Help Haugy with his amp setup

God I hate stereo crap. So necessary, but I fawking hate it.

I've got two amps to run, speakers and sub. I've got dual batteries, with a perko switch.

Now here are my questions:

1) My batteries currently share a ground. One battery ground to the other battery's ground, and then the boat ground. 5ft apart. Is this okay for this setup?

2) For power, I'm going to go with 0/1 gauge from the batteries to the perko, and then from the perko to a power distribution block for the amps. From there I'd like to keep running 0/1 guage (if I buy it in bulk). Will that work or do I need to go to 2 or 4-gauge. The amps call for 4-gauge max.

3) I'm thinking I need to put a fuse right off the battery, before the perko switch. But am not sure how big. A syn-6, and a Syn-1, plus the boat pull.

4) Where in the hell can you mount two amps in a Saltare? I barely have enough room for a Syn-6.


Am I thinking of doing this right? Or should I go about this a different way? I'm stereo stupid, won't hurt my feelings.

I'm no stereo expert by any means and the stereo's not even hooked up yet, but here's what I've done so far in completely rewiring and cramming a bunch of extra crap into my Salt. I'm running a VSR and dual circuit on-off switch, so my setup's a little different than 2 batts on a single Perko.

1 - I think you should be good on the ground. The neg of my stereo battery is connected to the neg of the main battery via a "flag" tee terminal terminal connecter & then a single wire to the engine ground. A separate ground comes off of the stereo neg via another tee terminal that'll run to the distribution blocks for all the stereo gear.
2 - While bigger's better, I don't think it's always necessary. I'm not familiar with the SYN amps, but you might run into problems trying to terminate too large a wire into a connector that the SYN's will accept. Add up the amp loads (total the fuses on the amps) & size the wire for current and distance (I found several sizing guides via google).
3 - Pretty sure reading current USCG regs call for a fuse/breaker as close to the batteries as possible, however I skipped it (ro room, shame on me). I kept the original engine breaker & added separate breakers for each extra component I added (trim actuators, ballast pumps, etc.), plus the stereo amps are double fused (onboard & built into the distribution blocks). I figure a 23 year old boat is grandfathered. Again, just add the amp loads & about 30 amps of boat load & go with the next standard size.
4 - Yeah, for a such a big girl, there's not much storage in the stock set-up. Port storage pod would be my first choice, otherwise there's room below the storage pod & down below the helm. My amps are even a little physically larger than the SYN-6 and -1, but my preliminarialy layout had them in the port storage pod - 6 channel on the far port wall and the 4 channel on the port bow seat back. However I ran out of room once I mounted a VSR, switch, and on-board charger in the port storage. I ended up making an amp rack that mounts on the starboard side down by the driver's feet.

Good luck!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by haugy

God I hate stereo crap. So necessary, but I fawking hate it.

I've got two amps to run, speakers and sub. I've got dual batteries, with a perko switch.

Now here are my questions:

1) My batteries currently share a ground. One battery ground to the other battery's ground, and then the boat ground. 5ft apart. Is this okay for this setup?

2) For power, I'm going to go with 0/1 gauge from the batteries to the perko, and then from the perko to a power distribution block for the amps. From there I'd like to keep running 0/1 guage (if I buy it in bulk). Will that work or do I need to go to 2 or 4-gauge. The amps call for 4-gauge max.

3) I'm thinking I need to put a fuse right off the battery, before the perko switch. But am not sure how big. A syn-6, and a Syn-1, plus the boat pull.

4) Where in the hell can you mount two amps in a Saltare? I barely have enough room for a Syn-6.

5) I'm just going to drop it off at JonyB's place and let him sort it out instead.

Am I thinking of doing this right? Or should I go about this a different way? I'm stereo stupid, won't hurt my feelings.

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Gave you another option there Haugy...:D

sybr had a great response. I would add that I sized based on what my amps were recommended to have. I also looked up some load and cable sizes to figure out what to get and bought all mine from www.genuinedealz.com. IIRC I have 4 gauge running to my biggest amp (tower speakers) and 8 gauge running to the two smaller amps (in boats and sub). They all go to distribution blocks and to the battery from there. Wire to the battery from the distribution blocks is 2 gauge. I kept power and ground the same size.

