With any luck, I will win a bid on ebay for a significant upgrade for my amp. I ran 8 ga. wires for the ground and power wires, and while looking at the specs of this amp, the seller says it runs on 4 ga. wire. It will only be powering one 10" sub, so Do I have to upgrade the wiring if I'm not going to be running the amp at that high of volume? What are some dangers, besides blowing the 40 amp inline fuse?

 

what make and model amp?

 

^^^What he said - need some more info

Blowing a fuse isn't something you should be worrying about. Take your time with your install and make sure everything is wired up correctly and your fuses will be the last thing on your mind. They are there for safety like air bags.

Usually wire size is dependent upon how much current you're regularly drawing rather than what manufacture says. Go to 12volt.com or bcae1.com and find out what wire size you will "need".

 

It will be a Kenwood KAC-929, 4 channel 1000w amp. Ill check those sites out, thanks.

 

You will need 4 guage for that much power(1000w).

 

That amp if ran bridged will put out about 450 rms. You can use that 8 gauge and be ALRIGHT. Realistically it may require you to run larger power but since you will more than likely be feeding closer to 200 watts to it the power wire SHOULD be fine.

 

yeah, or you can go ahead and run the 4 gauge just in case you want to get a larger amp or run multiple amps.

 

I don't know if I said this already, but it will be ONLY powering 1 10" Rockford Fosgate Punch sub, so I won't be running nearly 1000 watts...I just wanted to make sure. Thanks guys.

 

Since we are talking about wiring here, I've got a question. What about running two amps for a total of about 1200rms on one four gauge. I split the four gauge at a distro block and run some short runs of 8 gauge to the amps. According to BCAE, 8 gauge wire handles a good amount of amps if the run is less than 2 feet or so. Another thing is that both of these amps in this setup right now share a 60amp fuse at the battery and haven't blown it yet. Both amps are rated for 60 amps EACH but they still haven't blown that one fuse.

 

You're wiring should be fine kcmax.

 

Just to be safe, get some 4 gauge wire. And use that. I have seen cases where the wires actually melted because they were to small to be handling the power. Better safe then sorry.