hey guys, this isnt actually for my ranger *yet*
but it will be soon as I plan on making some changes to my sub/stereo.

if I run a single amp for the sub and leave it as 1 channel, how would I run the wire from the amp to the sub ?
I want to use both left and right signals from the HU for more signal [?]

do I run the + from 1 side and the - from the other ? (I think its called slaving?)
or do I run both + from both sides into the single + for the amp (I think this would either cancel it out or blow the amp ?)
Im kind of at a loss and have been trying to find things online, but Im not the greatest with wiring, I can hook up an HU and run speakers with X-overs easily enough, but I havent fully wired a sub yet. (the sub wiring was done by previous owner in my ranger, I just had to hook it back up with my own components)

here is my plan to date:

 

sorry, I should have mentioned that the amp is for the sub only.

 

if I understand what your saying it sounds like you want to bridge the two channels. 1 neg from one channel and 1 pos from the other. Usually there is identification marks on the amp for bridging.



also the next question i suppose would be, Is this sub a dual voice coil or single? and then what the ohms on the sub

 

that is a good question
the SUB for the image above is the BOSE spare tire sub for my talon (as small as that car is, its all it needs) I wont know full specs on it until it arrives, but some of the reading Ive done leads me to think it is a dual coil 6.5" powered sub, the amp is 100w mono and pretty weak, so I most likely will be upgrading it later on.
so after thinking on it, I guess I should have worded my original question differently.
is it possible to wire a single channel amp from both the left and right channel ?

in my ranger, the sub has 2x 10" that are currently running on 2 channels (rt/lft). when I redo it Id like them to be running as 1 single sub.
the speakers are JBL 500 watt 4 OHM, I cant answer if they are dual coil or not but Im going to assume not.
I think I found out the wiring for the ranger
I would run the positive from the amp to the positive of 1 speaker, then run the ground from that speaker to the positive of the other speaker, then run the ground from that back to the positive for the other channel ?

so in essence, I guess I need 2 answers:
how to run both channels to a single amp >
how to run 2 subs as a single >

oops, forgot again, what Im going for is range of sound, not heavy bass :)

 

Michael, here is a link to a pretty cool little wizard that will give you different wiring
options for your subs depending on the setup(ohms,dual or single coil, etc.) Also
keep in mind the load on the amp as well, make sure to check and see if it is 2 ohm
or 4 ohm stable etc., but if it is a mono amp like you said, more than likely it is stable
down to 2 ohms, they are more efficient than multi-channel amps, and a good amp to
run your subs.
Rockford Fosgate® - Woofer WiringWizard

 

awesome Shawn !
perfect for what I was looking for, thank you !!

 

No problem bro, glad that helps.

 

ok, another question
is it possible to wire a low power amp to another low power amp ?

I have a 100w amp Im going to run the BOSE off, and have thought about getting a 4 channel amp for the corner spkrs.
my HU only has RCA for the 4 corners, no pre-amp.
Im running x-overs for all corners (see above for layout) so the signal going to the sub amp would be bass only.
Im thinking about a 240-320w - 4x amp, which would put it around 60-80w per channel, that + the HU should put me between 80-100w signal going to the 100w amp for the sub.

is this even possible or am I looking at blowing my amp up (literally)

(BTW, I just realized the diagram above is literally how the speakers are laid out in the car)

 

Ok, so if I understand correctly your head unit only has one Rca out, right? so, in order to hook up another amp you would need a line output converter such as this
Scosche LOC80 2-channel line output converter at Crutchfield.com
my deck has 2 rca outs, but that is how mine is setup, one mono amp to the subs, and a 4 channel amp to the corners. Also dont worry about the power from the deck, when you run the amp you dont use the decks power, so you get cleaner power from the amp. So
the amps wont be wired together either, and you wont blow up the amp unless you hook up something wrong. basically the only wire from my amps that is wired together is the remote turn on wire.
btw..some amps have both connections for rca and line output too and in that case you wouldnt need the converter

 

no, my HU had 4 RCA for the four channels (FR,FL,RR,RL) but no sub out.
what Im looking to do is run the RCA to the 4 crossovers, then to the speakers.
using 2 way x-over for the front and a 3way x-over for the rear. I want to take the bass/low connection from the x-over to a small amp that would be running the sub.
example using the 3way:
high -> tweeter, mid -> midbass, low -> 2nd AMP/sub.

however, Im encountering another problem at the moment....
I wired the single AMP up today that is going to power the sub, since I like how the system sounds now without the 4 channel amp I figure I can live without it for a while as it is as long as I can add a sub to the mix.
Im positive I wired it up right (seeing as the power light came on)
but I got no sound from the sub at all.
I checked the connections 3 times over to make sure there is no loose wires/connectors anywhere, checked to make sure its getting power, yet nothing.
and my front speakers all sounded like crap due to a lot of feedback, which I know to be a crossed wire somewhere...
I unhooked the sub/amp and ran the system as it was prior to plugging the amp in and it worked as good as ever.
this is using a brand new Amp that I know works.

