Wiring question

[nate kennedy]

I am planning my stereo/ballast upgrade. What my thought is to run 0 or 2 gauge knukonceptz wire to the helm area. I would have a distribution block there. From there I would split the power to 2 amps and 1 blue seas fuse block for ballast or any other future power needs. I am looking at the JL audio 8 channel amp and JL Audio 4 channel amp. I would fuse those off the distribution block by specs which is 80 amp fuse for the 8 channel and 40 amp for the 4 channel. Then I would fuse the blue seas fuse block for 100 amp since that’s the max for that. Would that work? Does anyone see something I am missing? Other question I have is how to know what size breaker I would need? Add up the 80+40+100 for 220? Any help I would appreciate it!

Thanks!

 

[robert843]

I literally just did this yesterday. Ran 4 gauge wire to a 3 way power block with the amps hooked straight to the block and the third wire is for a blue seas fuse block. I put a 135 amp breaker at the battery and fused each amp again at the three way power block. No issues after some testing yesterday but once again that was day one.

 

[nate kennedy]

What amps and size did you use? are you planning on using the blue seas fuse block with the negative bar in it? Or are you doing one negative bus bar for everything? What power block did you use? Like
You said only 1 day but are you glad you used that block?

 

[robert843]

I have a polk pad4000.4 which wire the way I have it will be pushing 650 watts and a JL amp push about 230 watts. Below is a link to the 3 way splitter I used it was good.

https://www.amazon.com/Power-Distri...sr=1-1-spons&keywords=3+way+power+block&psc=1

 

[FloJet]

Those JL amps will tell you exactly how much to fuse them with. Do not go over that. Not a pretty site as I have experienced. For your main power wire I would go 0 awg just incase you want to add more amps later. I have 5 amps and I have to go (2) 0 awg to get the right amount of power.

 

[FloJet]

Oh forgot to mention you need 150 amp fuse no more than 18 inches from the battery for your power wire. THIS IS A MUST. This fuse here needs to equal the amperage of your system using this power wire.

 

[nate kennedy]

The amps require a fuse of 80 for the 8 channel and 40 for the 4 channel. The blue seas distribution power block is 100 max... so that would be a 220 amp breaker? I don’t see adding anything else but you never know.

Thanks

 

[FloJet]

220 amp? That's too high. You are only pulling 120 amps with those 2 amps. I say 150 amp because I don't think they sell 120 amps. Technically 120amp is what you need. You don't want to go too much over your total amperage or that defeats the point of having fuses. It will not blow before something bad happens. That's how fires start lol.

So the setup needs to be like this:

150amp fuse on main power wire going to battery no more than 18 inches away from terminal.
80 amp fuse on power wire coming from distribution block to 8 channel amp.
40 amp fuse on power wire coming from dist block to 4 channel amp.

This is one reason I don't use fused distribution blocks. They kinda pointless for high amperage systems. Get a good non fused distribution block and fuse all the power wires from there.

 

[nate kennedy]

So I need to pull two powers and two grounds? What my thought was pull one big wire over and split it 3 ways. 1 to an amp 1 to another amp and 1 to a blue seas distribution block for power for my ballast pumps instead of running wire all the way over to the battery 3 times.

 

[FloJet]

No sir. You are on the right track. All you need is 1 main power wire and 1 main ground wire. This is the 0awg you first mentioned.
These two main wires will go to your distribution block. The power 0awg will be fused at your battery + terminal with highest amperage fuse. In your case no higher than 150amps. You want the fuse to blow if something is bad or not right. Otherwise it could be a problem for you and your investments.
From the distribution block you will run 4 awg wires to your amp. Here you need to fuse the 4awg power wires coming from the distribution block to the amps. One will get 80 amp fuse for the 8 channel and the other will get 40 amps for the 4 channel. Idk what your ballast fuse rating is but that will get one too coming form the distribution block if that's your goal.

 

[FloJet]

This was my setup before I really cleaned up all those ugly wires. I will show you the new one after I'm done in the next few weeks. But do you see how there are fuses after the distribution blocks going to the amps?

 

[nate kennedy]

The ballast pumps are rated at 25 fuse and pull like 22 or 23 I believe from looking online. Trying to get this all planned out in my head before ordering anything. There will be 3 pumps. So if I’m running the amps and the pumps that breaker will trip won’t it?

 

[FloJet]

Below is my new amp board prototype. Coming along well I think.

 

[nate kennedy]

So you have 150 amp breaker powering 5 amps? The amps have to pull more than the ballast pumps I would think.

 

[FloJet]

Lol. No I have way more amperage than you. You only need 150 at battery terminal. Fuses need to be same or around rated amps of the devices. so even adding 25 amps from ballast gives you 145 total amperage. So 150 fuse will work great.

 

[swatski]

I am planning my stereo/ballast upgrade. What my thought is to run 0 or 2 gauge knukonceptz wire to the helm area. I would have a distribution block there. From there I would split the power to 2 amps and 1 blue seas fuse block for ballast or any other future power needs. I am looking at the JL audio 8 channel amp and JL Audio 4 channel amp. I would fuse those off the distribution block by specs which is 80 amp fuse for the 8 channel and 40 amp for the 4 channel. Then I would fuse the blue seas fuse block for 100 amp since that’s the max for that. Would that work? Does anyone see something I am missing? Other question I have is how to know what size breaker I would need? Add up the 80+40+100 for 220? Any help I would appreciate it!

Thanks!

Check out post #3 if you have time to read, that's how I dealt with mine, works great so far. Survived Bimini ride, too.
https://jetboaters.net/threads/stereo-upgrade-help.15954/#post-274253

EDIT: I also have 10 DB 651 speakers, two ICON8s, and a BassLink sub. No issues so far.
--

 

[FloJet]

Very interesting you are running all yours off just 150 amp breaker @swatski . You must not have big amps to the DB 651? or the Subs?

OP has 2 amps and already pushing 120 amps lol.

 

[swatski]

Very interesting you are running all yours off just 150 amp breaker @swatski . You must not have big amps to the DB 651? or the Subs?

OP has 2 amps and already pushing 120 amps lol.

Hmm... two 1410 Clarions for 10 DB651s, the bassLink is powered (?), the ICONs are pushed by an HT-2.
The power is split though, I have some of the essential nav etc on a separate circuit, not the Bussmann.
But come on, 150 Amp not enough to run stereo??? I don't plan on running a welder in the helm.

--

 

[FloJet]

Hmm... two 1410 Clarions for 10 DB651s, the bassLink is powered (?), the ICONs are pushed by an HT-2.
The power is split though, I have some of the essential nav etc on a separate circuit, not the Bussmann.
But come on, 150 Amp not enough to run stereo??? I don't plan on running a welder in the helm.

--

Haha it's not that 150 is not enough. It just seems on paper you have way way more equipment than that lol. I'm sure you are right at the amperage use. I'm just used to JL and WS amps that have like 40-100 amperage use per amplifier.

 

[nate kennedy]

Lol. No I have way more amperage than you. You only need 150 at battery terminal. Fuses need to be same or around rated amps of the devices. so even adding 25 amps from ballast gives you 145 total amperage. So 150 fuse will work great.

That is confusing me more... 3 pumps at 25 per is 75 plus the 40 and he 80 is 195. What are the fuses on your amps they total don’t equal more than 150?