2K+ owners. running power wires

[YoungBonne12]

okay, so quick question. i was reading some guy's post about running wiring, and he said due to the battery under our back seat, 2k plus owners could run a power wire straight to the battery under the back seat. is this true/possible??? because if so, my mind is BLOWN

[yourgrandma]

Yup.

[DCJREDLINE]

Why would that blow your mind? You would (in a normal car) run the wire to the battery, the battery in these cars is under the back seat so WHY WOULDNT YOU??? Unless your asking if you still need a fuse at the battery? Yes you still should put a fuse at the battery. Dont know if thats what you meant by "straight to the battery"

[yourgrandma]

The only caveat to this is that if you're running serious power you could outgrow the main cable from the alternator to the battery, but that would mean you'd already upgraded the alternator and are drawing massive amperage.

Other than that, just run the appropriately sized power cable from the battery, through a fuse, into your amp(s).

[swampthing]

I actually ran mine from the fusebox where the battery hooks up to make it easier to remove the battery if need be

[DCJREDLINE]

Oh sorry, I did too. There is a post about 6" away from the battery on the fuse box. Thats where I went too. VERY VERY SIMPLE

[YoungBonne12]

i just didn't know if it was the same as running wires to the battery under the hood, because that's where my current amp is ran. if i run 1000w RMS to it with a cap, would that be endangering my power system? i have no mods.

[DCJREDLINE]

Who ran your other power wire way up under the hood? There is no need for another 10ft of power wire to get up to the terminal under the hood. It actually is a benefit to have a short as possible power and ground wire.

FYI you dont have a "battery under the hood" your battery is under your seat.

[YoungBonne12]

right, fuse box. my local audio shop ran the power wire, and they came highly recommended so i figured they knew what they were doing, when they just wanted to milk as much money out of me as possible on cables i guess haha. i figured since they ran it all the way to under the hood, that it was a battery. looks like running this new amp wont be as difficult as i previously thought.

[DCJREDLINE]

Ive been certified for YEARS and when I started running my own power wire I (out of habbit) started planning on going under the hood too. No need when the battery is under the seat. They must just have not known that the battery was MUCH closer to the amp than they thought.

[2002BonnevilleSE]

I ran mine from the fuse box under the backseat. Just make sure you pick one that doesn't stay on when you shut the key off plus one for the memory if needed.
No big deal. If your able you can run it under the carpet right down the center under the shifter etc. If not run it under the dash to the kick panel and under the step plates till you get to the backseat.

[sandness]

With the battery under the rear seat, you have an ideally short power cable run as well as a prime location for a ground. I ran both lines straight to the battery.

[YoungBonne12]

Sandness: by running your ground straight to the negative on the battery, does that simply ground the amp though the battery ground? No feedback through the battery? And I'll be installing a 3 farad power acoustik cap with it. How close would the wiring need to be to the battery? And is it okay for my inline fuse to be about 5 inches from the positive battery lead?

[redzmonte]

Sandness: by running your ground straight to the negative on the battery, does that simply ground the amp though the battery ground? No feedback through the battery? And I'll be installing a 3 farad power acoustik cap with it. How close would the wiring need to be to the battery? And is it okay for my inline fuse to be about 5 inches from the positive battery lead?

Running the ground to the battery will work just fine. the battery is grounded to the body very close to the terminal so no problems there. the fuse can be very close to the battery so that will be fine. mine is about 6" or so from the battery. basically you want it closer to the battery then further incase the power wire gets cut/grounded the fuse will save the system. the Cap is fine in the trunk near the amp. ground one side and hook the power in/out to the other and the out to the amp. acts like a buffer for the power spikes when the amp hits hard and draws large loads. 3 Farad cap is huge... a 1farad will suffice but if thats what you got.

S

[YoungBonne12]

Just installed everything. 2 new type r's, 3 far cap, PDX 1.1000, the only issue I faced was charging the capacitor. The resistor got hot but my voltage only went to about 2 volts on the cap so I just said screw it and hooked it all back up. It sounds fine so far. I'll test it tomorrow. If you know how to charge the cap, or the downside of not charging it, please let me know

[redzmonte]

i have never had to "CHARGE" a cap... hooking the power to the cap should charge it to the 12V from the battery. Its been a while sence i ran one so maybe things have changed and im missing something..
S

[sandness]

The reason the manufacturers advise you to initially charge the capacitor with a resistor in series is to limit the current. When a capacitor has no charge, the initial charge basically follows Ohm's law as the capacitor acts like a short, which would mean current = voltage/resistance. Without a resistor, your only resistance is the small amount present in your power wire. This means you will see a huge current spike at the beginning of the charge. This could potentially blow a fuse, but that's about it. As it builds a charge, the current draw falls off very quickly. So don't worry about it since you hooked it up and had no problems.