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? about inline fuse and grounding my amps

Discussion in 'General Car Audio Discussions' started by FaintReality, Sep 23, 2002.

  1. FaintReality

    FaintReality Full Member

    I am getting ready to order all my wires to hook up my 4 JL amps. My question is, in my amps manual, it says there is no need to fuse near the amp, and only an inline fuse is needed within 18" from the battery. With this in mind, I was gonna get an ANL fuse holder near the battery and was wondering what size fuse I need. The JL 300/2 amps require a 40 amp fuse each, and the JL 500/1 amps require a 50 amp fuse each. I assume I would use a 180 amp ANL fuse, but only see 150 amp and 200 amp, so which should I go with?

    Also, I am running 0ga. from the battery to a 4 way distro. block, and 4ga. from the block to each amp. When grounding the amps, should I ground each amp with a 4ga. wire directly to the chassic or have them all go into a 2nd distro. block, then have a single 0ga. ground? I will have 1 amp on each side of the walls in my trunk, and the other 2 amps on the rear wall of my trunk.

    Thanks, Dave
     
    FaintReality, Sep 23, 2002
    #1
  2. fetid fop's feces

    fetid fop's feces Guest

    Not sure about the fuse question though I would prob get the 200 even though its very doubtfull that the 150 would blow.

    I would ground it all to one spot just to get the grounding potential as close as possible to eachother.
     
    fetid fop's feces, Sep 23, 2002
    #2
  3. Honest Bob

    Honest Bob Full Member

    I was under the impression that it was better that each amp had its own ground. I could be wrong though... :huh:
     
    Honest Bob, Sep 23, 2002
    #3
  4. FaintReality

    FaintReality Full Member

    If I ground them all to one spot, the grounds will be kinda long.
     
    FaintReality, Sep 23, 2002
    #4
  5. edesignSPL

    edesignSPL Full Member

    it is best to ground to one spot if possible and to keep the grounds as short as you can.

    a 200A ANL fuse should work just fine...the fuse up front is to protect your battery and not the amps. If you get hit and the power wire shorts out to the chassis it could cause a fire, so for safety you fuse as close as possible. 18" is a minimum, there is no reason you shouldn't fuse much closer, say within 2" of the battery. The wire between the fuse and the batt is your problem length in event of a short...keep it very short and the chances of shorting out are narrower.

    You could get a ground distribution block and run all the wires to it...where are you grounding the amps to?
     
    edesignSPL, Sep 23, 2002
    #5
  6. FaintReality

    FaintReality Full Member

    I am not sure where the ground will be. I want to make them as short as possible. I will have 1 amp on each side wall of the trunk and 2 amps in the back wall where the hatch opens and closes. The 2 amps in the back could ground to the same point, but the 2 on the left and right side walls would be pretty long to ground at the same point in the rear with the other 2 amps. What is the advantage and disadvantage of grounding the amps to the same point?
     
    FaintReality, Sep 23, 2002
    #6
  7. AbRaKaDaVa

    AbRaKaDaVa Full Member

    Ground loops

    You don't want these...

    Ground in one spot...if you MUST ground in no more than two spots...you still might end up with a ground loop...I think there is such thing as a "Ground Loop Isolater" but I'm not sure exactly where to get one or how it works LoL

    And for the fuse, get the 200 amp...if you use a distro block I personaly like using a non-fused distro block and then putting a smaller inline fuse on each of the smaller runs of power wire...

    You can do the same thing for the grounds...non fused block and then just skip the fuses all togeather...one ground of 0/1awg split into 4 runs of 4awg is what I would guess you will need for those amps...so do the same for power and ground...keep things clean and simple
     
    AbRaKaDaVa, Sep 25, 2002
    #7