hello im new to this board so bare with me here.
I recently installed a two battery system in a 30' boat and also installed a alpine head unit with two amps one running the sub and one running the speakers. my problem is where to ground the amplifiers to. The amps are probably a good ten feet away from the battery and the engine block. Do you think it would be ok to run a ground this far?
My other option would be to ground it to the fuse panel under the steering column but i do not think it is big enough to withstand two amplifier grounds.
any help would be extremely appreciated.
Depending on the draw of the amps, you may be able to run a single 0/1 awg from the batteries to the amps, then use a distribution block to wire both amps to the single line.
Which amps are they; What is their RMS power output?
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04 dodge neon SXT
(2) Oz Audio Matrix Elite 12"s sealed in 4 cube fiberglass enclosure, powered by HiFonics BX1605D
Oz Audio Matrix 180cs 6.5" component set power by HiFonics ZX4000
one is a planet audio 400 w rms
the other is a alpine 70 w rms
You can run a single run of 12awg speaker wire(two 12awg wires together). That will give you plenty of capacity. A ground should ever have to carry the full rated load, but th etwo 12awg wires would be able to handle it just in case.
Also: Do you have any kind of metal trim on the boat? If so you could ground through that.
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I;d go ahead and run a good 4 gauge just in case. It never hurts to have a bigger ground wire than power wire.
Paul
Just run two 4 awg of differant colors and get 2 distributor blocks (both should have 1 4 awg in and 2 8 awg out). Then, just use 8 awg to each amp, and keep THOSE wires as short as possible.
That will work, 1000% for sure. ;)
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04 dodge neon SXT
(2) Oz Audio Matrix Elite 12"s sealed in 4 cube fiberglass enclosure, powered by HiFonics BX1605D
Oz Audio Matrix 180cs 6.5" component set power by HiFonics ZX4000