I have a 200 watt HiFonics Zeus amp and a 10" Image Dynamics IDQ10 D2 woofer that I used to have in my Jeep and has been sitting in my garage for several years. Just got a boat and decided I should install it in there and get a little bit more use out of it.
I have the location and the box design figured out (In the driver's kick panel) but I've only wired up amps in cars in the past. Is it safe to ground this small of an amp to the grounding block or do I need to run it all the way to the battery as you typically would with the positive cable?
What gauge wire should I be using?
Long term I probably should run a fat cable up to a distribution block so if I add an amp for tower speakers I'll be ready but that's big $$$ and I've spent enough on the boat for one season. I'd rather do something cheap and sufficient and then redo it (or add another small wire) later if I end up needing to.
Run a ground wire all the way to the battery. If you think you are going to upgrade and add later, you might as well run 0 awg from the battery distribution blocks. If this will be it, either 2 or 4 gauge depending on the length of the run.
If you're gonna stay at 1000 watts and under then 4 gauge is plenty. Run that to a distribution block for both positive (fused) and ground then you can run either 4 or 8 gauge out to the the amp. 8 out to the 200 watt amp.
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