I'm not sure if you remember, but when I did my rebuild, I cut the floor out of that port storage area and some of the back wall so it was opened up below. My batteries sit there with a short run to the amps which are mounted on the fore and aft walls of that storage unit.

Here are some pictures that may help.

http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/...21_resized.jpg

http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/...34_resized.jpg

http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/...38_resized.jpg

http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/...17_resized.jpg

One more pic...

http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/..._resized-1.jpg

No reason to spend the money (or effort) of 0/1 to the amps. Run 0/1 to the distribution block and then 4 gauge to the amps. The amps won't accept larger, anyway. Put a big-ass barrel fuse as close to the perko switch as possible. Make sure to run the same gauge for both power and ground (obviously.)

My amps are mounted in the storage space under the glovebox. It's an inelegant solution (it's been on my list for 5 years to build a better amp rack. Right now mine are just screwed on 3 different angles of that compartment and a half-birdsnest of wires connecting them. It's awful, but it works. It's dry and it's out of sight. No other place on this boat has both of those luxuries.

When I bought my boat there was 4 amps mounted to the bottom side of the ski locker lid. Surprisingly, they stayed dry. Not surprisingly, they didn't like running upside down.

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Originally Posted by Jetlink

Gave you another option there Haugy...:D

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While normally I would, time is not on my side. Not to mention the fact that towing that big SOB up there would cost me almost $250 in fuel. Plus JonyB's eating expenses. Have you seen that boy? He can eat! :D:D

Thanks for the tips and pics guys. Here's the plan I'm going to go with (per JonyB of course).

Re-run 0/1 gauge wire for the batteries. Run 0/1 gauge from the perko to the distribution block. From the block it will be 4-gauge to the amps. Same for the grounds. Fuse will be an inline fuse on the distribution block right off the perko switch. One fuse per amp.

I'm going to try and get both amps in the top left locker. My god, I'm a little guy, but I don't know how I'm going to get in there. The funny thing is me thinking about JonyB doing my Mariah, and him squeezing in there with his big muscles and crap. :D That had to be interesting.

I'll take pictures once I get working on it. Thanks for the tips and pics. Y'all have some nice setups!!!

Uuuh, squeezing in? I reminded Brian of that the other day. He laughed because he had to pull me out. I got stuck :( Got the job done though.... On time, and accident/error free :D

Did I mention you get to buy me lunch Friday when I drop of the amp and parts? Betta save yo moneyz.

Power: 1/0 from the stud on the perko to a Stinger ANL fuseholder. 2 4 gauge outs to go to amps.
Ground: 1/0 from each battery to a single distribution block (accepts 2 1/0 inputs), 4 gauge from that to the amps.

When he's not looking I'm gonna run a wire from the spark plug to the drivers seat.

Look forward to seeing the pics haugy. If I lived closer I'd bring over one of my boys and help ya. They were both a big help giving me extra hands up in that compartment.

You might try taking the compartment door and trim ring off before wedging yourself into the storage pod. I think you've got black plastic vs. the teak on mine, but the extra inch or so I gained with mine removed (just a few screws) was quite welcome. I also had my glovebox out which helped as well.

I got stuck the other night - crawled upside down through the playpen, halfway into the area under the storage pod trying to connect the new blower hoses. When you're alone in the garage, no one can hear you scream...

Ha ha ha ha Mike, so true.

You know what I discovered? That underneath the floor of that storage bin, it's OPEN. Completely open, and even has carpet running underneath from the bow. So open that I actually crawled in from the bow, and was underneath the storage area, and you couldn't see me.

If I rebuild this sucker, that floor is gone. I could drop in a whole sub, amp rack, and still have room in there.

That's exactly what I did haugy. The floor of the storage was removed and I also removed the vertical wall seperating the space under the observer seat from that area. It is open on the side to the bilge and side of the cooler, so you may need to consider putting in a panel that serves as a wall to close it off so you don't have things falling into the bilge.

Okie, did you do this when you rebuilt it or after? I kind of want to do it now.

