Blown PBR
Thread Starter
|
Cruiser
Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 235
Likes: 76
From: Surrey, British Columbia . Canada
I know that there were some heating issues with this amp but I believe I read somewhere that was taken care of with the newer models and the heat issues were when guys were trying to run 2 Ohms speakers.
It also does not have the big power as the other amps but I dont really need huge power. I have a great HU and good speakers and I think that this amp will add the little extra boost I am looking for. I dont need a stereo that is going to make my ears bleed, I just want a stereo that I can listen to while riding.
The PBR300X4 is not written in stone as of yet. I am still waiting on what is going to happen with my old PBR300X2. If they send me another PBR300X2 I will then buy another one and go with two. If they cannot get another one to replace it with I will then probably go with the PBR300X4. I am not in a rush, I have an amp in there right now and riding season has only about month and half left so this will pretty much be added to my winter projects for the bike.
Bruce
Sorry we haven't been on the forum for a few weeks... we were preparing for the Sturgis Rally.
Brew61, could you please email me regarding this issue? It looks like your in Canada, so I'm curious if you talked numerous times with our Customer Support here in Tempe, AZ, USA or did you talk with our Canadian Distributor (Automobility) in Quebec?
Eric Russell
webwizard@rockfordfosgate.com
Brew61, could you please email me regarding this issue? It looks like your in Canada, so I'm curious if you talked numerous times with our Customer Support here in Tempe, AZ, USA or did you talk with our Canadian Distributor (Automobility) in Quebec?
Eric Russell
webwizard@rockfordfosgate.com
Extreme HDF Member
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 14,670
Likes: 139
From: East of the Sun, West of the Moon
I've installed a PLETHORA of these 300x2 amps. the very first 2 I installed about 2 years ago I had issues with but were promptly taken care of by RF. Never had an issue with another.
Are you 100% certain your issue is with the amp? What have you done for troubleshooting steps?
I ask this mainly because of the fact that nothing was wet inside the fairing but the face of the radio is the very first thing that gets wet. When that happens, all kinda strange things can/will happen.
Are you 100% certain your issue is with the amp? What have you done for troubleshooting steps?
I ask this mainly because of the fact that nothing was wet inside the fairing but the face of the radio is the very first thing that gets wet. When that happens, all kinda strange things can/will happen.
Thread Starter
|
Cruiser
Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 235
Likes: 76
From: Surrey, British Columbia . Canada
Well what puzzles me the most is at the time this happened my stereo was not even on. Ignition was also off. The way I have this wired is
10 gauge hot wire coming off of my battery with a 30 amp fuse three inches from battery and wired to the amp.
10 gauge negative wire coming off my battery to ground on amp.
Hot wire running off accessory wire in head light harnesses to HU
Ground wire from HU to ground wire running to amp
Hot wire for memory on HU to Hot wire running to amp
Now this is a quick release aftermarket fairing so I have two plugs on the wiring harness coming out of the fairing that are tucked up in the headlight bucket so I can remove the fairing whenever I want. Those two plugs consist of
One Deutsch DT series connector which house my rear speaker wires and the one Hot wire coming off my headlight harness.
One Delphi Weather Pack Connector that house the Hot wire and negative wire coming off battery.
So at the time the only thing that had power going to it would be the amp because that is on a non-switched circuit. The HU would of only had the memory wire hot.
So I thought maybe I got water into the connectors and that shorted out the amp. But the connectors are weather proof and the only connector I thought could do that was the one with the speaker wires in it with the hot wire coming from my headlight harness but with the ignition off that is no longer hot so it could not of sent power through my speaker wire to the amp. Besides that they are up in the headlight bucket and were dry.
What I did to test if it was the HU or amp was I pulled the input speaker wire plug and pulled the output speaker wire plug off the amp. Both of these plugs have female pins in them so I took 4 small finishing nails and cut the heads off of them and inserted them into the female pins of one plug and then lined them up with the other plug and connected the two plugs. Left all the other wires connected the way they were. Turned on my head unit and got normal good sound out of my left speaker, right one was blown so just got distorted sound out of that one. Turn the volume up and down no problem. I then turned my ignition off and plugged the speaker wires back into the amp as soon as I did that I got crackling sounds and sequels coming out of my speakers again and this is with the HU off and ignition off.
