watts for the buck

No I wasnt going to be charged for getting fixed. But i was going to have to pay for shipping 25$... and it was going to be my second time sending it out. first time took 2 months to recieve my amp back.they say it was because of "Easter" i dont know but i dont want to experiance that ever again. But I sold it to a friend who is going to fix it for himself. He has a old one that is broken and not uder warranty. So he is going to replace the part in mine. and thats why I sold it to him for 275$ because he already knew what and how to fix it. and i dont want my friends experimenting on MY amp so I sold it to him so he could Experiment on HIS amp. but if he wants to use the warranty he can too.

and of course hopefully if I can have a main car and a experimental car oneday. My driving vehicle will be always all Rockford. Like I said im all for Rockford, but in times like this when those shipping costs really add up very quickly and money isn't too expandable I just let it go.

I'd rather pay shipping and get the free repairs as well. That amp would be a great amp to hold on to. That is my opinion, lets talk about what you have now instead.

The BXI-2408D is a lot better choice then some of the other amps you had listed. Like people mentioned they may have said 2500 watts but when they are likely fused at 80 amps or less you will be losing far more power then you stand to gain.

The Fosgate T10001BD  along with all the power series amps are extremely under ratted. The RF is fused at 150 amps and will easily do 1800watts+.

Your new amp is fused at 240-250 amps and will surely do a lot of power.

Anyone with install experience will tell you the first problem you have is why your burning up the amp you have/had.(fosgate)

I assure you the chances of the amp being at fault are slim. Some pics of your current install will help to give a better idea of what is going on. Then we can try and fix that so your next amp will not have the same problems, Plus with such a power draw you run the chance of damaging your vehicle very easily if not for some major upgrades.

I would hope that you are running 0gauge wire at this point for the fosgate amp, and for the new amp your replacing it with as well. If the RF was your only amp you could stand to get away with just upgrading all your factory wires under the hood(big three) and running the amp off a larger capacitor and being ok.(not great)

I have done it before myself without any problems on a 10 farad cap, but I am going with a sound quality setup and don't rock on the subs that hard.

Before you install you next amp which will require serious upgrades to your vehicle to run properly maybe consider posting some pics and asking about what you need to do to get the new amp in and insure that it will be able to work correctly without damaging it and even more not causing damage to your vehicle.

Some people will be Jack ***e$ on here but most will not and want to help you out.

Show us where you are at, and go from there.

The RF should Be able to do 1800max or rms? Im just going by the 1200Wrms Birth certificate they gave me @1ohm. i didnt think they would lie to me?

Thank you... I know the name of the thread is watts for the buck but obviously theres some Helpful knowledge I need after explaining my problem of burning these amps.

This is what it used to look like...

yes I've added the Big three in the 2 month spand my Rockford Fosgate was out and Upgraded all of my wires to 0-gauge. I have a small capacitor so I had an Idea of the voltage drop from 14.2v to 10v (never 9v)...

Note* At this time in my life i didnt know the importance of voltage drop. I just happen to be looking for a thread about batteries and that was this year.

So now I figured "this has to be one of the biggest problems my amp keeps having and frying on me." So i upgraded the wires and got the amplifier back from rockford about a month later. When I hooked it up from about 40hz + the bass sounded great, it was strong, the voltage was only going down to 12- or high 11v on long continous notes. But anything 39hz and less (a drop beat) the voltage would drop to 7volts! and Even with my last T10001bd's WITHOUT THE BIG 3 It never dropped that low no matter if the engine was on or off.

So i knew it had to be a problem either with my grounds (but i didnt see how since the other notes had absolutely no problem at even full tilt & and my other amps didnt either) or the amp just not getting fixed completely.

I measured the resistance throughout the grounds, and that all cameout below 1 ohm of resistance. Then I got a old amp from out of the shed and tested it (on subs), and no major voltage drops at any note.

I put the T10001bd Back in and turned it on to play it and it was going good until it dropped once and *Pop* some smoke came out and I cringed.

Now for the next amp I am going to put wood where the amps are mounted because I have had a problem with amps going into Protect mode because they were mounted on the metal. So im going to eliminate that problem from the start. (T10001bd was not touching metal I bought the plastic things from walmart that you put in the hole first and then put screws in the plastic casing to mount it. Anyone know why amps would go into protect when mounted on metal?

