Cd changer/ amp in engine compartment
 

How many of you have your your stereo amps or cd changers in the engine compartment?
I really don't have a lot of space any where else to put one. I was concerned with moisture, etc.

My amp is there. No problems.

There has to be a better place. Look in a gunnel up high. Make a bracket out of starboard and thru bolt up high and out of the way. Keep looking for a better spot than the engine compartment and dont give up till you find one. Otherwise you may need to find disposable amps.

you need a box inside the compartment to keep within coast guard requirments,, last I knew the amps are not
rated for the engine compartment. it would need to be kept dry and fan cooled. seems easier to put it some other place ,, like Andy says

Anywhere but the engine compartment !!!!

I started a similar thread before i put mine in there. The first few people answered as most of you have, and then a whole bunch of people answered up that theres was in he engine compartment with no problems. As far as moisture, any place on a boat has the potential for moisture. As far as heat, my enine compartment is cooler when running than my cuddy is when the boat is covered and sitting in the sun. The engine compartment also has some air movment when runnning. Just m $.02.

I had both an Amp and CD changer in the engine compartment of my Pachanga several yrs back. Never had any problem at all. I liked the changer back there because it is the smoothest riding location and it never skipped.

had mine in there for 6 yrs no prob but may not be USCG approved.

Thanks everyone for the feed back. I agree with US1 Fountain and Mr Demeanor on the air movement being better back there and the smother ride. My biggest concern was the Coast Guard approved. The amps that are out today are sealed from moisture to prevent these type of problems.

Heat is the big problem that I see.
I had my inverter back their and it wouldn't run for very long before it overheated and shut down.
An inverter is nothing more than a BIG amp.
I moved mine under the back seat. Works great.

I wouldn't put them in the engine compartment. One water hose that springs a leak and all your gear goes poof. And you will always be fighting the heat game back there. The amps will be pretty warm even before firing up the stereo.....

If you do put the amp under the hatch you might consider using a realy to power some 12vdc boxer fans. Electronic gear is mutch happier if kept cool. Radio Shack has a pretty decent selctionof fans. I am sure you could find others on the web. Be aware that the fan will also not be spark proof.

I do not know about the amps in the engine compartment but you should lose the CD changer and get an iPod or other MP3 player they work better and hold more songs, and no skipping.

I have an iPOD with over 15,000 songs. plus you can take your music out of the boat when you leave.

Put mine in the compartment under the steering wheel on my formula. It's nice because it locks and is out of the way, but don't know yet how much air its going to get.

Ipod adapter
 

Krumbsnatcher,
Do you use the cassette adapter or the fm transmitter with your Ipod?
Thanks,
Gerry

Re: Ipod adapter
 

Direct wire it is pretty simple. My 10 DIsc CD changer is connected to my auxialary output on my head unit, so all i had to do is go to Radio Shack picked up to female connectors to place over the male connectors that are pulled out of the CD changer.

Then Monster Cable makes a really nice long adapter cable that plugs into the female adapters and you are now ready to go.

You can also get a non slip case cover that will not slide all over your helm.

I can easily control the tunes while i drive and the best thing is I have over 15,000 CD digital songs and 100 playlists that i can choose from.

So the question is are you ipodding?

I only use the FM transmitter while i am in my car to lazy to tear the dash apart and hard wire a connector.

FM Transmitter will not get you the digital quality. Besides my buddy has made a junction box to connect each of my buddies boats to the same ipod.

We can have 10 boats tied up and all playing the same song through one ipod.

the future is here! In fact the amps do not even require a head unit if you have an ipod.

Hey Krumbsnatcher,

You taught me something.
I thought I pod music used MP3 compression. I didn't realize that they were actual CD quality (44.1k sampling rate, 16 bit word clock)
15,000 CD digital songs is like 80 gigs? That's some serious storage space.

I figured that they were MP3s.
I'll have to take another look.

i don't recomment amps in the motor compartment. i just bought a boat with two amps that used to be in the motor compartment, now they are in a landfill in havasu somewhere.

any water in your motor compartment splashing around will find it's way to your amp.