Can I use 12 gauge wire instead of 4 gauge?

[tripslipfall 0]

Ok, I'm making myself look stupid asking this, because I pretty much know the answer, (no).

But, what if I do multiple runs of 12 gauge wire from the battery to the amplifier?

The 12 gauge wire I have is from Sears, I have 500 feet of it, it says it handles 600V if that matters at all.

Anyways, my real question is, how many runs of 12 gauge wire should I use to power the amplifier?

It's gonna be running at 4 ohms, possibly 1 ohm later, it's rated to do 750 RMS at 4 ohms, 1500 RMS at 2 ohms, and it's 'unstable' at 1 ohm, but these are the same amplifiers Steve Meade used before he got his new ones, and he ran them at 1 ohm just fine after removing a certain diode, which I might do later.

[- Nickelz N Dimez - 0]

Better off running 4 gauge dude..

[tripslipfall 0]

Better off running 4 gauge dude..

If I could get my hands on some 4 gauge in my price range (free), I would.

[JazzScreamer 1]

If your willing to do the work several runs of your 12ga will do. I personally would just buy bigger gauge wire. Remember, electricity is dumb. It doesn't know if your running 4 sets of 12 ga or a single 8ga wire as long as the number of strands are relatively the same. Electricity flows on the outer part of your copper wire. The more strands or surface area, the more voltage it can handle. I would still just run a single strand. You will probably run into bulk issues. A single 8ga wire will be much smaller in diameter than a few runs of 12ga because of the jacket on the wire.

I'm not sure on the exact math for getting to your desired gauge of wire. KnuKonceptz has some pretty cheap stuff. Good luck.

[Bobaflob 0]

2.5283356495202832389327307534764 runs of 12 would equal the same core diameter as 1 run of 4guage

[tripslipfall 0]

If your willing to do the work several runs of your 12ga will do. I personally would just buy bigger gauge wire. Remember, electricity is dumb. It doesn't know if your running 4 sets of 12 ga or a single 8ga wire as long as the number of strands are relatively the same. Electricity flows on the outer part of your copper wire. The more strands or surface area, the more voltage it can handle. I would still just run a single strand. You will probably run into bulk issues. A single 8ga wire will be much smaller in diameter than a few runs of 12ga because of the jacket on the wire.

I'm not sure on the exact math for getting to your desired gauge of wire. KnuKonceptz has some pretty cheap stuff. Good luck.

That's what I thought, so it looks like I'm just gonna add some more 12 gauge, I would love to get KnuKonceptz wire, but I'm not doing a permanent install, this is just in my mom's suburban, when I get my car, then I'll worry about doing everything perfectly, but until then a few runs of 12 gauge will have to do.

[tripslipfall 0]

2.5283356495202832389327307534764 runs of 12 would equal the same core diameter as 1 run of 4guage

Is that true or were you just making a number?

If 2.5 (whatever) runs of 12 gauge equals 1 run of 4 gauge, then I might just do 3 runs of 12 gauge.

[- Nickelz N Dimez - 0]

If its temp then it shud hold up..

Hehe, if I put bass in my moms whip.. Gahh that would be funny..

Edited March 18, 2009 by Leister

[manbeer 0]

i would do 6 runs to be on the safe side

[tripslipfall 0]

If its temp then it shud hold up..

Hehe, if I put bass in my moms whip.. Gahh that would be funny..

Well it's not like I have anything seriously loud in there, I have 2 older 12" Orion XTR's, dual 4 ohms, 800 RMS each sub, and their in some crappy (really crappy) prefab sealed box, soon I'll be building a better box for them, probably around 2.5 cubic feet, tuned around 33hz, then they should open up a bit.

Oh, and anyone know how big of a capacitor I should run with this thing?

Needs to be cheap.

[Bobaflob 0]

2.5283356495202832389327307534764 runs of 12 would equal the same core diameter as 1 run of 4guage

Is that true or were you just making a number?

