Suggestions for Stereo Wire

[DixieWASP]

I removed my truck's carpet for a very good cleaning and while the carpet is removed from the truck's cab I would like to "future-proof" my truck for a possible upgraded stereo, amplifier, and speakers. With that information, what wire should I install under the carpet before it is reinstalled? What type of wire would be needed for a possible subwoofer speaker, stereo amplifier, and additional speakers? This is a photo of my wet carpet.

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[Drunkcanuk]

Off the top of my head.....both sides of the front speaker wires, RCA's for any amps and don't forget the remote turn on wire. Large guage power wire and may as well get a good ground wire set up while the carpet is out.

 

[DixieWASP]

Off the top of my head.....both sides of the front speaker wires, RCA's for any amps and don't forget the remote turn on wire. Large guage power wire and may as well get a good ground wire set up while the carpet is out.

Thank you for the information.

 

[Kran]

without knowing power requirements, i would suggest this. 6 channel's worth of rcas (front door, rear door, subwoofer), 16 (or 14) gauge cable for door speakers, 12 (or 10) gauge for subwoofer speaker wire. 1/0 gauge car audio brand cable (or 2/0 gauge welding cable, audio power/ground wire is oversize from true AWG spec). and remote wire cant forget that. all that should let you put a roughly 2000rms combined (1500rms on subs, 500rms on mids and highs) system in without connection problems. car audio wire brands to look at are stinger and knukonceptz. welding cable brands would be eb flex or royal excelene. a lot of people suggest sky high but i am not a fan of whoever their cable manufacturer is. any time i strip sky high wire the strand bundles immediately come apart and do not stay together when re-twisting. never had that issue with welding cable or other brands of OFC cable.

i cannot stress this enough but you absolutely want OFC (oxygen free copper) for speaker cable and power/ground cables. CCA (aluminum) wire is cheaper, but performs worse and cannot handle as much power compared to OFC, when comparing the same gauge sizes.

 

[DixieWASP]

without knowing power requirements, i would suggest this. 6 channel's worth of rcas (front door, rear door, subwoofer), 16 (or 14) gauge cable for door speakers, 12 (or 10) gauge for subwoofer speaker wire. 1/0 gauge car audio brand cable (or 2/0 gauge welding cable, audio power/ground wire is oversize from true AWG spec). and remote wire cant forget that. all that should let you put a roughly 2000rms combined (1500rms on subs, 500rms on mids and highs) system in without connection problems. car audio wire brands to look at are stinger and knukonceptz. welding cable brands would be eb flex or royal excelene. a lot of people suggest sky high but i am not a fan of whoever their cable manufacturer is. any time i strip sky high wire the strand bundles immediately come apart and do not stay together when re-twisting. never had that issue with welding cable or other brands of OFC cable.

i cannot stress this enough but you absolutely want OFC (oxygen free copper) for speaker cable and power/ground cables. CCA (aluminum) wire is cheaper, but performs worse and cannot handle as much power compared to OFC, when comparing the same gauge sizes.

Thank you for telling me what I need to know. I had no idea about the OFC speaker cable. I am a newbie and know almost nothing about stereo equipment.

 

[Onizukachan]

When I did mine last week or two, I didn’t yet know where I was going to be placing the amps, so I ran my rcas down the side of the tunnel and taped them in place to keep them out of the way, then coiled them up on the little shelf behind the rear seat Under carpet till I was ready. (2 days later I decided but still)


as ghetto as it sounds I came to the same conclusion as whoever was in there before me. Only tape that will truly stick to the floor to hold wires etc in place/ out of way, is duck tape.

 

[Onizukachan]

Adding on to the above, if you buy a 6 channel RCA instead of 3 pairs of 2 it saves lots of space and work.

but I’d suggest instead a 4 channel RCA and a 2 channel, because you might mount amps in two places, or the rcas might not be close enough to use a 6 between two amps. Plus makes it easy to tell which is the sub amp rcas!

 

[DixieWASP]

When I did mine last week or two, I didn’t yet know where I was going to be placing the amps, so I ran my rcas down the side of the tunnel and taped them in place to keep them out of the way, then coiled them up on the little shelf behind the rear seat Under carpet till I was ready. (2 days later I decided but still)


as ghetto as it sounds I came to the same conclusion as whoever was in there before me. Only tape that will truly stick to the floor to hold wires etc in place/ out of way, is duck tape.

Post some photos of your wires and stereo if you can.

 

[Alteca]

I can second the use of OFC wire, it is worth the extra $$$

 

[Onizukachan]

Post some photos of your wires and stereo if you can.

Click on my sig for build thread. Not much to see though, sorry. Didn’t take many pics of the rats nest. All my wires are laid out nicely, taped in place or thru sill channels, and fully hidden now that carpet is in. Cant even see anything in amp rack, lol.

But it was a cluster fork in the dash and floor, I was pulling out old stuff from previous installs, rerunning stuff, adding my power mirror wiring, etc etc and I have 8 ga running out every door for the 60lb solenoids so that was fun to work around.

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The one blue wire you see here is for a future idq12, spool is sitting under the seat for now but it was way easier to hookup the wire before mounting the amp.