Hot Amp?
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From: California Desert
Hot Amp?
I just put a custom sub box and an amp in my Std. cab Ranger. The amp is behind my seat. The area around the amp doesn't get warm at all, but the amp itself seems to be getting very hot to me. It's not hot enough to where I can't leave my hand on it, but damn it's warm. This is my first ever upgraded sound system so I don't know how it should be running. Could anyone tell me how warm their amp gets? I'd post this question in the A/V forum but they take forever in there.
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From: South Dakota
If you can touch the amp without getting 'burnt', this is fine as to put out power they need power hence the heat. As long as you have heavy enough power wire and ground with a fuse in the power line you will be fine. If the amp is covered or has the air flow blocked the will get real hot and could fry. So as long as it is in the open it should be fine.
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From: Claremore
Ya, I agree with his statement. So long as you can still hold your hand to it, it will be okay. As he said too, keep things off of it, don't let anything block the fresh air getting to it. What gauge of wire did you use?
STan
STan
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From: California Desert
The only obstruction is the headrest of my seat. It has plenty of space around it, just not much room right above it. I was thinking of maybe putting a small fan just to circulate some air if it starts getting too warm. The amp said to use 8 gauge so I bought an 8 gauge amp wiring kit. It's only a 400W peak amp...don't need much to push two 6.5" mid-woofers.
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It shoudln't get too hot if you're only pushing 2 6.5 mids. I have had many amps in my time and even the most powerful one pushing a 1500 Watt subwoofer only got semi-warm to the touch...but yes, depending on the brand/type etc, they can get warm. 8 gauge wire is plenty for a 400 watt amp. (but the wire size depends on how many amps the amplifier will be pulling, not how many watts it puts out). Just as a word of advice, most non brand-name amps will overheat and shut off rather frequently (again, based on experience). They are one of the areas in life where you definately get what you pay for!
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From: California Desert
I'm going to get flamed for this I know it...
The 6.5's, although Pyramid, are quite powerful. I was expecting their 300W RMS per pair rating to be way over-inflated, but it's not. Expecting them to maybe handle 150W per pair I invested in a smaller, Profile amp, knowing that its 320W RMS rating would be over inflated, yet still enough to move the drivers. Now according to a formula to determine the true peak power of an amp it seems the amp wasn't over-rated, so it turns out I built a system that is too powerful for a standard cab Ranger. The fuse rating on the amp is 40 amps. Oh, I think I failed to mention that I have the drivers wired in parallel, so it's only a 2 ohm load. The amp says it is 2 ohm stable, but that could account for a little extra heat.
The 6.5's, although Pyramid, are quite powerful. I was expecting their 300W RMS per pair rating to be way over-inflated, but it's not. Expecting them to maybe handle 150W per pair I invested in a smaller, Profile amp, knowing that its 320W RMS rating would be over inflated, yet still enough to move the drivers. Now according to a formula to determine the true peak power of an amp it seems the amp wasn't over-rated, so it turns out I built a system that is too powerful for a standard cab Ranger. The fuse rating on the amp is 40 amps. Oh, I think I failed to mention that I have the drivers wired in parallel, so it's only a 2 ohm load. The amp says it is 2 ohm stable, but that could account for a little extra heat.
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From: Bixby, OK
ok ure amps fine, i have a bronco II and i stashed my amp where it gets no air circulation, and it's a little cheap $40 one from pep boys, (you can stop laughing) and it says its 200 watts and i have a 4 gauge wire going to it with a 60 ampere rated amp, and of course it has it's little safety fuse which is like 5 ampere, but i figured it would overheat sence i have it in the back under the flip up seat which can be layed down to make if flat in the back, but i put it under the seat and pushed it back so u could look in the back and not tell i even have an amp in there, but it's not getting hot at all, im fixing to buy a (600rms/1200peak)x1 watt amp (audiobahn) since my subs can handle way more since they're rated at 600 watt rms and 1200 watt peak (also audiobahn), and i have 2 of them and right now with the little 200 watt peak amp im getting a headache from, ill have a high quality system, anyways im getting off the subject, ure amps fine
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Originally Posted by maticuno
... so it turns out I built a system that is too powerful for a standard cab Ranger...