RMS is what your gear handles continuously; MAX is the short burst it can survive without complaint. Match your amplifier's RMS output to your speakers' RMS rating — sizing off the MAX number is how magic smoke gets released.

It's dust-tight and rated against low-pressure water jets from any direction — built for spray, rain, and the occasional wave over the bow, not for full submersion. If something's going somewhere it could sit underwater, that's a different conversation entirely.

Add up the RMS rating of everything the amp will power, and pick an amp whose RMS output (at your speakers' impedance — usually 4-ohm) lands close to that total. Undersized is thin sound; wildly oversized is a fast way to blow a voice coil.

You can run marine-grade gear in a car — it's just over-built for that environment, no downside besides cost. Running non-weatherproof car audio gear in an open UTV or boat is the direction that causes problems.

It scales with your amp's power draw and the length of the run — DS18's OFC kits come in 4-gauge and 8-gauge for a reason. Undersized wiring on a high-draw system is a voltage-drop and heat problem waiting to happen; when in doubt, size up.