www.iFourWinns.com

Any of you guys with H240-250-260 have a pic of your amp location and a subwoofer? Is it better to install amp closer to the battery or the head unit?

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2004 Four Winns H250

If you buy the upgraded factory stereo, they put the amp in the bow storage area behind the dash/helm. I mounted mine there and it has worked out fine.

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Norris Lake, Stardust Marina, Andersonville, TN
2005 Four Winns 230 Horizon 5.7L Volvo Gi/DP
2001 Maxum 1900SR 5.0L V8 (Sold)
2011 Nissan Armada Platnum

That would be an ideal placement, except my factory stereo is on the port side. What gage of wire did you run from battery to your amp.

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2004 Four Winns H250

My head unit is also on the port side. I ran the wires down through the ski locker. It has been awhile since I did the install. I want to say that I used 4 gage wire back to the battery (does that sound right?). I have a kicker amp and found a really good price on the kicker wiring kit on eBay--so I went with that. I also purchased an additional long length of 4 gage bulk wire at Home Depot for my ground wire to the battery.

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Norris Lake, Stardust Marina, Andersonville, TN
2005 Four Winns 230 Horizon 5.7L Volvo Gi/DP
2001 Maxum 1900SR 5.0L V8 (Sold)
2011 Nissan Armada Platnum

Yeah, that sounds right. I was thinking either 2 or 4 gage wire. Did you have to rewire the speakers or just extended the wires to the starboard side? I want to connect existing speakers to the amp, will I need to rewire them? I think it would be easier to install the amp on the port side (eliminates moving all the wires) in the head closet. Has anyone done this? I was even thinking to install the amp behind the small storage
compartment just below the stock stereo, there is actually a decent amount of room. In this location I would never see an amp and it would not be readily available. Will that be a problem?

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2004 Four Winns H250

I rewired the speakers because I added speakers to the system. I have my bow Polk speakers and a set of Bose outdoor speakers (that I flip up from them rear ski lockers when we are on the hook swimming) wired to my original Clarion head unit. I have 4 more Polks in the cockpit and a JL 10-inch sub in a sealed box wired to the Kicker amp. I have been VERY happy with this layout.

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Norris Lake, Stardust Marina, Andersonville, TN
2005 Four Winns 230 Horizon 5.7L Volvo Gi/DP
2001 Maxum 1900SR 5.0L V8 (Sold)
2011 Nissan Armada Platnum

Bose on the boat…Nice! Is there a big difference in sound quality from your Polk bow speakers and cockpit speakers? I always wondered how same speakers would sound with and without an amp.

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2004 Four Winns H250

Ideally--a real audiofile would probably want to add a second amp and get the speakers all off the head unit. For me--just upgrading to the polks over the original Clarions was a big improvement and I have found that the people that sit in our bow don't like to get blasted by the music anyway--so it has worked out fine. My other option would have been to connect the bow to the amp and have the second cockpit speakers on the HU.

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Norris Lake, Stardust Marina, Andersonville, TN
2005 Four Winns 230 Horizon 5.7L Volvo Gi/DP
2001 Maxum 1900SR 5.0L V8 (Sold)
2011 Nissan Armada Platnum

http://www.smwebhead.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7535

Here is my Bose speaker swim platform mod.

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Norris Lake, Stardust Marina, Andersonville, TN
2005 Four Winns 230 Horizon 5.7L Volvo Gi/DP
2001 Maxum 1900SR 5.0L V8 (Sold)
2011 Nissan Armada Platnum

The amp closer to the battery would mean less of a voltage loss thus smaller gauge wire. Don't forget the breaker, Its better to go with no fuses in the engine compartment.

That's an awesome idea! Somehow I missed that topic. Thank you for the link.

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2004 Four Winns H250

I don't think I ever saw an amplifier in the engine compartment. Wouldn't you still need a fuse on the power cable?

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2004 Four Winns H250