Help routing a 12v line to the trunk

[CliffStrabac]

Hi, Where is the best place to run a 12 guage line to the trunk of a 1991 Dodge caravan to run a pair of amps(some where throught the firewall, allong the bottom of the drivers door up beside the drivers seatbelt and above the windows then back down to the truck?), where are the holes in the firewall? or will i need to make one? and what size fuse should be used at the battery?

Any help would be appreciated
Thanks Cliff

[D150adam]

Hi Cliff, I think I can help you a little bit. First, what kind of amps are you using, and how many watts? 12 gauge wire sounds a little too small for amps, espically running the wire that distance, and for more than 1 amp.
There should already be a hole in the fire wall with a rubber gromet in it. Sorry, I can't tell you specifically where these are on your van, but they should be there somewhere.
The fuse also depends on the wattage of the amps.
Let me know, and I'll try to help you out a little more.

------------------
86 D150: 2WD: 360(currently being restored)
85 ramcharger: 4x4: 318
94 sundance: 2.2L

[Tom Carey]

Best bet is to run the wire through the firewall by locating an existing grommet and adding a hole to run the wire through. Also a 12 gauge wire is smaller than I would think of using. I would suggest at least going with 10 gauge and I would consider going with 8 gauge.

Regards,

Tom Carey

[CliffStrabac]

Hi, I would like to thank everyone who replied to my question, I used a 10 guage routed from the battery with a 10 amp fuse into the same hole as the tachometer cable, The amps used are two 50W *2 Channels (Max 5 amps each). Now the only thing is there is a slight high pitch coming from the speakers when the car is on from the tach cable (sound changes with the speed of the tach), is there some sort of circut that could be added before the amps to remove the sound from the power cable (capacitor?)

Thanks Cliff

[Tom Carey]

There are filters to solve that problem. What brand and model of amps did you go with?
Did you run the power wire rite next to any speaker wires or a rca patch cord?


Regards,

Tom Carey

[CliffStrabac]

Hi,
The amps im using are White-Westinghouse 50W*2 Channels not sure of model number (They were given to me) and eventually i plan on getting a larger amp. The power cable was run beside the drivers seat under the plastic pannel at the door beside the rest of the factory wiring and instead of going up allong the pillar with the seatbelt like the factory wiring, the power cable was routed along the floor to the trunk. For the inputs to the amps I tapped into the rear speakers in the tailgate and ran it through a line out converter to get the rca input for the amps. There isn't any humming from the tach through any of the factory speakers. Just through the 'new' amplified ones.

Regards,
Cliff

[Tom Carey]

Cliff the first thing I would do is pull out the seats and run the cable uunder the carpet and away from all the other wires. Running the power cable next to the other cables including no doubt the speaker wires is the most likely cause of the problem. If you do that and the problem still exists you can get filters at either Radio Shack or any Car Audio store that is half way decent. As a dealer myself the best bang for the buck I have found is the Lanzar brand of amps. I highly suggest looking into those. If you want anymore info feel free to email me.

Regards,

Tom Carey


Regards,


Tom Carey