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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?
Sorry about that. If you are using 3 pumps that total 75 amps then you are correct that is 195 amps. So your main power wire should be fused with 200 amp fuse. To be honest there is many ways to go about it. Hard to say not knowing where you are mounting things. If it was up to me I would use different power wires for your ballast and stereo. Run main wires for stereo than run your 75 amp pumps from different set of wiring.
The fuses on your amps equal what they are rated for. For safety your main power wire is always fused first and foremost before thinking about any amps or such. After that. Each equipment gets their own fuse based of their performance amperage rating. So if you even add leds you fuse the wires to those. Does that make sense? This is how you protect your boat or vehicle from fires being started.
Yes ballast pumps draw some serious amps but keep in mind the 25 amp recommendation on Johnson Ultra ballast pumps is based on its max water draw height and head height demanding 21 amps. Under normal conditions in a Yammie we are looking at about a 14-15 amp true draw per pump. The same principle goes for the amps in that using them at max draw is not a normal operating condition and 50% or less is far more likely. Your main feed and fuse does not have to be capable of feeding the max for everything but it does have to be sufficient. Take your house for example. Your main breaker is likely 100 or 200 amps. Add up all of the smaller breakers in that panel and it far exceeds the main.
I currently have two 4 channel amps and will be adding 4 ballast pumps at some point. I feel that 150 amp main service is more than sufficient for that. In fact I am going to add a large true sine wave inverter as well (got to power the ninja and maybe a custom kegerator too). I just won't be able to push the inverter, the ballast pumps, and stereo to the max all at the same time without blowing the fuse). If needed with high quality 0AWG and the length of run most of us have to get to the helm you could even safely bump the main fuse/breaker to 175 amps provided you make very good connections at both ends.
In short @nate kennedy 1 pair of 0 AWG (pos and neg) will be all that you need. Use a distribution block (I prefer fused) to feed the amps and a sub fuse panel like a blue seas with ATO fuses for the ballast pumps.
Just make sure you use good 0 awg wire like the knuknoceptz fleks.
@Mainah thanks for awesome write up. The house example made a ton of sense to me thanks for that. I was planning on using knuknoceptz wire based of yours and others positive reviews of it.
@Mainah thanks for awesome write up. The house example made a ton of sense to me thanks for that. I was planning on using knuknoceptz wire based of yours and others positive reviews of it.
The 0 AWG is no joke to cut or crimp a terminal on so if you dont have the tools buying terminals that you can screw down on it makes sense. A jack, block of wood drilled to hold to terminal, something for a die and a heavy object like a car work well to crimp in a pinch. Hacksaw can be used in a pinch to cut but would probably leave a crappy end to work with. Best way is to use the excuse to buy new tools.
Very well said, @Mainah ! @nate kennedy good luck wielding that 0 gauge Knukonceptz. You will see what I mean, LOL.
EDIT - just saw your new post, @Mainah. That was kind of my point, bigger is not always better (e.g. 0 gauge) if your connections are not great! Not easy to do 0 gauge right! (the real "0", not a wally world special). But whatever.
