98 XLT 2x4 wire recommendation?

[syn-]

I just totaled my 97 sport and despite all its problems I enjoyed the truck (reliable). Had 4 12"s @ 2k @ 1ohm w/ 4g + a yellow top optima. My lights and hud would dim lightly normal and heavy when I got greedy and wanted to hear more bass. Not sure if it was related but I would often have to turn and hold the key to get it to start after long sit periods (overnight for instance or all day at work). I was happy with the sound, but I am curious to know on the new exploader if I should ante-up to 2g or 0g? I bought reducers to do the job going to the amp, but have learned that larger wire will also need a separate battery (which is ok, because I still have my optima from the previous truck). Since I am already half way there (only needing to buy the wire kit at this point) is the larger wire worth the investment? what are some pros and cons? First thought that comes to mind is the subs having more available wattage so would I run a higher risk of over-pushing them?

Note: I also plan to put in HID's so I want to also make sure that they do not dim (unless the ballast is what will be responsible for that?)

sub + amp spec:
audiobahn hct1500
2 12" kicker cvrs
2 12" kicker l5 solo-barics

 

[malodin]

Hi im not an expert but have installed plenty of systems and am a maintenance tech and deal alot with electricity, for starters for the normal user there is no such thing as to big of a wire! the bigger wire does not actually allow for more available wattage that is based solely on your amp, what the bigger wire does is allow more electricity to flow to the amp when it needs it. think of a 1" garden hose and then picture a 1/4" garden hose which will fill up the bucket faster given the same amount of pressure at the supply line? the 1" because more flows through it(this is just a rough example)

you do not need an extra battery to run larger wirer i dont know where you heard that but is just not true, i have run 0 guage in all of my high end stereo systems on just a single battery, what you will need is a good battery(the yellow top is a decent one).

your lights will still dim even with the bigger wire maybe less but still they will fluctuate. in order to prevent that you need a capacitor or two. at least 1 farad or more http://www.crutchfield.com/p_120PP912U/Tsunami-LITEWAVE-Series-PP912UM-CAP.html?search=capacitor i am not recommending a specific cap that is up to you to research and figure out which one is the best that is just for reference.

also you may want to think about getting the biggest alt. you can find if you are worried about lights dimming and hard start, the hard start over night comes from your driving/listening habits...

for example say you drove 20 miles and your alternator is a 50 amp alternator, normal driving with lights/ac on and radio off your car is drawing 25 amps(just examples) so in 20 miles your alternator is putting 25 more amps into the battery than is being used thats a good thing, by the time you get to where you are going you have not used more than the alt is putting in. now you are driving same distance but with lights/ac/radio (say your system draws 30 amps) add the 30 amps to the 25 your regular stuff uses thats 55 amps, now youre alt is only putting out 50 amps thats a difference of 5 amps so when you shut the car off the battery will essentially be "5 amps less than full" thus when you go to turn the car over you will have 5 amps less energy in the battery, which is where the hard starts come from.

check out http://www.the12volt.com/Default.asp? tons and tons of wiring diagrams how to's etc.

 

[syn-]

thank you very much, this and caps are something I have been trying to pin down explaination wise for sometime. I have a 1 farad monster cap and still had some dimming with the system not configured for full power. Now my worry is, given the change from 4 to 0g, does the extra electricity run the risk of hurting the subs? (i.e. causing frozen coils or over heating). Also with the 2k load should invest in a larger cap? if so what would recommend size wise?

 

[malodin]

let me just make sure i am understanding you correctly your 2k load is the sub amp is rated at 2000 watts correct?

watts in general term are not load's

amps is what the load is....i.e. it takes "20 amps to run something" that is load

like i said earlier the bigger wire size does not give it extra electricity it just allows the amp to use what it needs.....think of the amp as a syphon its sucking on the electricity in the wire, and say at your 4g cable the amp was drawing 30 amps(i imagine it has 2 30 amp fueses if its a 2k amp) that means it is "sucking" 30 amps of electricity through the 4g now with 2g or 0g it is still going to suck 30 amps just more effeciently...

take a coffee straw versus a mcdonalds pop straw and try breathing in, its really hard to breath in through the coffee straw, thus you have to work harder(the amp has to work harder when it is trying to power the bass hits) now your mcdonalds pop straw is rather large compared to the coffee straw so you do not have to work nearly as hard to suck the same amount of fluid...
i.e. say it takes 1 minute to suck 1ltr through the coffe straw, with the pop straw it might take 20 seconds to suck the same amount(bad examples but you should be able to understand)

so no the bigger cable will not harm the subs like i said there is no such thing as to big of wire, what harms the subs is "clipping" that is where the volume driving the amp is beyond the amps capability of function. i dont have an example for it but the way i always tell my buddies to listen to there music is this....

say your deck shows numbers 1-50 for volume 50 being the highest of course. now at 25 it sounds nice and 35 it still sounds nice then you get to 40 and you start hearing "artifacts" i.e. chhchchch scratching etc. that is where the deck is "clipping" so even though it says it can go to 50 it doesnt sound good after 40 that is where you dont want to turn it past. past that is when you start killing your speakers.

as for the 2k watt amp i would say your 1 farad wired correctly with 2 or 0g wire would be suffecient, if not just add another 1f cap to it. you can stack them all you want, just make sure they are wired correctly. + on the cap goes "inline" with the positive and negative goes to ground inline with the amp.

i.e.
bat-------------(cap +)------amp +
car frame-------(cap -)------amp -

always keep your amps ground wire as short as possible to a clean metal surface on the chassis, you may have to sandpaper a spot off the floor and use a good bolt.