Here is a pic of my current set-up.


As you can tell I do not care about looks, just like a decent sounding stereo. My problem is that during the summer, my amp will start to overheat if I listen with my music up for more than an hour. My amp is a Kicker 5-channel that powers MB Quart seperates (front), SoundStream seperates (rear), and Boston G12-44 sub. I was trying to decide if I need an amp rack with some built in cooling fans? I could care less about the crazy in-floor with neon racks because I do not want to spend the $$$. No one sees my trunk except me. Anyone know where to buy one cheap?

 

is everything else factory??

u just added the sub and amp anmd kept everything else stock?

 

Nothing stock remains.

Kenwood H/U
Kenwood 9044 EQ
MB Quart 6 1/2 mids (front)
MB Quart Tweets (front)
Soundstream 6" Mids (rear)
Soundstream Tweets (rear)
Boston Acoustic G512-44
Kicker KX700.5 5-Channel Amp

 

Anyone????

 

How high is the gain turned up on your amp? Having it set too high is probably the most common cause of overheating.

Also, amps are meant to be mounted flat. Although many people mount them to the back of the seat as you have, cooling would be better if it was flat on the floor.

 

that setup shouldnt be over heating that fast, power and ground wire too thin?

 

The gain for the sub is almost turned full because the amp is definitely underpowered for the sub. I hate to mount the amp flat because I always have my golf clubs with me.

No, I had it professionally installed and they used ample gauge for a 5-channel amp. I am afraid I got too much sub for the amp.

 

I'd have to agree with this. It looks like if gets enough air, maybe not moving air. But enough to the point where it shouldn't overheat that fast. I've ran my amplifiers for 7 1/2 trips at medium/high volumes without them overheating. If urs is over heating that fast the gain settins are probably too high.

 

I don't have this setup anymore but when I had an amp that would overheat like yours, I basically gave it "feet" and lifted if off the amp rack so it could cool off on the back as well. It was really simple and it took maybe 10 minutes to do. I just drilled in a 1"x1"x.5" block of wood where each mounting point would have been on my amp rack and then I mounted the amp onto each block of wood. Never had a problem after that.

 

Great idea and makes sense. I will try mounting the amp as described above and taking the gain down on the sub a little. Thanks everyone.

 

Good luck!

If that still doesn't help, you could always add a small fan (like one from a computer)