Like I said before, after I finished washing the bike I removed my Tour Pak and put that away. I then removed my front fairing and took it apart. I was expecting to find water in there but there was nothing, Amp was dry, Hu was dry and the batting around my speakers was dry. After the tests I removed the amp and thought maybe condensation in the amp. So I removed the cover and it was also showed no signs of being wet.
My Hu is a Sony Marine CDX-H910UI. They are pretty water tight units. My friend has one in his boat for about 7 years and has hosed it down plenty of times with no problems. I have hosed mine down 15 to 20 times now with problems but that does not mean things dont go wrong. But I have now put another amp in and new front speakers and wired everything up exactly the same way with exceptions of the speaker wires because now I have a four ch. amp and everything has worked perfect. Still has me puzzled.
Bruce
10 gauge hot wire coming off of my battery with a 30 amp fuse three inches from battery and wired to the amp.
10 gauge negative wire coming off my battery to ground on amp.
Hot wire running off accessory wire in head light harnesses to HU
Ground wire from HU to ground wire running to amp
Hot wire for memory on HU to Hot wire running to amp
Now this is a quick release aftermarket fairing so I have two plugs on the wiring harness coming out of the fairing that are tucked up in the headlight bucket so I can remove the fairing whenever I want. Those two plugs consist of
One Deutsch DT series connector which house my rear speaker wires and the one Hot wire coming off my headlight harness.
One Delphi Weather Pack Connector that house the Hot wire and negative wire coming off battery.
So at the time the only thing that had power going to it would be the amp because that is on a non-switched circuit. The HU would of only had the memory wire hot.
So I thought maybe I got water into the connectors and that shorted out the amp. But the connectors are weather proof and the only connector I thought could do that was the one with the speaker wires in it with the hot wire coming from my headlight harness but with the ignition off that is no longer hot so it could not of sent power through my speaker wire to the amp. Besides that they are up in the headlight bucket and were dry.
What I did to test if it was the HU or amp was I pulled the input speaker wire plug and pulled the output speaker wire plug off the amp. Both of these plugs have female pins in them so I took 4 small finishing nails and cut the heads off of them and inserted them into the female pins of one plug and then lined them up with the other plug and connected the two plugs. Left all the other wires connected the way they were. Turned on my head unit and got normal good sound out of my left speaker, right one was blown so just got distorted sound out of that one. Turn the volume up and down no problem. I then turned my ignition off and plugged the speaker wires back into the amp as soon as I did that I got crackling sounds and sequels coming out of my speakers again and this is with the HU off and ignition off.
Like I said before, after I finished washing the bike I removed my Tour Pak and put that away. I then removed my front fairing and took it apart. I was expecting to find water in there but there was nothing, Amp was dry, Hu was dry and the batting around my speakers was dry. After the tests I removed the amp and thought maybe condensation in the amp. So I removed the cover and it was also showed no signs of being wet.
My Hu is a Sony Marine CDX-H910UI. They are pretty water tight units. My friend has one in his boat for about 7 years and has hosed it down plenty of times with no problems. I have hosed mine down 15 to 20 times now with problems but that does not mean things dont go wrong. But I have now put another amp in and new front speakers and wired everything up exactly the same way with exceptions of the speaker wires because now I have a four ch. amp and everything has worked perfect. Still has me puzzled.
Bruce
Extreme HDF Member
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 14,670
Likes: 139
From: East of the Sun, West of the Moon
Well what puzzles me the most is at the time this happened my stereo was not even on. Ignition was also off. The way I have this wired is
10 gauge hot wire coming off of my battery with a 30 amp fuse three inches from battery and wired to the amp.
10 gauge negative wire coming off my battery to ground on amp.
Hot wire running off accessory wire in head light harnesses to HU
Ground wire from HU to ground wire running to amp
Hot wire for memory on HU to Hot wire running to amp
Now this is a quick release aftermarket fairing so I have two plugs on the wiring harness coming out of the fairing that are tucked up in the headlight bucket so I can remove the fairing whenever I want. Those two plugs consist of
One Deutsch DT series connector which house my rear speaker wires and the one Hot wire coming off my headlight harness.
One Delphi Weather Pack Connector that house the Hot wire and negative wire coming off battery.
