Subwoffer Help.

[kaldir]

I have a 1987 Ram 150. And I will be hooking up a new CD player to it, and I was just wondering about my powered subwoffer. If I hooked the positite end of the woffer to the red wire for the raidio power wire, would it power the woffer good? And if not where would I be able to hook it up, going directly to the battery oppion being a last resort kinda thing. Thanks.

[SwampNut]

You need to find a high-capacity power wire. Your powered sub should have a stated input amp rating, you must meet or exceed that. You MIGHT be able to take power off the cigarette lighter, which is a 15a circuit I think. Really, going to the battery is the right way. You definitely should not take it from any of the radio wires, which are typically expected to handle 3-5 amps or so. Your sub, unless it's a complete piece of crap, should be easily pulling 15a.

[kaldir]

Ok, I guess hooking it right to the battery is the best thing to do. Now doing that it won't drain my battery at all right?

[SwampNut]

Your sub amp should have a remote turn on wire; does it? You should have positive (battery), ground, and remote turn on. If it only has battery and ground, well, I don't know what you should do then. The remote turn-on signals when to turn the amp on/off based on voltage from the head unit. This will be via a blue "amp turn-on" lead on any modern head unit.

[kaldir]

Ya it has that wire, I didn't know what it was used for tho, I just hooked it up where it belonged. lol Thanks.

[SwampNut]

So you should have some nice heavy power wires. One all the way to the battery, one to the nearest solid ground connection (seat bolt, etc). Then a light (18-22#) wire for the remote. I think a powered sub should do fine with 12# for power and ground, 10# to be sure.

[indyram]

Simplify things go and pick up an amp wiring kit from an electronics/car audio shop. Monster is a good company. This will include 8 gauge power and ground wire along with a 60amp inline fuse for coming off the battery, heat protect shroud for power wire, remote wire, rca cables, and the connectors that you will need. They aren't that expensive and you will save money versus buying individual.
The best palce to run the power cable is the grommet right in the center of the fire wall on the driverside real easy to get to. The best place for the ground is on one of the seat brakets. Drill a hole in the bracket and clean it to bare metal. Also just make sure that the RCA cables are run back on one side usually the passanger side, and the power and remote on the other, usually the driver side. This will help eliminate as much distortion as possible.

[SwampNut]

Running power and signal together doesn't produce distortion. It *may* introduce some alternator whine, but in modern systems I haven't run into that. It would be hard to get that in a powered sub, which should have a crossover at well below the frequency of the alternator whine. I've done dozens of installs the lazy way with the power and line on the same side, no issues.

[indyram]

I do it that way because I run all my components off of amps so when you are dealing with components it does matter. It is just a good habit of doing. Alternater whine is about all that you would pick up most likely, but eliminate possiblilies and things go smoother.