plexi glass boxes

[Domsz06]

Spharis,

thanks for the info!

Razz,

HA HA HA

[spharis]

You guys also have to remember the stuff I suggest is based on my experience/preferences....it is by no means a bible of sorts. i do find alot of things alot of installers to silly though.....polyfil in all boxes is one of them.....

[Razzman]

I wouldn't. You don't have to worry about grounding the power line, and each amp will be protected by an integrated fuse.

Fusing is important in an auto because the entire metal chassis is ground. If a cable chafes or gets cut, you will have unregulated power dump to that short, maybe even starting a fire. In a boat, there is no chassis ground, or a firewall for a cable to chafe through. Fusing the wire isn't a necessity. Sure it offers some level of protection, say if a cable came undone, and touched ground; but that is a very unlikely scenarion, and one that can easily identified/stopped. You have component wires in your boat wired the same way right now.

Of course this is my logic, but I haven't seen any reason to do it otherwise. I don't think Lee's shop fuses any ballast pumps or other components they install.

So is there any scenario where fusing in a boat would be critical? If not then I'm dumping the blasted fused dist block and just running straight to the amps. One has two 30 amp fuses, the other a single 30 amp.

Also, i plan on adding a couple bus terminals for power and ground distribution for switches, gauges, etc. Any rules of thumb for that scenario?

[Domsz06]

i would fuse anything that might run through a tight opening where metal may be contacted, since the metal may have a way to ground. Or if your running the wires through something that could be wet and in water that could track back to ground, like the ingine block or something.

[Razzman]

My install is real easy. I'm not grounding to the motor and no water comes into play unless you throw it under the bow behind the seat where the batts are! If water actually gets to the amps then i'm sinking anyway so what the heck The only thing wires are passing through is the wood bulkhead that runs from the dash to the bow seperating the bow into two compartments. Where they'll run though the existing vent hose opening in the wood and be encased in that rubbery pipe insulation stuff. Everywhere else they'll be covered in that black accordian wire loom stuff.

[Domsz06]

yeah, you should be fine.

[evil0ne]

I didn't build it and it's not in a boat but:

[Domsz06]

sharp looking box. Mine will look something like that, or at least I hope

[Domsz06]

You guys also have to remember the stuff I suggest is based on my experience/preferences....it is by no means a bible of sorts. i do find alot of things alot of installers to silly though.....polyfil in all boxes is one of them.....

Ok, here is another dilema. PPI amps don't have internal fuses, so do you still not use a fuse, or just use one big fuse, or go ahead and put an 100 watt fuse for each amp? Just wondering.

[spharis]

Fuse each amp if it doesn't have an integrated fuse. Are you sure PPI doesn't have a fuse on the side of it?

[Domsz06]

yeah positive, it's one downfall of it. but still worth it IMO

[Tanner]

Dom,

A problem I ran into using 0 guage wire, and no fuses is connecting the wires to the amps. The 0 guage is a bit to big to fit into the amps. The fuses solved this problem.

Since your gonna building this box from scratch with a clear window... something I always thought looked good was lining the inside of the box with either polished (or chromed) diamond plate or mirrors.

[Razzman]

Ok, here is another dilema. PPI amps don't have internal fuses, so do you still not use a fuse, or just use one big fuse, or go ahead and put an 100 watt fuse for each amp? Just wondering.

Dom, how many amps are you running?

[Domsz06]

I'm going to have 6 amps running just under 5000 watts It's gonna be BAD @$$

[Domsz06]

thanks for the advice Tanner, I may look at that.

Spharis,

Since I'm running six 12 volt batteries, I need to run the two from my terminal one in parallel, and then do the 4 from terminal 2 in two groups of parallel, correct? Would this Could you draw up a simple diagram to make sure I do it right? I'm pretty sure I know how to do it, but just don't wanna mess it up

Thanks.