps and subs because the batteries would be in the back anyways... ;) PS- Great article! |
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Silver Member Username: FandimReno, Nevada United State... Post Number: 635 Registered: Jun-05 | The problem I have with this article, mainly, is that they used a 1985 Camaro to do the testing. These cars had a much higher amount of metal overall in the body, than a newer car. In my 1999 Firebird, you'd be surprised at how much of the cars body was made of plastic, and/or fiberglass. But yes, the frame is still mostly metal, on the other hand. However, newer cars also have many more points that are welded and/or bolted, too. Doing this, you also assume that you're going to place your amp within a very close distance of this grounding point, which limits it again, in the case of show cars who want amplifiers on display, etc. I really would like to see this testing done in a newer vehicle, as well as wish they were more specific in "A spot in the back where they may choose to ground an amplifier". I'm not claiming their report is inaccurate, but I think I'm going to stick with my dedicated ground.. This also helps cut out noise, by grounding several things to different spots, as I have one common grounding point, through my distribution block. |
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New member Username: Safe_crackerChicago, IL US Post Number: 9 Registered: Jan-06 | I think that is why they said "Floorpan" which is usually a one piece stamped item. A 1985 camaro was unibody if I am not mistaken like the new cars. You do have a valid point but may be limited to higher budget installs. Polo..  |
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Silver Member Username: FandimReno, Nevada United State... Post Number: 636 Registered: Jun-05 | I mean to each their own... If someones setup works fine for them, then obviously there's no problem with grounding it to the chassis.. In my current setup, I'm running a total of 5 amplifiers, though.. (Just got a pair of PG Xenon 600.1's, running a PG Xenon 1200.1, as well as a pair of 4 channel amps to power my front componets and rear fill). So definately going to stick with running a seperate dedicated ground back. Seth |
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Bronze Member Username: Safe_crackerChicago, IL US Post Number: 11 Registered: Jan-06 | LOL way too complicated for me. I had a PG 1200.1, great amp got water in my amp rack and fried it so it is on my repair bench waiting for parts. I am running a Pair of Kicker SX1250.1 with a sealed box containing 2 IDMAX 12" V3 2ohm DVC, chamber volume set at 1.65 cu ft. I have yet to come up with the funds for any frontage so I use the stock bose head unit and speakers. I don't have the subs anywhere near there peak output or I would drown any vocals I do have, lol. I have too many hobbies so I am consolidating into just one, my love for car audio... Polo.. |
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Silver Member Username: FandimReno, Nevada United State... Post Number: 640 Registered: Jun-05 | yeah..expensive damn hobby. LOL. Honestly, I spent more money int he beginning settling for things I planned to upgrade, than I have on everything I'm currently using, sadly..would just upgrade in little steps..wish now I had just waited, and purchased what I wanted.. (had hifonics amps, power acoustik amps, kenwood amps, sony xplode amps, jensen subs..the list goes on and on.. ugh...) |
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Bronze Member Username: Safe_crackerChicago, IL US Post Number: 14 Registered: Jan-06 | The stuff I got is what I definately wanted! These amps are HOT and they run sooo cool, lol. I have the remote for it also but I need to get everything situated so It can be permanently mounted and build a new amp rack. My old box was 3 PIIs in a 5 cu ft box which took up about 1/2 of my 5 body trunk. This new box is only 3.3 cu ft total, and fits great between the strut towers. Still looking for ideas on mounting the two amps both each are 22" long. Polo.. |
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Silver Member Username: FandimReno, Nevada United State... Post Number: 661 Registered: Jun-05 | heh. Good luck on the amps.. the phoenix gold 1200.1 I have is like 23.5" long, it's a pain in my butt. |
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Bronze Member Username: EdownPost Number: 12 Registered: Apr-05 | Okay, not to butt in, but it looks like that article states that you need to ground the wire on the body frame, which is under the floor carpeting in my 1985 Chevy Blazer SUV....currently I have it mounted to the trunk fold down latch in the back, and personally I think the wire is too long (maybe 9-10 inches or more), and it's not sanded down either (still has the paint). I'm thinking that may be my problem I have when I'm not accelerating. My bass gets super loud and it's not the bass from the current song I'm playing, more like bass feedback, and it stops when I accelerate. Could this be the problem? |
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Bronze Member Username: Safe_crackerChicago, IL US Post Number: 24 Registered: Jan-06 | Ya, no kidding, I have a Xenon on my work bench right now, that thing is huge! The Kicker is awesome, the caps remove and it is a lot shorter! Actually I am surprised it puts out sooo much for such a small package, nice and heavy too. Ever see what your PG looks like inside? It is well built, here is a picure. Polo.. |
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Silver Member Username: FandimReno, Nevada United State... Post Number: 688 Registered: Jun-05 | Polo, are the PG amps internally fused or no? Also, how did the testing of your 1200.1 go? how much did it vary from 1-4 ohms etc? |
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Bronze Member Username: Safe_crackerChicago, IL US Post Number: 76 Registered: Jan-06 | PG amps are not internally fused, I recommend a 150 amps inline. I tried a 90 and a 100 amp and they blew with some old Bass 305 tunes, lol. It delivers the same amount of power from one ohm all the way to 4 ohms! At 1ohm ths thing barely gets warm, and mine puts out 1390 watts. I love this amp but I wish it had the digitals DSP like my new Kicker sx1250.1's's. The PG amp uses quality Fairchild Fets, nice setup for a mass produced amp IMHO...Polo. |
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Silver Member Username: FandimReno, Nevada United State... Post Number: 694 Registered: Jun-05 | Polo - I know it's supposed to deliver the same amount of power, but there is normally at least a little bit of fluctuation..? Also, have you benched these at lower voltage, like 12v and seen how much they put out? That's something else I'm very curious about. Seth |
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Silver Member Username: Safe_crackerChicago, IL US Post Number: 131 Registered: Jan-06 | Actaually there isn't a power fluctuation at all under different loads it sees 1ohm no matter what!I have heard someone running it down below 1 ohm but do not know how accurate it is. The load is controlled by a circuit called Xe Load which is quite nice very flexible and I think running your subs at 4 ohms may sound cleaner? I have not gotten to bench it but I have dragged my battery down to dirt and have not heard a noticeable difference. I was also told by a reliable source that they can play all the way down close to 11v. Polo.. |
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