I didn't grind anything. I am probably not going to fuse it simply for the fact that fusing it will loose some of the amperage flow.

the 2/0 (ought) wire is 700A IIRC
the largest fuse readily available to me is 200A (car audio wise)


that just totally defeated the purpose of this upgrade. Because you do have current spikes above 200 w/ a 300 amp alternator....therefore there would have been no point to the upgrade...shoulda stuck w/ 2 awg wire

Anyways....if i light my truck on fire...at least i know a lot of fireman ahhaha and my dad is a captain of the Sunrise F.D.

that was a joke btw

 

I had to trim the peice that rests against the terminal (on the alt).

I must have been reading to fast. My bad. let us know what else you come up with.

 

I've had this big-3 done for a while now. I used 4g for the big-3 wiring, but have 1/0 power ran into the cab for my stereo and 4g ground from my stereo back to the ground of the battery for my SoundStream amp which draws a max of about 130A along with my 4-channel Alpine amp which draws like 30 or so. I have a capacitor in my system with a digital voltage reading, and it runs at 14.4 usually at idle, in the cold maybe a little more even. I also have an optima yellowtop.
I used shrinkwrap for the ends of most of the wiring. I also don't have a fuse between the alt and batt, which I will soon. For the engine ground, I went from a bolt on the alternator right to the body about 1 foot away.
My 4g is audio wire, I believe it's Knuconceptz, and my 0g is from weldingsupply.com. The welding wire is awesome and its 100% copper I believe.

 

thats awesome!

you actually did it the right way :)

i just rigged it

on the battery how did you get it to just have one terminal? It looks like you just took the stock wiring (to pos battery) away. I'm not sure exactly what you did.

I know that goes straight to the fuse box...so how did you pull that one off?? I'm just curious, I'm about to do the same.

And I'm thinking about cleaning up my install....after i get the HO alt and batt that is

 

First of all thanks.


The stock (red) power wire/s are 2 8g strands, I took those apart some and exposed about 3-4" of wire and took a 4g with about 3-4" exposed and sort of wrapped them together, then shrink wrapped a nice piece of wrap around that, that is the blue positive wire. The black 4g with the silver loom is the power from the alternator. The yellow is 0g to my ext cab under the truck, I drilled a hole in the floor in the ext cab and filled all around it with spray expanding foam. As for the grounds, the 8g (black) is the stock ground, along with one of the blues, I spliced it into the stock I believe. The other blue goes right to the body right there. And the black 4g goes through the cab to my sub amp.
The yellowtop is awesome because the 0g I put on the GM terminal. It would have been hard to do with a regular batt.

 

thats awesome

 

I'm bringing this one back from the dead because I have a few questions. Would 0 gauge wire work alright for me? And where can I get this wire/fuses/terminals for wiring this big? I want to upgrade the 'big 3' to 0 gauge. For my system and carputer, I want to run 4 gauge to a distribution block, and run my amps and carputer from there. What kind of place would I go to in order to get these supplies?

The system is going to be a 500W amp, a 300W amp, and a carputer with a ~120W power supply.

Oh, and what about a battery? I'd like an optima red/yellow top, but which one would be better for my application? I'll also have some PIAA lights on the truck, if that makes a difference.

 

yellow is for prolonged run time with the engine off, red top is for starting.

i would saw 4 awg would be fine unless u have any significant lenghts in wire. id get a higher output alt, check out knuconcepts for battery terminals...they are the ****. i got my wire and ends locally. if ur gunna make new cables get some solder pellets from Napa and heat shrink tubing.

strip 1-1 1/2" from the end of a wire, insert the solder pellet into a copper battery terminal end and heat with a propane torch. when the sodler melts, stick the striped wire in and let cool. if its done right u will have an uber strong connection that will last for ever. seal off the exposed area with some heat shrink tubing or liquid electrical tape and life is good.

 

0 guage is fine...most people use 4 gauge actually. There is an amperage chart I have somewhere if you need it I can reference it.

click here

or try ebay

or try here

I love the welding supply wire. Just scroll a little down the screen, it's there. Theres a chart also, to see what wire you need for how many amps you pull. welding wire is cheap and it's arguably just as good.

LMK what you decide to do, I can walk you through, or take pics

BTW, I got my battery terminals from ebay, just do a search for battery terminals, get the kind that accept (1) 0 gauge wire (1) 4 guage wire (2) 8 gauge wires...it works perfect and it's gold plated.

If you need help, just ask

 

knuconcepts one are ****!

 

well i just bought a 200 amp ALT...guess i better do this too...god more wiring

 

The larger the wire the less resistance. Think of a water pipe the larger the pipe the easier it flows the water and the more water it can flow.

 

you just buy Jareds?

 

[QUOTE=optikal illushun]knuconcepts one are ****!
QUOTE]

knu for teh win!

 

Okay so I just ordered this . Besides the terminals, this thing has everything i need to upgrade "the big three" right? I should have asked before I bought it but got clicky happy. Can I use that style inline fuse? I'm pretty sure I could. What size fuse should I get for my (currently) stock alternator?

 

Since I've got a 200amp alternator on the way, I guess it's time to do this. I know the difference in 2g vs 4g vs 8g wire etc, etc., but not sure what you guys are talking about with the 2/0, 4/0 stuff. I was planning to use 2g wire from the alt to the battery, now I'm not sure what I need. Is the 2/0 etc stuff just for welding wire? What do I tell the guys at the welding shop that I need?

I know I need:
---appropriate lengths of ??????? wire
---lugs for ^ wire to fit 1/4" bolts
---new battery terminals to accept the bigger wire
---some type of inline fuse (alt to bat) rated for 200 amps
---misc heatshrink, loom, etc.

Am I missing anything?

 

2/0 and 4/0 are some really big wire... if that's what you are going to go with when you go to the shop tell them you need 2 or 4 ought (sounds like aught) wire and the lengths you need.... look at the wire FIRST though, make sure it is some flexible stuff