What a hot trip....last week on a trip to Memphis, Tn. and then to Oklahoma City, Ok my Hogtunes Amp shut down twice. Temps were running upper 90s and low 100s. To much for the amp...it shut down until it could cool.

It took hours before sounds continued, once it took all night...if this happens to you, give it time to cool and reset.

one thing I did was shut the radio off about 15 mins before stopping for gas, allowing it to cool while the air is still moving around...seemed to help.

 

Wonder if there is anyway to get more air circulating around it to cool it off??

 

I wonder if anyone tried to mount a fan on top of the amp??

 

I've been installing stereos for 20 years and have never seen outside temperatures so hot that they would shut an amp down. If it were normal, customers would have been lined up at my store complaining for the past 2 or 3 weeks. It gets hot under the fairing but just as hot in car trunks.

I'm betting you are beginning to have other problems causing your amp to shut down. Of course, if your ohm load is too low for the amp to handle, it is going to run extra hot anyway. Combine that extra heat with this summer's heat and you may be getting close to thermal shutdown protection.

 

Not being a stereo pro, can you (or someone) please explain the "ohm too low" thing?

 

Well let's see if I can make this easy. First of all, an ohm is a measure of resistance.

The resistance across the coil of a normal car speaker is 4 ohms. Amplifiers are built to operate speakers of a certain resistance, usually 2 or 4 ohms (the manufacturer decides what resistance when designing the amplifier).

When the amplifier is driving speakers at the correct resistance (or ohms), it produces an advertised amount of power to the speaker while generating an acceptable amount of heat that won't harm the amplifier.

When you drive speakers with too low a resistance, the amplifier puts out more power to the speakers but the down side is it generates more heat. Too much heat and circuits inside the amplifier begin to fail.

Amplifier manufacturers put circuits inside (basically thermostats) so that in the event the amplifier reaches a dangerously hot temperature, the amplifier shuts down until the problem is corrected to protect the amplifier.

Whew!

 

So my understanding is that if yoiu have an amp rated at 4 ohms, then you need to run 4 ohm speakers, 2 ohm amp, 2 ohm speakers??

 

Yes, look at the amplifier's specs. It will tell you how much power it will generate at 4 ohms and how much power it will generate at 2 ohms. If an amp's specs don't show a rating at 2 ohms, that means you can only use 4 ohm speakers safely.

To get the most power for your money, use speakers that will have the minimum ohms for what the amp is rated at. For example, if an amp is rated x power at 4 ohms and x power at 2 ohms, that shows the amp can handle either 2 or 4 ohms. You'll want to get 2 ohm speakers so that your amp will produce the most power it's capable of without running too hot.

Here's specs on Arc Audio's amps: http://www.arcaudio.com/productdescr...le/mc-amps.asp

 

Vickers1, Good info. Thanks

 

My Amp and speakers are a kit made by Hogtunes...they should all match ohms, right....