Run it directly to your battery. Make sure you get a inline fuse on the power side. Test your ground where it is the quietest, meaning no ground hum with the engines running and the stereo on.If you put it on the selector switch you will just be able to kill power to it, will have to be selected to get charged as well most likely.

 

I'd suggest u hook it up directy to the non cranking battery.

Joel

 

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

Just to clarify, my boat is a single engine with two batteries and the standard battery switch with 1, 2, both and off positions. I have a Pro-Mariner charger that is kept on when the boat is at the dock. No generator.

My only concern with wiring the amp directly to one of the batteries is parasitic draw when not in use. But the charger should be able to keep up right?

 

The charger will provide more than enough power for the amp when it's off.
Even When it's on, depending on the amp draw, you should really be fine as well!


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Todd

 

I would think that so long as the remote turn on lead of your amplifier is not receiving any voltage and the amplifier is off, it would not have any draw whatsoever. You could verify this by doing a parasitic draw test real quick when you install your amplifier to the battery. I'm certain there will be no draw. There's no reason for there to be as the amplifier doesn't have any memory settings that would require it to draw any constant power to retain them. I have pretty much the same set up you described as far as a single engine, dual battery, and on board charger and this is how I have my amplifier wired (to the non cranking battery). If by chance there is a draw, you charger should be able to keep up. Without knowing what type of Pro Mariner charger you have, if it has any type of smart charger technology- it will automatically come back on and charge your batteries whenever needed.

J

 

If u go with a magnetic circuit breaker, you could just manually trip it during long periods of storage to eliminate any draw that the AMP might have, even though I doubt there would be any draw at all.

Joel

 

I just did a 20 foot power and ground run to a kenwood 5 channel amp at 700 RMS. I used 4 gauge wire instead of 1/0 and fed directly into amp from my battery bank. 60 amp fuse about 6 inches off the battery. If you're just running 1 amp you will be fine. I'm powering all channels and a sub, and it's more than enough. Just get high quality wire. At over 2 dollars a foot it adds up quickly. Just that alone was well over 100 dollars. Then you have to add in good quality speaker wire (70ft) in total for me. If you're adding a multi-amp system then 1/0 to a distribution block to 4 gauge outs would be optimal. Otherwise save the money and get 4 gauge. I'm going on a limb but I'm guessing if I wanted to add 1 more amp 4 gauge would still suffice. 1/0 gauge is for the big players pushing massive wattage. If you have the discretionary income, then have it.

Good luck with the build. An amp makes a world of difference. I can't wait to unleash mine this summer. What are you adding to your boat?

 

I ran the 1/0 from one of my batteries to the stbd aft hanging locker on my boat. I bought two dual post blocks to feed 3 amps. They are all JL Audio, class D amps and recommend 4 ga wiring. I'm going to use that to feed each amp off of the second post just stacking the connectors. I'm putting a 100 amp breaker at the battery and using a couple of 50 amp breakers on my mounting board. I'm using these over fuses primarily because I bought them a while back for an electra-san installation on my old boat that I ended up not doing.


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Todd

 

Thanks for all the feedback guys it has really helped.

Since I already had the 1/0 cable and have it ran already, what is a little overkill...

I am putting the amp, a Alpine PDX5 class D in the starboard forward storage closet, running with a JVC head unit with wireless remote, and have replaced all 4 cockpit speakers with the JL Audio 6.5". I will use the amp to drive the cockpit speakers and the sub, and the head unit to drive the cabin speakers replacing them with Polk 6.5". The only obstacle left to over come is where to mount the 10" JL Audio sub? I may have to go to the 8" to fit in the space available.

Hoping to get it going here in the next couple of weeks.