legacycentral bbs

It took me a long time, but I finally got my battery in the trunk.

It looks really good, doesn't take much space, and everything is easy to get to. I've got a circuit breaker in the box (100 amp), so if something goes wrong, I can just flip the switch. It also acts as a battery cut-off. Need to reset the ECU? Just flip the switch.

I got the Summit kit, the Circuit Breaker and connectors are all from Monster Audio, and I'm running an Optima Yellow Top. Since my battery is now in the trunk, I decided to wire up my amp and sub again.

My power cable for the amp is about 12 inches long, it's cool.

I've got 2gauge wire for battery power and ground, and 4 gauge for my amp's power and ground.

I ran the Positive lead up the drivers side floor pan (under the white plastic peice under the carpet) and through the stock hole in the firewall (through a competition Grommet by Monster Audio). It's bolted right to the stock location at the starter, and the stock wire is running back to the fuse box for now. I grounded the rear to the bumper bolt, and did the same in the front.

I'm REALLY pleased with how this came out. My only complaint is the multi-tray, and how horrible it is for audio resonance. If you have anything in it, it vibrates and sounds bad.

I bolted my amp to the back of my sub box, so that I could pull the whole thing out in under 5 minutes if I had to. The amp is running off of a seperate fused link.

Everyone should move their battery to the trunk! I can't wait to drive this thing!

Cool. Yeah, you can't have stuff in the multi-tray if you have a sub back there.

I'm curious -- did you consider using 0-gauge wire for the power side? 2-gauge usually causes a couple tenths of a volt drop at full charge, and 0-gauge does a bit better.

How is the battery secured in the trunk?

The Summit kit comes with 2-gauge, so I used that. The thought of 0 gauge came to mind, but it would have been a BITCH to run it with all of the turns the cable has to make coming out of the box.

I'm not to worried about the drop over the distance. The Yellow top makes enough juice that I think it won't even be noticeable. I should have multi-metered the wire first, for curiousity sake.

I haven't bolted her down yet, because I still have my whole interior out. I'm just going to bolt strap-guides to the floor, and strap the battery box to the ground. I don't want to bolt the box down because I want to be able to take the box out.

All I heard when the bass hit was screwdrivers and crap bouncing all around, lol. I'll figure a way around it.

I set the sub up for ease of removal for track events. 5 bolts to get the seats out, and just pull the power and ground from the battery and from the amp itself, and viola! Bolted the amp to the back of the sub to make a nice compact unit (well, as compact as a 15" sub can be).

like to the back of the box? Isn't that going to prematurely kill the amp?

How would that kill the amp? The amp is bolted to the back of the sub-box. No different than if it were bolted to the back of the seat.

Phil - Yeah, I guess having a very strong battery should compensate for the slightly weaker charging. And you're probably doing just as good a job carrying current to the starter with this wire as you were with the stock wire.

Hardy - Why would it be bad for the amp? I have my amp bolted to my sub box for the exact same reason -- so I can yank the whole thing out easily.

I had read because of box flex you should never mount an amp to a box

Yep! You'd be proud to see it done Vikash. All connections are crimped, soldered, and heat-shrunk. Power run down the drivers side, RCA's run down the passenger side. Everything is securely in place, I've just gotta do the P-Loops to hold the cables where I want them. Plus, I thought the circuit breaker was a stroke of genius.

The install looks very clean, all wires hidden throughout the car. I doubt you'll even be able to tell that wires are run anywhere. I do need to fix my ground spot though. It doesn't lay entirely flat.

THAWA wrote:I had read because of box flex you should never mount an amp to a box

Nah, that's not a concern for 2 reasons.

A) The physical size of the peice on the back of the box is so small, any flex is un-noticeable.

B) I don't crank the sub up THAT loud, just a sedate bump for music.