If 2.5 (whatever) runs of 12 gauge equals 1 run of 4 gauge, then I might just do 3 runs of 12 gauge.

According to the american wire gauge chart the conductor diameter of 4guage is 0.2043" and 12gauge is 0.0808". 0.2043/0.0808 = 2.5284653465346534653465346534653

[Bobaflob 0]

If its temp then it shud hold up..

Hehe, if I put bass in my moms whip.. Gahh that would be funny..

Well it's not like I have anything seriously loud in there, I have 2 older 12" Orion XTR's, dual 4 ohms, 800 RMS each sub, and their in some crappy (really crappy) prefab sealed box, soon I'll be building a better box for them, probably around 2.5 cubic feet, tuned around 33hz, then they should open up a bit.

Oh, and anyone know how big of a capacitor I should run with this thing?

Needs to be cheap.

Buy 4guage, and screw the cap?

[tripslipfall 0]

If its temp then it shud hold up..

Hehe, if I put bass in my moms whip.. Gahh that would be funny..

Well it's not like I have anything seriously loud in there, I have 2 older 12" Orion XTR's, dual 4 ohms, 800 RMS each sub, and their in some crappy (really crappy) prefab sealed box, soon I'll be building a better box for them, probably around 2.5 cubic feet, tuned around 33hz, then they should open up a bit.

Oh, and anyone know how big of a capacitor I should run with this thing?

Needs to be cheap.

Buy 4guage, and screw the cap?

Ha, well, I'll admit, this isn't gonna be running on a stock alternator, but, the alternator in there now is worse than stock.

I think it's 75 amps, and the amplifier uses a 150 amp inline fuse, so I'm just looking for a cheap capacitor to help with the voltage drops, because I know one of the main problems is the crappy alternator.

[blue fury 3]

2.5283356495202832389327307534764 runs of 12 would equal the same core diameter as 1 run of 4guage

Is that true or were you just making a number?

If 2.5 (whatever) runs of 12 gauge equals 1 run of 4 gauge, then I might just do 3 runs of 12 gauge.

According to the american wire gauge chart the conductor diameter of 4guage is 0.2043" and 12gauge is 0.0808". 0.2043/0.0808 = 2.5284653465346534653465346534653

mmmm Im not sure it works like that.

BCAE website wire section:

If you need to know how many

12gauge wires are equal to

1 4gauge wire(s),

press this .

The answer is: 6.35

[Bobaflob 0]

4guage would help better than a cap for voltage drops.

[bassahaulic 155]

Wow as I keep reading I keep seeing more and more

Save the money and get 4awg!

You will have a good ol' time making it all fit into the amp and in-line fuse holder. It will be one big mess, and fire hazard.

[blue fury 3]

I think it's becoming more and more obvious to wait until this can be done right. Why rush it when you might risk it?

[tripslipfall 0]

4guage would help better than a cap for voltage drops.

Yeah but I've already figured out that a bunch of 12 gauge will equal 4 gauge, if not more, so if I still have voltage problems after that, I'll just get a cheap cap, but I'm not sure what size cap to get.

I'm thinking around 2 farad, the manual on Rockford's site says 1.5 farad, but I wanna get a cheap off brand one, like Boss or something.

[bassahaulic 155]

4guage would help better than a cap for voltage drops.

Yeah but I've already figured out that a bunch of 12 gauge will equal 4 gauge, if not more, so if I still have voltage problems after that, I'll just get a cheap cap, but I'm not sure what size cap to get.

I'm thinking around 2 farad, the manual on Rockford's site says 1.5 farad, but I wanna get a cheap off brand one, like Boss or something.

Ok

You are going to either blow your amp or burn down the truck. Do it all right!!

A Cap is just a band aid to fix the problem, it will only make it worse as time goes by.

[RobClay 20]

Knukonceptz.com

Great wire at a cheap price

[tripslipfall 0]

Wow as I keep reading I keep seeing more and more

Save the money and get 4awg!

