What amp wire

Wondering what amp wire to use for the amp'd sub's power connection from the battery.

Found this clicky
would this be OK? Seems fairly expensive - well more than I was expecting anyway by a factor of about 100%?

Cheers for any advice.

Also, if I wanted to would it be possible to take a separate connection off this wire for a cig lighter or would that need both a pos and neg conn from the battery?

The wire you have penciled in is absolutely fine. Probably way bigger than you need. The Pioneer amp has a really thin looking power cable (16AWG???) which must be fine for 10A. I used 4mm2 cable from a DIY shop which should easily be fine for 25A. 8AWG should manage in the region of 35A with the same margin of safety.

The sub/amp is designed to be grounded close to the unit and there is a point in the cubby hole. If you also add a cigarette lighter point from this supply, it will also have to be grounded.

Hope this gets you going
Neil

Thanks Neil.

So adding a power point just requires grounding? Good to know.

So if I bought one of these , then:
(i) snipped off the end and revealed the two cables
(ii) spliced the positive into the amp wire above
(iii) inserted a 10 amp fuse into the positive splice and
(iv) grounded the negative wire on the car body

that would produce a useable connection with no need to run the negative back to the battery?

Would be handy as I currently have an inverter in the rear passenger footwell and I currently have to plug it in in the centre console, which looks rubbish with wires going everywhere (plus it prevents me using the satnav at the same time).

Cheers

Steve

cheapest kit

Cheers Em. Need it by Sat though.

You got any good suggestions from Maplin etc?

Steve

Yes, the negative battery pole is just connected to the car body. Electrics are connected to the battery positive (via fused cables) and the negative is achieved via the car body.

This is not true for the speakers though

Great.

Will be doing that then.

You must make sure the amps that the amplifier draws from the power cable is the amps rated of that cable,

so if the amplifier has a fuse of 20a "yellow" inserted into it then you know the cable needed must be at lest 20amp rated or higher,

also you must fuse as close to the power source as posible, e.g car batt, nearest to this.

this also must be the same rated fuse as used in the amplifer as discribed above

Also before someone comments, any cable rated 10amp or hight is double that rating for safety reasons to prevent fires, this doesn't mean when 20amp is needed you buy 10amp rated cable because that's just plain stupid

Thanks mate.

Yeah, it's fused at 10amps which makes me think that perhaps 7mm think 40amp rated wire is a bit much, however I don't think maplin sell much else from their website.

Will discuss with someone when I go down on Sat am.

I only need one fuse on the amp wire right?

Steve

What is the best way for me to take two feeds (one for the amp/sub and one for my cig lighter connection) off the same amp wire?

Was thinking that I would have a single wire up to a certain point then a connector of some sort then two wires going to their respective locations.

What would be the right connector to do this with though?

dont take the feed from the fag socket, go to the battery

Em mate, have you read my post?!

You can use anything that will remain secure and cannot short on the body, etc. Just be neat and careful. I have used those screwed, block connectors without problems. Crimp connectors are available in all sorts of sizes and might be OK too. I'm just not great with them (probably because I tend to go for thick wires, old school HiFi enthusiast I guess) so I only use them if I can also drop some solder in or if they are somewhere visible and easy to repair.

Remember to fuse at the battery for the max current you want to draw and this should be a good bit lower than the wire can take. once you have teed-off, fuse again at the level to protect the connected item. The Pioneer already has a fuse, the cigarette lighter will need an extra fuse fuse.

Thanks Neil, really helpful.

As you can see I am on a steep learning curve when it comes to wiring!

You're welcome. Just list out all the steps you need to do, organise them in a practical order, and follow them through.

I worked forwards from mounting the sub until I got to the front footwell. Connected the head unit to the sub and finally dealt with the power cable. That way you can stop at many points in the process and still have a car that can be used.

Good luck and have fun.