I am going to run a 10 awg wire from my battery to my cd player (a pioneer unit). Now the question is which wire is the power wire i should splice into? The red one (which should get 12 votls ONLY when the ignition is on) or the yellow one (when should get a constant 12 volts)? Red or yellow or both??
Thanks
Brady

 

What do you mean by splice into? You're going to cut the radio wire from the car's radio harness, and connect the radio right to the 10 gauge, right? Use a fuse somewhere on that wire!

If it's a newer Pioneer, I believe you'd want to run the battery power to the radio's yellow wire, constant +12. Those yellow wires have gotten thicker over the years; I assume that they supply the primary voltage to the radio, and that the "on with ignition" wire is just a "turn-on" for the radio. But I could very well be wrong, so- anyone agree or disagree?

 

i do believe youre correct.


adam

 

Of course I am going to use an inline fuse somewhere. I was thinking 30 amp would work. So yall guys think the should run it to the constant wire....

Thanks

 

any particular reason that you're using 10 AWG to power a head unit?

 

yes, i always use bigger then necessary wire. is there something wrong with that?

 

Nothing wrong with it. Probably just not totally neccesary. I have my Alpine wired to the existing harness in the car with no problems and it's sitting at the front of a 1300 watt stereo system.

Yes it would go the the 12v constant wire. Should be the yellow wire on the deck.

 

No, there's nothing wrong with it. I'm all about overkill too, but 10 AWG is a little too much overkill, but it's your money, not mine.

Why not just skip the wire all together and run a copper bus bar right to the radio?

 

Cause it would be a bitch putting an inline fuse in a bus bar.

 

You could use duct tape.

 

haha

FWIW i ended up using 12awg wire with an inline 30 amp fuse. i connected this to the yellow wire. radio stays on now, much better. im not used to leaving the radio on while hitting the brakes, turning on the headlights, or just cruising at any level above what a grandma would listen to...

all good now though....
i put the subs back in too, this took under 1 hour to do, and i even ran 12 awg ground wire.

thanks
brady

 

12awg for the ground of the subs? or for your head unit?


smallest wire i would ever EVER go for subs, would be 8awg.


adam

 

if all you're feeding is your head unit, yank that 30 amp fuse and replace it with a 10 amp. You'll be safer.