You will have a good ol' time making it all fit into the amp and in-line fuse holder. It will be one big mess, and fire hazard.

I think it's becoming more and more obvious to wait until this can be done right. Why rush it when you might risk it?

Well, it's already hooked up right now with 1 run of 12 gauge, and it works fine at 4 ohms with the gain about half way, but once I turn the gain up a bit more, the voltage drops into lower 12, sometimes 11 on really low notes, and when I max the gain (don't worry, the subs can handle it...maybe) the voltage is constantly around 11, and lower 10 on low notes.

So, I really don't wanna get 4 gauge for a crappy install, I'd rather just get a capacitor and add some more 12 gauge, as long as I take a little time and do it good enough, I won't run into any problems.

Hey, it's better than last time when I had a single run of 16 gauge that caught on fire under the hood, the wire I'm using now doesn't even warm up.

[bassahaulic 155]

Wow as I keep reading I keep seeing more and more

Save the money and get 4awg!

You will have a good ol' time making it all fit into the amp and in-line fuse holder. It will be one big mess, and fire hazard.

I think it's becoming more and more obvious to wait until this can be done right. Why rush it when you might risk it?

Well, it's already hooked up right now with 1 run of 12 gauge, and it works fine at 4 ohms with the gain about half way, but once I turn the gain up a bit more, the voltage drops into lower 12, sometimes 11 on really low notes, and when I max the gain (don't worry, the subs can handle it...maybe) the voltage is constantly around 11, and lower 10 on low notes.

So, I really don't wanna get 4 gauge for a crappy install, I'd rather just get a capacitor and add some more 12 gauge, as long as I take a little time and do it good enough, I won't run into any problems.

Hey, it's better than last time when I had a single run of 16 gauge that caught on fire under the hood, the wire I'm using now doesn't even warm up.

Where is your volt meter?

[tripslipfall 0]

Gahhh, every time I'm done with one reply, there's 2+ more.

Ok, replying to everyone, I don't want to buy more wire, I have no money, no job, sad, I know, I'm just trying to make this work out of what I have, which is 500 feet of 600V 12 gauge wire, this is just a temporary install.

If I had the money to do it right, I would, but sadly, I don't.

[blue fury 3]

4guage would help better than a cap for voltage drops.

Yeah but I've already figured out that a bunch of 12 gauge will equal 4 gauge, if not more, so if I still have voltage problems after that, I'll just get a cheap cap, but I'm not sure what size cap to get.

I'm thinking around 2 farad, the manual on Rockford's site says 1.5 farad, but I wanna get a cheap off brand one, like Boss or something.

NO

[tripslipfall 0]

Wow as I keep reading I keep seeing more and more

Save the money and get 4awg!

You will have a good ol' time making it all fit into the amp and in-line fuse holder. It will be one big mess, and fire hazard.

I think it's becoming more and more obvious to wait until this can be done right. Why rush it when you might risk it?

Well, it's already hooked up right now with 1 run of 12 gauge, and it works fine at 4 ohms with the gain about half way, but once I turn the gain up a bit more, the voltage drops into lower 12, sometimes 11 on really low notes, and when I max the gain (don't worry, the subs can handle it...maybe) the voltage is constantly around 11, and lower 10 on low notes.

So, I really don't wanna get 4 gauge for a crappy install, I'd rather just get a capacitor and add some more 12 gauge, as long as I take a little time and do it good enough, I won't run into any problems.

Hey, it's better than last time when I had a single run of 16 gauge that caught on fire under the hood, the wire I'm using now doesn't even warm up.

Where is your volt meter?

I just have a digital multimeter I use, and of course there's the analog voltage display on the dash, and then there's the famous way of telling your voltage is dropping too low when your lights don't even seem like they're on anymore.

I had the DMM directly on the positive and negative terminals on the amp.