Car Stereos: Installing and amp and sub woofer..., dual voice coil, kicker l7

Question
Well I have one Kicker L7 12inch subwoofer and a Lanzar Max Pro MXA 282... Dont really understand the whole concept of OHM I was wondering if you can provide and diagram how the sub connection should go and be connected to the amp. Could I install it on my GMC truck with the stock headunit, also do you think i need a capacitor... if so how many farads? Well thank you for your time.

Answer
Hi Alex,

I'll try and answer these all separately:

L7 Kicker subwoofers come in 2 types: 2ohm dual voice coil, and 4 ohm voice coil.

Based on your amplifier, and the subwoofers power handling (750 watt RMS each), I would hook up the voice coils in parallel on the 4ohm sub (negative from amp to negative on coil #1 to negative on coil #2, and positive from amp to positive on coil #1 and positive on coil #2), creating a 2ohm circuit, and put each sub on each channel.

If you have the 2ohm coils, I'd put the coils in series (negative from amp to negative on coil #2, positive from amp to positive on coil #1, and negative on coil #1 and positive on coil #2 connect to eachother), creating a 4ohm circuit, and put each sub on each channel.

Then you'll need to tune the amp to properly to ensure it's not putting out too much or too little power for the subs.

Second, can you install it in your truck with the stock headunit?  Yes.  You can.  Your amplifier has high-level inputs.  You'll need to tap and connect to the rear speaker wires, and run a set of speaker wires into the high level inputs on the amplifier.

Third, will you need a cap?  There's no way to tell for sure until you get the system installed.  Install it, turn on all the electronics you normally do when using the truck, and put something in the player that has a lot of bass, and turn it up as loud as you'd like it to go.  If your lights dim, or the car bogs down at all when the bass hits, you need a cap (and should stop using the system until you get one.  checking for a few seconds is fine, but prolonged draw of too much power for the system will result in a dead battery at best, and can damage the alternator).

If you need a cap, a 1F cap should be plenty.