2nd amp with shaved handles

I currently have a 800:1 sub amp installed, and I'm looking to add another amp for my door speakers. My problem is my current wiring. I currently have a 4ga running to the 800:1 and 2 separate 8ga wires running to each of the front door solenoids for the shaved handles. What I would like to do is run one large cable from the battery, into a distribution block then split from there into 4 separate cables (sub amp, 4 channel amp, right & left solenoid. That being said I have no idea how large of cables I should be running, and what size of fuses to use. The solenoids are currently ran on 8ga wires and I would like to keep it that way to cut down on cost & work. Also if you any of you could point me in the direction of the parts I would need to buy online that would be great. If any of you have a problem getting at what I'd like to do here is a quick drawing below.

You just need a 4 way dist block like you stated above.  You can keep the single 4 guage wire and split it off as long as your total current draw does not exceed 150 amps.  I dont like Rockford Fosgate but i know they make a dist block that accepts 1-4 guage in and 4 outputs.  They are customizable to either 4 guage outs or 8 guage outs. 

all that is fine but i would go 2ga on the main power wire from the battery. 4 gauge just doesn't seen right in this case

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Take the door solenoids out of the equation. They are used less than 1% of the time. Not sure why the 8 AWG for them. IMO I would link the solenoids together on one 8 AWG (since you have it) and fuse it @ 60A at the battery.

Next add up the amplifiers (800W = 400W) call it 1200W = 172 Amps.
Not guessing, 2 AWG would be the correct choice. A 225 Amp fuse.
Distro the 2 AWG back near the amps. 100A for the Mono amp (4 AWG).
60A for the 4 channel (8 AWG).

audiocableguy wrote:

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Take the door solenoids out of the equation. They are used less than 1% of the time. Not sure why the 8 AWG for them. IMO I would link the solenoids together on one 8 AWG (since you have it) and fuse it @ 60A at the battery.

Next add up the amplifiers (800W = 400W) call it 1200W = 172 Amps.
Not guessing, 2 AWG would be the correct choice. A 225 Amp fuse.
Distro the 2 AWG back near the amps. 100A for the Mono amp (4 AWG).
60A for the 4 channel (8 AWG).

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The solenoids are used 100% of the time. It's the only way to get into my car since my handles are shaved. I put them on 8awg since that's all I had. Also they are wired separate because fuses tend to blow if the button is held slightly to long, so if they are on the same 8awg, and it blows the fuse, neither door will open.

i had the same problem on my civic and i put in a cable that would pop the hood so i could get to the fuses when this happened not real secure but i had a hood pin so the alarm would go off.  I personally wouldnt have the amps and the poppers on the same fuse.  you could always put the fuse in a place easily reached without popping the hood.  circuit breakers might be a good idea although i have never used them.

Electrically the solenoids are very intermittent. Yes, you need them 100% of the time, as far as drawing power from the battery, they are not continuous.

You can use self resetting circuit breakers and keep them independent if you wish. The units I have worked with were fused at 25A each and never had an issue. Can't remember what sized units they were. I did install a connector where if the battery died, the owner could use a pair of jumper cables from another vehicle to open the doors.

What size fuses do you have on the Solenoids now?

audiocableguy wrote:

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Electrically the solenoids are very intermittent. Yes, you need them 100% of the time, as far as drawing power from the battery, they are not continuous.

You can use self resetting circuit breakers and keep them independent if you wish. The units I have worked with were fused at 25A each and never had an issue. Can't remember what sized units they were. I did install a connector where if the battery died, the owner could use a pair of jumper cables from another vehicle to open the doors.

What size fuses do you have on the Solenoids now?

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Currently they are 25's I believe. I have ATC fuses on each line hidden under my driver side dash for easy access.

I'm sort of lost when it comes to wiring entire systems like this, so if any of you could put together a parts list that I would need to successfully do what I have planed, that would be great.

I'm assuming the door poppers are wried up to your alarm outputs (you trigger the doors with your alarm remote). I've hooked up door pop solenoids on several cars. The 8 guage seems better for the 35lb solenoids.Ive done it with 10 guage, and it wouldn't pop the doors unless the engine was running (having a bit more current from the alternator). I upgraded to 8guage wire, and theu worked fine after that. Id wire them from the battery just like an amp, and fuse them at the battery, seperately. But you need a back up plan in case of failure. Every car I did door poppers on, the owner wanted ALL the bells and whistles, so they each had door poppers, remote strt, and remote window roll up/down. When the door popper fuse would blow, he could just roll down his windows with the remote and reach in and open the door from the inside and then procedd to change the fuse. Athird failsafe I installed on one car was a cable (like a hood release cable) ran into the door and hooked up to the door open rod. The handle of the cable release was hidden in the lower engine compartment near the firewall. It could not be seen from underneath the car, but if you already knew it was there, you knew where to reach and grab it to manually pop the door open. This was for an emergency such as the battery going completely dead. You might want to consider one or both of these additions to your vehicle.