[Ian]

Today, my car died as I was driving, and I saw and smelled smoke. I
opened the hood to find that the amp's power cable had melted at the
part where the copper lead connects to the ring terminal at the
battery. It actually melted the wire's insulation and burned (read:
chipped) the brass terminal ring. It also nearly burned a hole
through the hood and chipped some paint. I can't seem to figure out
what could've went wrong. I had this install for year without any
problems.

The total amp power of my system is 1500 WRMS. The amp's power cable
is 1awg, and runs about 17 feet to a distribution block in the trunk.
The power cable is fused at the battery with a 200 amp fuse (which
didn't blow for some reason).

Before this all happened, there was a huge downpour of rain. Could
rain coming in contact with the amp's power cable have caused this? I
want to track down the problem so I can prevent this from happening
again in the future.

Any information appreciated!

[GregS]

In article , Ian wrote:
Today, my car died as I was driving, and I saw and smelled smoke. I
opened the hood to find that the amp's power cable had melted at the
part where the copper lead connects to the ring terminal at the
battery. It actually melted the wire's insulation and burned (read:
chipped) the brass terminal ring. It also nearly burned a hole
through the hood and chipped some paint. I can't seem to figure out
what could've went wrong. I had this install for year without any
problems.

I once shorted a battery with a screwdriver. It was a big deepcycle
battery set up inside a military van. I took care of the battery charging
to power the transmitter for drone aircraft. I think I was just fooling around
trying to get sparks. The caps were off at the time. The screwdriver
took hold of the battery terminals. I jumped out of the van while I
looked up at the battery sitting on top of the table. It began hissing
and finally erupted with several fountains of acid hitting the vans ceiling.
The fountains subsided and I began cleaning up. I always had holes
in my military fatigues from battery acid. Oh I remember the van well,
and also when I was pulling a 45KW generator or a 60 foot launching rail.

Do not fool with batteries!!

greg