So at the time the only thing that had power going to it would be the amp because that is on a non-switched circuit. The HU would of only had the memory wire hot.
So I thought maybe I got water into the connectors and that shorted out the amp. But the connectors are weather proof and the only connector I thought could do that was the one with the speaker wires in it with the hot wire coming from my headlight harness but with the ignition off that is no longer hot so it could not of sent power through my speaker wire to the amp. Besides that they are up in the headlight bucket and were dry.
What I did to test if it was the HU or amp was I pulled the input speaker wire plug and pulled the output speaker wire plug off the amp. Both of these plugs have female pins in them so I took 4 small finishing nails and cut the heads off of them and inserted them into the female pins of one plug and then lined them up with the other plug and connected the two plugs. Left all the other wires connected the way they were. Turned on my head unit and got normal good sound out of my left speaker, right one was blown so just got distorted sound out of that one. Turn the volume up and down no problem. I then turned my ignition off and plugged the speaker wires back into the amp as soon as I did that I got crackling sounds and sequels coming out of my speakers again and this is with the HU off and ignition off.
Like I said before, after I finished washing the bike I removed my Tour Pak and put that away. I then removed my front fairing and took it apart. I was expecting to find water in there but there was nothing, Amp was dry, Hu was dry and the batting around my speakers was dry. After the tests I removed the amp and thought maybe condensation in the amp. So I removed the cover and it was also showed no signs of being wet.
My Hu is a Sony Marine CDX-H910UI. They are pretty water tight units. My friend has one in his boat for about 7 years and has hosed it down plenty of times with no problems. I have hosed mine down 15 to 20 times now with problems but that does not mean things dont go wrong. But I have now put another amp in and new front speakers and wired everything up exactly the same way with exceptions of the speaker wires because now I have a four ch. amp and everything has worked perfect. Still has me puzzled.
Bruce
10 gauge hot wire coming off of my battery with a 30 amp fuse three inches from battery and wired to the amp.
10 gauge negative wire coming off my battery to ground on amp.
Hot wire running off accessory wire in head light harnesses to HU
Ground wire from HU to ground wire running to amp
Hot wire for memory on HU to Hot wire running to amp
Now this is a quick release aftermarket fairing so I have two plugs on the wiring harness coming out of the fairing that are tucked up in the headlight bucket so I can remove the fairing whenever I want. Those two plugs consist of
One Deutsch DT series connector which house my rear speaker wires and the one Hot wire coming off my headlight harness.
One Delphi Weather Pack Connector that house the Hot wire and negative wire coming off battery.
So at the time the only thing that had power going to it would be the amp because that is on a non-switched circuit. The HU would of only had the memory wire hot.
So I thought maybe I got water into the connectors and that shorted out the amp. But the connectors are weather proof and the only connector I thought could do that was the one with the speaker wires in it with the hot wire coming from my headlight harness but with the ignition off that is no longer hot so it could not of sent power through my speaker wire to the amp. Besides that they are up in the headlight bucket and were dry.
What I did to test if it was the HU or amp was I pulled the input speaker wire plug and pulled the output speaker wire plug off the amp. Both of these plugs have female pins in them so I took 4 small finishing nails and cut the heads off of them and inserted them into the female pins of one plug and then lined them up with the other plug and connected the two plugs. Left all the other wires connected the way they were. Turned on my head unit and got normal good sound out of my left speaker, right one was blown so just got distorted sound out of that one. Turn the volume up and down no problem. I then turned my ignition off and plugged the speaker wires back into the amp as soon as I did that I got crackling sounds and sequels coming out of my speakers again and this is with the HU off and ignition off.
Like I said before, after I finished washing the bike I removed my Tour Pak and put that away. I then removed my front fairing and took it apart. I was expecting to find water in there but there was nothing, Amp was dry, Hu was dry and the batting around my speakers was dry. After the tests I removed the amp and thought maybe condensation in the amp. So I removed the cover and it was also showed no signs of being wet.
My Hu is a Sony Marine CDX-H910UI. They are pretty water tight units. My friend has one in his boat for about 7 years and has hosed it down plenty of times with no problems. I have hosed mine down 15 to 20 times now with problems but that does not mean things dont go wrong. But I have now put another amp in and new front speakers and wired everything up exactly the same way with exceptions of the speaker wires because now I have a four ch. amp and everything has worked perfect. Still has me puzzled.
