# Is a 8 gauge wire enough to power a 300 watt amp?



## cacho (Feb 27, 2002)

Thanx for the help.


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## Blue Flame (May 27, 2001)

*Re: Is a 8 gauge wire enough to power a 300 watt amp? (cacho)*

you mean as your power line? um..........i wouldn't try it


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## Non_Affiliated (Feb 12, 2002)

*Re: Is a 8 gauge wire enough to power a 300 watt amp? (cacho)*

Yes and no. It should be fine with runs under 18 or 16 Feet. Over that I would suggest using 6 or 4 Gauge. Heck I ran the old school Punch 150 off of 8 Ga. It was not a problem for those old power hogs.


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## Roadkill (May 16, 2001)

*Re: Is a 8 gauge wire enough to power a 300 watt amp? (cacho)*

heck, i'm running two 600w amps and a 400 of of 8 guage wire, been like that for three years never had any problems


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## Cause4panic (Jun 18, 2003)

i ran two 8 guage wires to my trunk 
1 running a 800 watt 4 channel sony
1 running a 1000 watt mono sony.
no problems so far, and i cracked my windsheild with the mtx subs lol


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## Tuba_Transport (Jul 4, 2000)

*Re: Is a 8 gauge wire enough to power a 300 watt amp? (cacho)*

yup. You'll be fine.


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## Non_Affiliated (Feb 12, 2002)

*Re: Is a 8 gauge wire enough to power a 300 watt amp? (Tuba_Transport)*

Ok I have to call it when I see it, but 2 600 Watt amps and a 400 watt amp on a single 8 Gauge wire?
Then a 800 Watt amp on one 8 Ga, wire, then a 1000 Watt amp on one 8 Ga. wire. I'm sorry but most of these amps must be stamped with the power rating on the case of the amp and have the word "Peak or Max" on the amp.


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## Cause4panic (Jun 18, 2003)

its no **** bro, yo can usually tell if the maker of the amp is bsing about the power rating by looking at the fuse and its power rating. the 1000 watt sony amp has 3 25amp fusses. and the 800 watt amp has 2 25amp fuses. check what your amp has then go and call me a lier.


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## Str8desi84 (Aug 7, 2000)

*Re: (Cause4panic)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Cause4panic* »_its no **** bro, yo can usually tell if the maker of the amp is bsing about the power rating by looking at the fuse and its power rating. the 1000 watt sony amp has 3 25amp fusses. and the 800 watt amp has 2 25amp fuses. check what your amp has then go and call me a lier.

post links to your amps and we'll def call you a liar
i take it you bought these xplod amps?








yea, that's def not pushing 800 watts








_here are the specs_ : 75 watts RMS x 4 at 4 ohms 
100 watts x 4 at 2 ohms 
200 watts x 2 in bridged mode 


_Modified by Str8desi84 at 11:37 PM 9-17-2003_


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## BK Industries (Oct 21, 2000)

*Re: (Str8desi84)*

This is for anyone that needs 6GAUGE power wire and we all know that 6GA is very hard to find in car stereo shops. . .I have Ancor marine grade wire, which I run 700w RMS (clean watts) on without any problems. Only 75cents/foot.
IM me here if interested


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## Rocco_crossing (Dec 19, 2002)

*Re: (BoneKrusher)*

Not to cross post but is that to small for a battery reloc. to the rear of a rocco ~20 ft.?


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## Str8desi84 (Aug 7, 2000)

*Re: (BoneKrusher)*

i still have all that wire laying on the floor..damnit, i gotta finish my audio








i'll chime in and letcha know if my car starts on fire or anything


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## Non_Affiliated (Feb 12, 2002)

*Re: (Cause4panic)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Cause4panic* »_its no **** bro, yo can usually tell if the maker of the amp is bsing about the power rating by looking at the fuse and its power rating. the 1000 watt sony amp has 3 25amp fusses. and the 800 watt amp has 2 25amp fuses. check what your amp has then go and call me a lier.

Wow I must have some monsters then cause my 600W amp has a 60A fuse and my 200 Watt amp has a 40A fuse. That must mean that my 600W amps is really almost 1000W and my 200w amp must be more like 600W.








FYI, fuses are not the way to rate amplifier power, fuses are to protect from shorts in the amp, not be the limiting factor to how much power they put out.


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## [email protected] (Sep 24, 2000)

*Re: (Non_Affiliated)*

Wel... 8g seems fine to me for 1 or 2 amps... 
I am running 6 amps off of 4g wire..


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## Bogner_16V (Dec 29, 2002)

*Re: ([email protected])*

how about a single 250 watt Pheonix gold amp?, would it be safe to use 8Ga wire?


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## [email protected] (Sep 24, 2000)

*Re: (Bogner_16V)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Bogner_16V* »_how about a single 250 watt Pheonix gold amp?, would it be safe to use 8Ga wire?

Totally...


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## Tuba_Transport (Jul 4, 2000)

*Re: (Bogner_16V)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Bogner_16V* »_how about a single 250 watt Pheonix gold amp?, would it be safe to use 8Ga wire?

That is the exact setup in my wife's car.


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## Ratamahatt (Oct 18, 2002)

*Re: (Rocco_crossing)*

4 gauge definitely


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## Geordie (Jun 22, 2001)

*Re: (Rocco_crossing)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Rocco_crossing* »_Not to cross post but is that to small for a battery reloc. to the rear of a rocco ~20 ft.?

Yes. That is far too small. You pull a couple of hundred amps at startup and that wouldn't be a good wire to do that with. You'd get significant voltage drop and heating of the wire too.


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## dennisgli (May 17, 2003)

*Re: (Geordie)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Geordie* »_You'd get significant voltage drop and heating of the wire too.

[Boy, we've sure hijacked this one!] What voltage drop for a starter is acceptable?


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## Geordie (Jun 22, 2001)

*Re: (dennisgli)*

Good question, and not one I have an answer to. But since the power is v2/R and I have seen the battery voltage drop to 8v during a start then a 1v drop would reduce the power to 49/64 of what it was. But as a rotating machine the resistance of the starter motor varies with load, more load gives less resistance. Which is why when the head gasket on my old ford blew and filled the engine with water it reset the clock when I tried to start it.
.0003951 ohms/foot. 20 feet = .0079 ohms. at 200 amps that would be 1.8v (v=RI) and 360W (P=I2R= VI). At 100A it would still be 0.79 volts and 79W. That's 4W/foot. That would get warm. So, you have a 65A alternator? So you'd be pumping that through the car for a while to recharge the battery on a cold morning after a slow start with thick oil. In any case, 6AWG is rated for 75A. 00AWG is rated 265A, so that would be the minimum I would even consider. As an engineer I'd probably go for 0000AWG which is rated for 360 amps, that wouldn't get hot during starting or charging and wouldn't provide much voltage drop.


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