Rockford Fosgate PBR300X1 Punch 300 Watt Mono Boosted Rail Amplifier

First time installation. The amp is small and sharp looking. Hooking up the wires is a bit of a hassle. There are good clear indicators for the speaker wire pos/neg, and front/back, but the cable input is a pain in the butt (there are no indicators and you are left guessing when you plug the inputs in). Figured it out though and it works very well. I used a Cadence Acoustics AMPKIT8 8 Gauge Professional Amplifier Installation Kit to wire this amp. The cable is a bit large, but I did not want to leave any chance to the wires over heating. Cable was trimmed down and works fantastically.Amp is installed in a Jeep Cherokee (I4 engine, 90 amp alternator). The amp is currently powering four 50 watt, 4 ohm speakers (I do not know anything else about the speakers as I pulled them off a moose crushed car). The sound is much better than it was before and appears to be running fine. I have not noticed any heat problems as of yet, but I am keeping an eye out for it. It is important to note that I live in a very cold climate where our hot days are 75 degrees and our cold days are -20 degrees and wind chill drops it to -40 degrees. My amp is mounted on the vehicle wall with plywood lifting it up from the plastic. A grill protects the amp from cargo in the back, but there is adequate air flow. I do not "blast" my speakers nor am I pushing the limits of this amp, so I do not know the limits of this amp (nor intend to find them :D )It is only day one since installation and the weather here is a balmy 60 degrees. I will keep posting as I find out more and see how the amp holds up. Gotta say though, this amp is perfect for my small jeep, no light dimming, not problems with my vehicle running, and everything sounds so much better now when compared to only two speakers (powered by head unit) which used spliced and re-spliced wires from days long since past.Update 15-JUL-2013- The amp is still running fantastically. I am running this puppy for 1.5 hours (one way) (3 hours round trip) and have had no issues with it failing or cutting out. It does get a bit warm to the touch though (I am grateful I raised it up from the sidewall with plywood and wide washers.) It is not steaming nor scalding to the touch however.UPDATE Sep. 6, 2013So far so good. Sound is still a lot better than before. The unit does get a bit hot (not blistering but it will get your attention). I am usually running it for 1.5 hours one way. But so far it has worked out as needed! You will want to separate this unit from carpet or plastic as a precaution. I have had no problems yet and things are still thumpin! (Relatively speking)

If your sub is cutting out, check your connections first... more on that below.This was a replacement for the PBR300X1 (exactly the same, less 200 watts) that I thought was shot. This amp is awesome! Currently powering a Rockford Fosgate P3 10 inch at 500watts/1ohm and sounding killer (in Honda Odyssey even)! Small footprint with lots of power. I have its sister amp for the main cabin speakers, using all Rockford Fosgate wiring/distribution blocks. The only cons I can find is the positioning of the switches and connections, but I guess that can't be helped if you want a small footprint (I use my van for work, so a big install wasn't an option). They do get hot, I added an 80mm fan for each amp (negative from fan into amp ground, positive into amp remote, gets power from the head unit that way & comes on with amps) in a custom box. I got the bass boost knob as well, I find that to be essential now that I have it (I'll be posting a separate review on that in a bit). Might actually replace the amp set-up in my other car... just to add a knob, lol.So, I had the 300 watt version installed with the hu, other amp and all wiring at a local shop a year or so ago. They put the amps and all cables IN the dash behind the head unit, against the heating duct! Yes these amps are small enough for that! Many many overheating shutdowns later, I finally reinstalled the whole thing, new cables and all. The sub started cutting out a couple days later, so I switched with the sub in my other car to test it. Still cut out in the van, so I thought the amp was fried, too late waiting to re-install, nuts. Got the new amp on sale here, installed it, same thing - sub cutting out?!?!? Replaced the sub (it was a cheapo intended to be replaced when I got money anyway, and I had money that day), still cut out with the new sub. One big plus with these amps is that you screw the wiring into terminals that you then plug into the amp (imo)... so I simply unplugged the amp. After a minute or two, the cabin speakers started doing the same thing (they had been occasionally popping since the re-install too - I should've caught it then, I know this stuff well). Checked my connections to discover 1) terminal connection on the battery was loose so the connection was flaky (huh?!? no idea how that happened), and 2) the ground I made was loose. I actually thought that may be a problem when I installed it (note: I put the amps behind the second row in my mini-van, I grounded under the carpet under the runner board, very thin metal, the screw simply came loose. My fix was to use a much bigger screw and thick tape to hold it in place too). I fixed these issues, been 2 weeks now sounding amazing with exactly zero issues!Oh, I plugged the old 300 watter in, and found it to be fine after all. So far I haven't had any issues with RF products at all (all the wiring in both my Mustang and Odyssey are RF as well.)