What fuse rating for the power wire is good enough?
 

Hey all,

Well I recently added a new fuse to my power wire that is like 40 amps or something but when I really crank it, it blows. I am wondering how high I can go before it's a risk. The guy at Nosh Car audio said 40 was enough for my amp but it blew like 30 seconds later driving away from there.


Any help would be great

Thaks

rule of thumb is if it blows go down by half.. i'd try using a 20 next time

what size power wire do you have?? and how big are the fuses on the amp???

it doesn't matter how many amps he has, the fuse on the power wire is to protect the POWER WIRE... nothing else. fuse according to the maximum safe load you can put on the power wire.

it all depends on how big your power wire is, but if you're blowing a 40 amp fuse just by cranking it, and not blowing the amp fuses, then I think you have another untreated electrical problem, that is unless you have a 14 AWG power wire

regards, Mark

hey all,

I was running a 40 on the power wire. I tried a 30 and it also blew just quicker then the 40. I have 3 30's on my amp.

I have to go down to half so like 20? umm isn't a bigger number better?


I am running 8 gauge to my distro block then 8 guage to each amp. Yes I should probably be using 4 gauge but it works fine with 8. I have even laid down 4 gauge running it outside just to test and it still blew a 40 once I really cranked it up. I mean the system hasn't changed since I installed it early last year so I dunno why now it's blowing fuses, the ground point and everything is still the same.


Would a rating of 60 be too high to put on the power wire?

Thanks

Your 8 AWG power wire is capable of running about 100 amps through it safely. so if your 40 amp fuse is blowing then you have a bigger problem, by putting in a larger fuse just so you won't blow it, dosen't fix the problem, check out the rest of your electrical system..

Edit: how many watts are your amp(s) rated for?

Mark

8 ga wire is not large enough for the 100 amps of current you need to supply, unless it's less than 8 ft long.

A 20 foot run of 8 ga will lose 1.3 volts when passing 100 amps.
http://www.stealth316.com/2-wire-resistance.htm

If the amp has 3 x 30 amp fuses, then you need 4 guage wire, and an ANL fuse rated for at least 100 amps (150 would be better).

As it is now, you are seriously under powering that amp, and you'll be shortening it's life, nevermind that it's not performing as it could.

Well I went to best buy and got 50 amp fuses. Normal fuses that go into a platic fuse holder. It seems to be ok for now but I haven't cranked it for 5 minutes yet.

Ok now onto the next part

Ok so I have it all set up wrong? If I do, what do I have to do to fix it? I just saw those anl fuses at best buy but I thought that was for something differant like mutiple batteries.

My 8 gauge wire is about 8 feet long if I had to guess. I have my amp under my seat with fans to cool it.

My gains on the amp out of 100 are around 20 . I barley have it turned up and my bass boost is maybe at 10 out of 100 (100 being all the way up)

So again, if I have this set up wrong, please tell me what I should do.

- Run the 4 gauge wire into the distro block and then 8 gauge or just straight 4 gauge to amp?

- Get a proper ANL fuse of a 150 rating?

What else?


Thanks

So do I need something like this for a fuse?

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...0002766&catid=

From my reading, I am using a AGU fuse holder and fuse.

Man :(

You could use like a 50amp or 60amp fuse, is it the proper thing to do? not really, will it help? you bet...the chance of something going wrong are slim but if you dont have the flow for a big ANL fuse holder, for now it will work.

When I hack i my first stereo into my first car I use like 10ga power wire with a 50amp fuse and it worked and held out until I knew better.