I have 3 theories but have no clue which might be correct
1st: somewhere along the wiring I got my +/- crossed. which Ive heard can create problems (although Ive mixed my +/- before with no problems...)
2nd: the BOSE sub we talked about in the other thread is double wired (two sides of the speaker have wires to the plug. so when I wired it up I just put both + together from both the amp and the sub (same thing with the - wiring)
3rd I was trying to run the AMP after the x-over thinking it shouldnt matter and might be better as it would be a "cleaner" signal.

so any help would be greatly appreciated.
oh yea, I do not think the Amp is bridgeable and it is 2 channel.

now Im considering just grabbing a 5 channel Amp to avoid all the hassle (even though I have to admit I enjoy doing this, until I encounter something I cant figure out....)

 

Hmm, The Bose sub is a powered sub right? Im not real familiar with powered subs but if
you are trying to run a external amp to it and its powered, maybe that is why its not working, to be honest, Im not sure if/how you would wire that Bose to bypass the subs internal amp. Maybe someone else can help with that?
If you are getting feedback in the speakers, try running the power wires down one side of the cab and speaker wires down the other side to avoid the feedback. both of my amps have built in crossovers and my deck has adjustable crossover points, so I guess that simplified things alot for me. I would just look for a four or five channel amp with built in crossovers and be done with it, because from what it sounds like is you have two sets of
rca's so you could easily run two amps from the deck, depending upon which way you go.
I hope this helps some, I have a hard time visualizing things sometimes, and I need to actually see what I am doing, but I will help anyway I can.

 

heh
thank you for trying to help, I was getting frazzled

I got it working today.
the BOSE is not powered (it is an option, I just got one that isnt because I was adding an amp to the system anyways)
what happened is simple, I assumed (love that word... since it makes an *** out of me...) that since it had two input lines on either side of the speaker, that you are supposed to wire it up that way, however this is not the case.
while setting it up this morning, 1 side + wire came undone and bam, the sub came on
while doing some reading, I guess it is DVC, but its stock wiring is setup for a BOSE component system, that allows for 2 channels to come in, but my deck conflicts if it does this, which is the feedback I was getting.
I also got the amp to work today, the problem I had before was along the same lines, trying to run both channels into 1, thus cutting out most of the signal and creating feedback for the rest of the deck. also, the speakers I was using were an old (very old) set of roadmasters that came in the Ranger when I bought it 6 yrs ago. I never used them as I immediately installed a new system in the ranger, so these had been sitting collecting dust. but they did work when I pulled them, so I assumed (again !) they would still work. I guess sitting around for 5+ yrs did something because they do not work, even when wired directly to the HU.
so I used the old stock speakers from the talon (which = SUCKINESS) but they powered up with the Amp.
now I have to figure out exactly how I want to wire this up. if I want to go ahead and get a 5 channel amp (best/easiest route) or if I want to try and make it work with a 4 channel amp and a 2 channel bridged for the sub.
meh, decisions decisions...

on back to my above question:
if I wanted to use both amp in series, could it work ?
Id be running the 240 amp to the front/rear speakers using crossovers, my HU has RCA out for all for channels but no sub out.
I was thinking of running the bass signal from the rear X-over to the amp for the sub, but Im afraid of blowing up the Amp, or getting conflicting signals again.

 

ok, so I was on eBay last night looking at some stuff, and realized a couple of subs I had bids on were coming to a close, I had bid low expecting to be outbid pretty quickly, but when I checked, sure enough, I had won both auctions !
the 1st was for a pair of VR3 12" subs @ 175 RMS, for $24.00 shipped
the 2nd is a single Power Bass 10" sub @ 250 RMS (new) for $15.00 shipped.

so my question is (because of how low the prices were) did I rip myself off some 40 odd dollars ?

 

welp... scratch some of that
this is the email I just received from the seller of the power bass speaker:

so you think its BS and he just is backing out of the ToS as I do ?

the other seller already shipped the VR3 subs