Only problem is that's where we store our bags and clothes. That would turn it into a bottomless pit in there and hard to find your bags after cruising.

Another question:

Amp rack? Mounting device? The points where I will be putting the amps is very hard to mount to, fiberglass. I'm thinking of creating an open air type frame (think square) that I can cover with carpet and mount to the fiberglass wall. Then mount the amp to it. This will allow me to run wires behind the amp (don't know if that's good or bad), and to give some air flow behind the amp (would notch out the frame to allow air movement).

Or should I just mount it and go? The wires are already run behind the panel wall so you really don't get any benefit of hidden wires. So, it it worth it? Or should I just mount them, tuck and tie my wires and be done with it?

The only con I see is that I lose even more tight space by spacing the amps away from the walls more.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by haugy

Okie, did you do this when you rebuilt it or after? I kind of want to do it now.

Only problem is that's where we store our bags and clothes. That would turn it into a bottomless pit in there and hard to find your bags after cruising.

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I did it during the rebuild when I had the top cap off and could get under it. You could do it now, just won't be as easy. If you look back through the pics I posted you can kind of see how open it is. You can also see the panel I added next to the bilge/cooler that closed it in (you'll see the vent hose and battery cables coming in top right in the photo). We put our clothes and bags in there too. I actually have both batteries there then a couple plastic totes with jumper cables, oil, a tool kit, etc. We pile our other stuff on top of that, plus we have a completely open area under the observer seat. If you want more pics, let me know...I have tons!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by haugy

Another question:

Amp rack? Mounting device? The points where I will be putting the amps is very hard to mount to, fiberglass. I'm thinking of creating an open air type frame (think square) that I can cover with carpet and mount to the fiberglass wall. Then mount the amp to it. This will allow me to run wires behind the amp (don't know if that's good or bad), and to give some air flow behind the amp (would notch out the frame to allow air movement).

Or should I just mount it and go? The wires are already run behind the panel wall so you really don't get any benefit of hidden wires. So, it it worth it? Or should I just mount them, tuck and tie my wires and be done with it?

The only con I see is that I lose even more tight space by spacing the amps away from the walls more.

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Cut out some short 3/4" MDF blocks and fiberglass those in with resin and fiberglass mat. Once that's dry, you can screw an amp rack in to it.

I've seen what jonyb is suggesting done and that's a good idea. Both of my amps are mounted on the fore and aft panels so they back up to the bow and observer seat, respectively. I built an amp rack for the two amps for in boats and sub and mounted the tower amp directly to the panel. Many ways to skin a cat, depending on what outcome you're looking for.

Don't know if it'll help your plan of attack, but here's a pic of the underside of my storage pod. This was after I had reconfigured the bracing under the playpen, glassed in a tower support pad, and added the vertical piece of treated ply to separate the relocated batteries from the remaining cavernous storage beneath the pod (I'm using the space for a sac). My storage pod is an "L" shaped molded black plastic liner (like the ski and bow storage lockers) that's glassed from the backside with a layer of coremat. You can see the dark seams where it bonds to the hull. It would be easy to remove the whole thing with the cap off - just cut the seams. But with the cap on, it'd be hard to reach the top seam up under the windhield so Okie's method of cutting the bottom might be the way to go.

Attachment 9325

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jonyb

Cut out some short 3/4" MDF blocks and fiberglass those in with resin and fiberglass mat. Once that's dry, you can screw an amp rack in to it.

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Craaaap. I was hoping to avoid that kind of stuff. Where could I procure enough to do that? I only need to do one side, behind the front seats. The side amp wall is hollow on the back side. I'm going to run bolts through that with washers.

Haugy, I have another suggestion for the hollow/thin side where you are talking about using bolts and washers and all. I used snaptogglers from Lowes. They were great for me since any other idea I had would require 2 people for install/removal. They were a life saver and have held up great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXirCysRIXg

i used toggle bolts too for one of my amps. secured to the back of the bow seat. my other amp is by the driver's feet on the side of the built-in cooler on a board. neither has ever gotten wet.

use the observer side if you can. amps & sub...just make the driver side that much heavier.