Hey there, moving out of state this week and I need to make some decisions on what I can bring,
based on what fits in my car.

I have a small(ish) amp, somewhere in the 300 RMS range amp powering my 4 interior speakers,
and am curious as to the possibilities of over-heating the amp or catching fire to my trunk (if possible).
Cheaper amps don't have the efficiency of their expensive counterparts , and even though I have a Pioneer it's on the cheaper ( and 5 years old ) side of their line-up.
My main concern is how much ventilation space the amplifier actually needs?

In a perfect world I'd love to pack my trunk completely full. Can I do this and still listen to music on the way?
I don't think I've ever FILLED my trunk to the brim before.

Would love some input from you guys.
I'm thinking about packing my trunk and running the amp hard in the driveway and see what happens.
However, this doesn't tell me much because I don't know at what point an amplifier is technically "overheating"

Just keep the power down if you're worried. Max volume is a lot more power and so more waste heat generated.

If you can pack bulkier items around the amp it will help give at least some degree of air movement and cooling.

Avoid covering it completely with something that could cut air flow to zero... like a blanket or clothes.

My amp would go into protect mode if it got to hot, chances are you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. But in any case better to be safe than sorry and running it at lower volumes will drastically decrease heat output.

E; as not all amps have those protection safeties in place, you’ll definitely want to play the safe side.

This post was edited by Pomeranian on Dec 10 2019 02:37am

Got any old metal speaker covers? Zip tie a speaker cover over your amp, for the time being.