Doing a demo...then a few blew

[Supercharged DCs]

Though we all have our own fuse recommendations, make sure it is AT LEAST 200A. 0 gauge wiring IS a must, along with the Big 3 in 0gauge and an upgraded battery under the hood/in the back.

[__d_a_v_i_d__]

anything is better than ur 60Amp fuse

[Supercharged DCs]

God, I can't get over the fail. Seriously lol......

[uhoh_45]

a 60 amp fuse is roughly good for 600 watts

[skittlesRgood]

ok... some important info is being left out or communicated poorly here. 4awg should NOT get a 200amp fuse. i wouldnt go over 100amps. 125amps if you know you have good OFC wire. now that amp can draw something like 150-200 amps so you can burn up that 4awg wire. and that can burn your car down, no joke.

so like the others said. you need 0awg wire and a 250amp fuse. im guessing you will probably buy cheap wire so i wouldnt go up to 300amps.

[Blackedout]

The reason you blew your fuse is because you're pulling more than 60 amps through it. It did exactly what it was designed to do, break when the amount of current running through it exceeds ~60 amps.

Everyone is saying replace the fuse. Cool, replace it... But I wouldn't replace it with anything higher than 100 amps without changing your wire. 4 gauge OFC (Oxygen free copper) is meant to handle around 100 amps. Given your situation, who knows what you're running. It could be CCA (copper clad aluminum) which has more resistance than copper. It could even be offsized 4 gauge CCA, meaning whoever manufactured it put 6 or 8 guage CCA in a 4 gauge sleeve. You can read about the differences between CCA and OFC here: http://caraudiomag.com/articles/copper-wire-vs-copper-clad-aluminum-wire-wire-warnings

What you need to do is upgrade your electrical. Start out with some wire. 1/0 Run a positive from front to back, fused. Run a negative from front to back. This is called an isolated ground.

http://www.audiosavings.com/products/Car-Amplifier-Power-Cable/CADENCE-0-GAUGE-BLUE-AMP-POWER-WIRE-49-FOOT-SPOOL-NEW/0G15M-BLUE.aspx

After you get that, Fuse it up for 150 amps. Grab a multimeter and test your voltage at the amp. If you're dipping into the 10s, fuse lower and turn your amp down. Most cars can hang with around 1500 RMS on stock electrical. Low voltage will burn amps up, send them into protect, make them run hot, etc.

Little food for thought

@ 12 volts:

100 watts ~ 10 amps draw

1000 watts ~ 100 amp draw

@ 120 volts:

100 watts ~ 1 amp draw

1000 watts ~ 10 amp draw

The lower the voltage, the more strain on your electrical itself. Higher voltage = more power with less strain. Run 100 watts off 18 volts and run 100 watts off 12 volts with the same wire. You'd be pulling ~30% more current off 12 volts than you would off 18 volts, while producing the same power.

Good luck man...

[Blackedout]

ok... some important info is being left out or communicated poorly here. 4awg should NOT get a 200amp fuse. i wouldnt go over 100amps. 125amps if you know you have good OFC wire. now that amp can draw something like 150-200 amps so you can burn up that 4awg wire. and that can burn your car down, no joke.

so like the others said. you need 0awg wire and a 250amp fuse. im guessing you will probably buy cheap wire so i wouldnt go up to 300amps.

Lol... looks like we were on the same page. Car-B-Ques suck.

[skittlesRgood]

ok... some important info is being left out or communicated poorly here. 4awg should NOT get a 200amp fuse. i wouldnt go over 100amps. 125amps if you know you have good OFC wire. now that amp can draw something like 150-200 amps so you can burn up that 4awg wire. and that can burn your car down, no joke.

so like the others said. you need 0awg wire and a 250amp fuse. im guessing you will probably buy cheap wire so i wouldnt go up to 300amps.

Lol... looks like we were on the same page. Car-B-Ques suck.

ya, tires and paint burning make the marshmallows taste funny.

[Mtnbikecrazy55]

This is a great starting point if you are unfamiliar or confused about fusing.

http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/1005-wirefuse-guide/

As said previously, don't put a 250a fuse in the 4awg. Because that basically makes the 4awg the fuse and it's going to smoke first.

Upgrade that wiring to 0awg. Boom.

Sidenote, how muck 4 awg do you have and what brand/type is it? I'm going to need some to wire my RF 500.1

[trjohnst]

Well I have 2 4guage wiring going to the back for 2 amps. 1 brand is Rockford, and the other brand is that crappy Scosche. So, the answer to what I asked for, is that my amp was pulling more amps than my fuse, so it blew. I will need to buy a few 150amp fuses, until I have enough $ for 0 guage runs. I will be doing a big 3 in a week or 2, but wont be adding another battery because I have a stock alternator and its pretty old (stock 80 amp alt.). Thank you all for the input.