Wire type help

[latitudeadjuster]

Ok, I need help on knowledge of wire. I purchased the kenwood amp and sub. The harness has two black ground wires and two yellow wires for power and the blue turn on wire. Fuses already built into the two yellow wires. The wires are 18 awg so im wondering if anyone has a good link to the tinned wire needed? also should I keep it 18 awg all the way to power source?

The speaker harness is typical stock speaker wire only 12" as the power harness so what wire do I get, any links?

ugh....I can rebuild most of a boat but I hate wires....lol

I can add a pic of the harnesses if that's helpful.

Thanks

 

[RightStuff]

I just did an amp and new speakers (not a sub though)... I used Kicker KW1620 wire for the 2 new speakers and for whatever additional wire I needed to connect the existing harness to the new amp (about 2 ft pig tails). I also butt connected and covered the connection with heat shrink to keep out the elements.

As for amp power/ground I would suggest a larger gauge wire, I used 4 awg and ran it all the way back to the battery/switch. There is a pretty big debate around tinned vs. Oxygen Free Copper (OFC) wire that you can decide if you want research. I went with OFC welding wire for my power/ground, ran me about $1/foot. I don't boat in salt water and all my wires are pretty well protected so I didn't feel like I needed to spend the extra for tinned for those wires.

 

[BigN8]

Use 4 gauge for power wires

 

[latitudeadjuster]

Power harness.....so its much smaller than 8awg....just solder them together? need two separate 8awg since TWO yellow power wires?

 

[cozilla]

Can you provide a link to the amp so we can see what you are working with? Seems this amp isn't needing alot of power.

 

[latitudeadjuster]

Here is a link from crutchfield.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113PWD250M/Kenwood-Marine-Bass-Package-White-KFC-W250MRW-subwoofer.html

Manual

http://kenwoodusa.com/UserFiles/File/UnitedStates/Consumer/Manuals/kac210mr.pdf

Specs

http://www.kenwood.com/pa/car/marine_audio/kac-210mr/spec.html

 

[txav8r]

Amp kits rarely contain the correct wire for a boat. Our runs are far too long compared to a car. I would think that cable isn't long enough too. But that amp doesn't appear to have any filters or gain settings on it, so it may not take much for wiring.

 

[cozilla]

You should be good to run the same size wire that the harness requires from the battery to the amp. This is just like the powered Bazooka tube I had in my old boat. It has the small gauge wire for power. The amp only puts out 200watts max. A headunit will claim 200watts max as well and uses the same guage for power. I think you are fine to extend the harness power to the battery for power.