Now im looking to change my ground to this Area. Nice and short to my Ground Dist. (Which will be about 6 inches away from the rail)

^^On the Metal Rails that are mounted to the floor (Metal to Metal & no paint in between) of the Cab.^^

Or

on the floor of the Cab where I have seen many grounds in These ford trucks Before

Install looks pretty good. A lot better then I was expecting.

This post will be in reference to your power question, the next in reference to you install trouble shooting. I would say 1800 watts max and the reason why is as follows.

I use two methods for estimating amps power. One is ohms law. The other is the times ten rule.( you have never heard of times 10 because I just named it, but it works really well lol, seriously)

Ohms law is voltage x amperage = power(watts.)  So the Fosgate is fused at 150 and will draw every bit of that... So 13.8 x 150 = 2070watts, now that assumes the amp is 100% efficient. The amp isn't, so lets go with 70% efficient which is very possible with a Class D amp.

So 2070 x 0.7= 1449watts same numbers at at 14.4 = 1512 watts. Very real achievable numbers. Now also these amps have built in power supplies and caps to help generate their power and do more wattage then that.

So I came up with and use the "Times 10" rule. Also handy when you don't have a calculator. lol Works for Class D, and class ab or anything else all the same. Heres the magic, take what the amps is fused at and multiply it times 10. Poof magic number for power. For larger class D amps you can usually add a another 200 watts or so.

Examples:

Fosgate 10001BD  150x10= 1500, easily add another 200ish for 1700 or so max

Crossfire BMF1000D, easily these amps bench at 1450watts, fused at 120, times 10= 1200 plus another 200 ish for 1400watts.

MTX 8100D rated at 1500watts, fused at 150, times 10= 1500watts. Easily add another 200 to that.

JBL 14001 rated at 1500watts fused at 160, times 10= 1600 plus some for 1800.

Memphis 1000D rated at 1100watts, fused at 80, times 10= 800 plus another 200 gets you real close to 1100.

Fosgate T5001BD CEA rated at 400 watts and fused at 100amps. Hmm I wonder what that amp will do..... a freaking lot more then 400watts. I had one, its 1000+ all day. Very underrated and stupid not to use these for SPL. 200watts at 4ohms rating and easily does over 1kw.

JL audio 1000/1 rated at 1000watts fused at 100amps, times 10= 1000 pretty easily all day.

For class ab its usually spot on with the amps actual rating. I dont usually add anything to it.

Crossfire tek 150.2, rated at 600watts fused at 60amps, times 10= 600watts and it will easily do it and then some.

It's something I started using back in 98 when I first got into car audio in high school and you had no real way of comparing amps at all. It may seem really stupid but it works really well. Now the CEA 2006 compliant has helped some to start comparing these amps a little easier.

Sorry for the long post, but it is my theory.

For you install stuff. You have a really tough environment being in a truck and having such limited space. (Plus amps that are huge.) Mounting to metal isn't usually a huge issue but I would avoid when possible because of it's ability to transfer heat so well. That along with your back seat being up against the amps leads to no air at all. Even with mounting spacers it will still have very little air circulation with the seat being up against it. Plus there is always a chance of some kind of short and metal being a great conductor of electricity.

The other problems to consider is the amps themselves. It appears you have around a one farad cap installed. With the 150amps alone from your 1000D it isn't nearly enough. Plus I know for a fact that big Fosgate amp next to it will easily pull another 60amps or more.

150 from your 1000d plus another 60 or so is a conservative 210amps right now. Assuming you have a factory alternator installed I would say that is bad news waiting to happen.

When I first got my crossfire 1000D it would shut off if I played on it much because at the time It was running straight to the battery and would have a drop in voltage pretty quick.

I added a total of 2.5 farads worth of caps and upgraded the big  three and never had any problems. My current setup has a ten farad cap for about 160 amps worth of total current draw along with the big three upgrade. This isn't ideal but it works. Mainly because of the system only being used as a sq setup and the subs not really being over whelming in the least. More focus is on the front stage.

The factory alt is made to power your vehicle and not a lot of anything else. So you would have an 80-90 amp alt trying to power your vehicle along with another 210amps from your system. I know you have already tested it but I would guess it is a combination of the amp not getting enough power and maybe the heat from where it is mounted to cause it to blow out.

If you can get some pics of where everything is grounded in the vehicle just to double check that as well. Then try going from there about your charging system. Also mentionif you have any other upgradesto the alt or battery ect.

Also I would try holding off on installing your other amp just yet. Considering it draws 240 amps by itself.