determining max run of power wire?

[ncc74656]

i am considering selling my kicker amp for a rockford (both amps 2500W) because on paper the RF looks better, supports a 1ohm load, and is strapable if i want more power in the future.

I presently have a ~ 11' run of 1/0GA CCA wire. by the product specs forum it can handle 250A @ 20' and the new amp would be drawing 301.33A taking into account a 77.7% efficency. I would assume that at 11' that 250A would be around 340A max load. i am unable to find ANY charts on CCA wire, only on OFC wire.

what should i do here, leave the wire as is, run a second run of the CCA, or install a single or dual run of OFC?

[DTS909]

http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/1005-wirefuse-guide/?hl=+wire%20+chart

[SnowDrifter]

What alt do you have (or plan on getting)?

Do you care about front-to-rear voltage drop or just what you can safely run through the wire? Edit: I'm assuming this is for the run going to the rear of the vehicle. Do you have any batteries in the back?

[ChevyBoy95]

amps dont draw on factors of efficiency, the main factor for accounting for efficiency would be output power. 77% of what goes in on the power side (DC side) comes out on the speaker side (AC side).

I would personally go with 2 runs of some sort of 1/0, since you will be pulling close to 300a of current, it is safer to go with more than needed, rather than melting the jacket on your wire.

2 runs of 1/0 CCA can handle about 400a

2 runs of 1/0 OFC can handle about 600a

so either option will be fine. I just wouldnt leave it at 1 run of 1/0 of either kind, but you could probably get away with 1 run of 1/0 OFC.

[ncc74656]

i have the mechman 320A running at 15.5V. im not sure about voltage drop, id want as low as possible and at present i have less than a 0.7V drop from front to rear however if i start pulling more power thats going to go up. i know CCA has greater resistance than OFC but over a 11' run im not sure if it really makes a huge difference when talking about 2 runs.

would i want to run 2 parallels into a plate and then 1 run into the amp? i assume they make 2 0 in and 1 0 out fitting right?

edit: no i do not have batteries hooked to the amps in back. i have 2 batteries under the hood and 2 batteries under the bed

[SnowDrifter]

IMO you'd want at least 2 runs of OFC / 3 runs of CCA. But that's just me.

Nothing wrong with adding a run of OFC in addition to your current run of CCA either.

Bare minimum you can get away with would be 2 runs of CCA. But front-back drop is just lost power. I have 3 runs of OFC for my 270a. Get about .3-.4v difference between the alt and the rear of the car.