Bruce
if so that is likely to be your cause of failure.
1. The amp is not always hot. It's no different than your radio with it's memory wire. It's only on when the radio is powered up whether it be speaker level inputs or RCA inputs. the rest of time it sits there dormant as your radio does.
2. with these PBR amps, if you're using RCA inputs to the amp only then should you connect the remote in wire to the amp. If you're using speaker level inputs (speaker wires from the head unit to the amp) then the remote in wire is not used. The input leads on the amp sense the voltage on the wires and turns your amp off and on as needed.
Thread Starter
|
Cruiser
Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 235
Likes: 76
From: Surrey, British Columbia . Canada
ok so as I understand it; you have a remote wire connected to amp AND you're using speaker level inputs on a PRB300x2 correct?
if so that is likely to be your cause of failure.
1. The amp is not always hot. It's no different than your radio with it's memory wire. It's only on when the radio is powered up whether it be speaker level inputs or RCA inputs. the rest of time it sits there dormant as your radio does.
2. with these PBR amps, if you're using RCA inputs to the amp only then should you connect the remote in wire to the amp. If you're using speaker level inputs (speaker wires from the head unit to the amp) then the remote in wire is not used. The input leads on the amp sense the voltage on the wires and turns your amp off and on as needed.
if so that is likely to be your cause of failure.
1. The amp is not always hot. It's no different than your radio with it's memory wire. It's only on when the radio is powered up whether it be speaker level inputs or RCA inputs. the rest of time it sits there dormant as your radio does.
2. with these PBR amps, if you're using RCA inputs to the amp only then should you connect the remote in wire to the amp. If you're using speaker level inputs (speaker wires from the head unit to the amp) then the remote in wire is not used. The input leads on the amp sense the voltage on the wires and turns your amp off and on as needed.
No, I did not hook up the remote wire to the amp. I cut the RCA inputs off and wired the speakers to the amp for speaker level input to turn amp on.
I only have the main power wire going to amp, main ground wire going to amp and speaker wires going in and then out. What I did do was, I needed a constant power source for the memory on the HU so I wired that to the main power wire to the amp. Now that HU wire is a separate wire on the HU then the remote wire on the head unit. The remote wire on the HU is not hooked up to anything. I also needed a good ground wire to the HU so I took the ground wire from the HU and tried it into the ground wire on the amp.
I tested the system after wiring it and the amp stays off and only turned on when I turned the HU on. Once I turn the HU off the amp turned off.
Bruce
Thread Starter
|
Cruiser
Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 235
Likes: 76
From: Surrey, British Columbia . Canada
I have also been in contact with Eric Russell of RF and he is following my case with my seller "VM Innovations". his team at RF are going to make sure VM Innovations gets the amp back to them and also makes sure they get me my new amp back to me.
So like to say thanks to Eric and his Team
Bruce
So like to say thanks to Eric and his Team
Bruce
HD Forum Stories
The Best of Harley-Davidson for Lifelong Riders
10 Worst Harley-Davidson Motorcycles Ever
Pouria Savadkouei
Killer Custom's Jail Break Is The Breakout That Refused to Blend In
Verdad Gallardo
Crazy Bunderbike Build Looks Amazing, But Is It Impossible to Ride?
Verdad Gallardo
Harley-Davidson Reveals Super Cool Cafe Racer Concept
Verdad Gallardo
Engraved Rebellion: Inside Bundnerbike's Glam Rock II
Verdad Gallardo
10 Motorcycles You Should Never Buy
Joe Kucinski
10 Things Harley-Davidson Needs to Fix in 2026
Verdad Gallardo
Southpaw Super Glide: A Left-Hand-Drive 1979 Harley FXE Built to Fit the Rider
Verdad Gallardo
The Best and Worst Harley-Davidson Moves of 2025
Verdad Gallardo
Ultimate HDF Member
Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 6,621
Likes: 412
From: Indianapolis IN.
I have also been in contact with Eric Russell of RF and he is following my case with my seller "VM Innovations". his team at RF are going to make sure VM Innovations gets the amp back to them and also makes sure they get me my new amp back to me.
So like to say thanks to Eric and his Team
Bruce
So like to say thanks to Eric and his Team
Bruce