Batboard

I'm looking for 2ga wire to run my battery (positive only... will use chassis ground) to the rear cargo area of a 98 S10 Blazer. I'm going to be running two 110w Spectras and a 110w X9000. I'm planning on use 2ga so that I can eventually upgrade to a Hellroaring battery isolator/combiner with a Optima yellow top deep cycle battery. Is this battery cable from Del City a good choice for this type of run?

https://www.delcity.net/tstore/servlet/ ... 649&page=1

For now I'm planning on fusing the positve lead at the battery and running it into a fused distribution box (probably a streetwires w/ maxi fuses). I'm still looking for a good spot to ground to the chassis.

Also, anyone have experience running 2ga wire in a 98 S10 Blazer?

Thanks!

Del City is a good place to get this.

Running anything in an S/T truck is a :o!

You probably already know this, but dont forget to beef up your (-) to chassis ground strap.

ddpg wrote:I'm looking for 2ga wire to run my battery (positive only... will use chassis ground) to the rear cargo area of a 98 S10 Blazer. I'm going to be running two 110w Spectras and a 110w X9000. I'm planning on use 2ga so that I can eventually upgrade to a Hellroaring battery isolator/combiner with a Optima yellow top deep cycle battery. Is this battery cable from Del City a good choice for this type of run?

For now I'm planning on fusing the positve lead at the battery and running it into a fused distribution box (probably a streetwires w/ maxi fuses). I'm still looking for a good spot to ground to the chassis.

An idea my father suggested for my Caprice was to put another battery in the trunk connected to the battery under the hood (by both negative and positive, properly secured, of course) and attach the radios to the trunk battery. This gives the benefit of not pulling tons of current out of the system up front because of the natural resistance of the wire, but when the load is removed and the wire resistance decreases, the battery can float back up to proper voltage. For this scenario, fuses are a must and I'd do both sides as well as the radios. I'd also take advantage of the radio ground point and tie the trunk ground to the (long) negative cable as well as the radios, etc. If you want to do it right, the motorola way, ground the battery to a seperate place on the trunk floor and ground the radio to the trunk floor. This way, if the radio's ground ceases to function, it won't create a high-SWR situation and fry your radio's PA. Sure, it's a lot of work, but if you do it right the first time....

Also, I have some misgivings about using a seperate negative lead on the back battery, but one of my cars is a RustBucket(tm) and therefore has terrible body conductivity.

Jim - I never had a problem running anything in my S-10 Blazers..I've had 3, 2 still going...although it could be that it's what I'm used to. Only thing I forsee is having to pop in a new grommet to accomodate for the 2ga, although I've gotten alot though the factory ones...antenna's worse for me on these vehicals...

Is 25 feet of 2GA enough to go from the front of a 94 Caprice to the back? What route would you take -- the passenger's door, or the middle for the ultimate in protection?

omg - thats a LONG caprice...you doing a limo install?

I would get like 15...

chipjumper wrote:omg - thats a LONG caprice...you doing a limo install?

I would get like 15...

The car is some 17.5' long and the front battery is at the very front of the car and the battery I'll be putting in won't be that far back, but I'm thinking I'm going to loose distance routing wire around stuff in the interior.

An often overlooked source for high temp/flexable/oil resistant cable is welding cable. Generally it is a much finer guage of wire, almost making it a wire rope.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dl ... sicSearch=

Lots of options on eBay depending upon how many feet you need...

Stay away from car audio wire auctions on eBay... Major gouging on the shipping...

I've gone with 25' of #2 SAE J-1127 battery cable from Del City. As others have pointed out, it's best to have acceptable wires for the install rather than wonder if it's questionable or not.

SlimBob wrote:

chipjumper wrote:omg - thats a LONG caprice...you doing a limo install?

I would get like 15...

The car is some 17.5' long and the front battery is at the very front of the car and the battery I'll be putting in won't be that far back, but I'm thinking I'm going to loose distance routing wire around stuff in the interior.

25 is a good coverall, because you can simply clean-coil it if you have extra, or use the extra for patchwork or separate connections...

and you do quickly lose feet in routing stuff around interior objects, example;
bee line distance from stereo head to amp = 5' 7 inches (95 explorer)
actual routed distance (thru dash, down to floor, thru passenger door wiring run to back of passenger rear seat) = 13' 1"..


be safe, rather than splicing.

Ok, now where can I get wafer fuses and blocks without spending an arm and a leg because everyone thinks I want a kickin' stereo?

SlimBob wrote:Ok, now where can I get wafer fuses and blocks without spending an arm and a leg because everyone thinks I want a kickin' stereo?

http://www.valcoelectronics.com/caudio/fuse.htm

and

https://www.delcity.net

for blocks and other stuff...

courtesy of google...(well, not the del city link)