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hooking up an extra batt

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Would this be the proper way to hook up an extra battery? And will the power still be sufficient with the distroblock

option 1

hookingupbattery.jpg

option 2

nwedigreagram.jpg

Edited by SEC

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looks good

if the amps are some what powerful, it'd be good to ground them with 1/0 as well

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You should also add a 1/0 ground from the stock battery to the chassis

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Both my amps wont really accept anything larger then 4 gauge. Or else I would put 1/0 gauge in there. Also i was told that i might need to fuse each 4 gauge after the distro block since my amps dont have fuses

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Both my amps wont really accept anything larger then 4 gauge. Or else I would put 1/0 gauge in there. Also i was told that i might need to fuse each 4 gauge after the distro block since my amps dont have fuses

4ga should be ok then, just keep 'em short

you don't have to put fuses there, if the distro is somewhat close to the amps

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If your amps have no fuses they should have one before amp, sized for that amp, but you know...some people don't bother to do that. If the amp were to puke and short, it would have to smoke your main 100A or whatever battery fuses. That could cause a lot of smoke in the amp before those fuses blew, if the amp by chance failed in that way. I don't know how big your amps are, but if you have a fuse every time + power comes off a battery then you have the minimum to be safe as far as your cables shorting and firing up the car or something...unless the smaller 4ga can't carry what your main fuses will pass.

Right, you should have the same capacity (cable size) on negative side of batteries as positive. I would try to mount the second battery so the positive cable to amps is as short a distance as possible/reasonable and 4ga part is fairly short. If in trunk likely they will not be long anyway. It will carry the current of both batteries plus the alternator to your amps, but that shorter length has less resistance compared to the front of vehicle run. You get X resistance per foot for a wire size....so longer distances are much more important that they be large or they add up and reduce voltage.

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Alright well right now i got a pca2000d that does 2000 watts at 1ohm and then a jl e6450 that im powering my boston acoustics components that are getting 75 watts at 4ohm upfront and infinity kappa coaxials in the back get 90 watts at 2 ohm. I will be putting the battery under my back seat from the battery positive to the soundstream amp it will probably require about 2-3 feet to the soundstream amp and about 3-4 feet to the jl amp. I might just ditch the distros and just wire everything from the battery

Edited by SEC

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you can run power to the battery but do NOT ground to the battery.

I had actually called 2 different car audio manufacturers about 3 weeks ago about this to confirm the right way of doing this.

They both said-

Run your power to your battery. You can use distro's as long as you use larger gauge wire when necessary to prevent a fire or lowest voltage loss. When grounding amps, never ground to the battery. Ground each amp SEPARATELY. Grounding more than 1 amp to the same contact point can cause undesirable results. They never told me what exactly nor did i really go into detail about that either.

They did tell me though that you can ground multiple amps to a bar attached to your chassis as long as the bar makes contact to the car in multiple places.

IT is also recommended to fuse in the following locations and not the following locations-

Alt to starter battery - no fuse

Starter battery to Aux battery - fuse within 18in of starter AND within 18in of Aux battery.

Aux battery to amp(s) - fuse within 18in of battery(again).

Note - even if your amps are fused on-board, it it still recommended to fuse in front of the amp. However, if your power wire is short, 3-4ft, i believe only 1 fuse between the amp and the Aux battery is required.

Purpose for all fuses-

amp to aux battery - to prevent extensive damage to amp if it were to start to smoke, fire hazard prevention.

Aux to starter battery - 2 fuses there, help to prevent a fire possibly from happening that starts either at the aux or starter battery. Commonly caused by grounding the power terminal.

Whereas it is true that fuses tend to slightly lower voltage throughput, i do not think it's that much of a problem for daily driver. Safety first.

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I've never heard of not grounding to the battery if it is right close by (say <3'), however you should ground everything to the car so all is grounded together and those should be a short distance from each component. The second battery has to be grounded to charge plus get current from the first battery, but I've seen the amp(s) grounded to it as well with no problems. They likely want a full ground for each amp so you don't try to pass more current through one connection, as grounds to the car may not be the best anyway. Unless I had a noise problem I'd rather ground to a nice clean negative battery post than a painted car body...twice, as it goes into the car then back out to the battery ground cable. But, that is just me and I've never had an issue with it. If you do, you need a very healthy ground on that second battery. I have soldered the lug to the car before.

I would do option #2 unless your 4ga would be longer than a few foot on sub amps then #1.

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You guys are really starting to complicate things.

Front Battery:

Make sure you do the big 3 with 1/0awg here.

Run one run of 1/0awg to the back batter from the front positive terminal to the rear positive terminal. Fuse at both positive terminals.

Rear Battery:

Run one line of 1/0awg from positive terminal to FUSED distribution block. Distribute and fuse as necessary from here to amps.

Run one line of 1/0awg from NEGATIVE terminal to UN-Fused distribution block. Run your amp ground back to here.

^ Un-Ghetto, perfect world way of doing things. You can also add a run of 1/0awg from the front battery negative to the rear battery negative for lower overall ground line resistance.

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ok, from the last time i posted, i had been doin research and nothing came back telling me anything bad about grounding directly to battery.

So... if there really is anything bad about it, maybe it's safety assurance knowing if the terminal were to come loose... bad things might happen. An assumption but only thing i can come up with.

Oh and johnecon2001, you forgot to say after running amp(s) to unfused distro block, that the battery itself still needs to be grounded to chassis.

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You guys are really starting to complicate things.

Rear Battery:

Run one line of 1/0awg from positive terminal to FUSED distribution block. Distribute and fuse as necessary from here to amps.

Run one line of 1/0awg from NEGATIVE terminal to UN-Fused distribution block. Run your amp ground back to here.

^ Un-Ghetto, perfect world way of doing things. You can also add a run of 1/0awg from the front battery negative to the rear battery negative for lower overall ground line resistance.

OK 2 questions. I got the kicker distro block so theres no fuse in there.

and second i am just grounding everything to the chassis im not using a ground distroblock

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You guys are really starting to complicate things.

Rear Battery:

Run one line of 1/0awg from positive terminal to FUSED distribution block. Distribute and fuse as necessary from here to amps.

Run one line of 1/0awg from NEGATIVE terminal to UN-Fused distribution block. Run your amp ground back to here.

^ Un-Ghetto, perfect world way of doing things. You can also add a run of 1/0awg from the front battery negative to the rear battery negative for lower overall ground line resistance.

OK 2 questions. I got the kicker distro block so theres no fuse in there.

and second i am just grounding everything to the chassis im not using a ground distroblock

I fail to see a question made in either of those statements.

I would use that unfused distro block for the grounds, and buy a fused distro block for the power. Grounding back to the battery is more efficient than grounding to the chassis.

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You guys are really starting to complicate things.

Rear Battery:

Run one line of 1/0awg from positive terminal to FUSED distribution block. Distribute and fuse as necessary from here to amps.

Run one line of 1/0awg from NEGATIVE terminal to UN-Fused distribution block. Run your amp ground back to here.

^ Un-Ghetto, perfect world way of doing things. You can also add a run of 1/0awg from the front battery negative to the rear battery negative for lower overall ground line resistance.

OK 2 questions. I got the kicker distro block so theres no fuse in there.

and second i am just grounding everything to the chassis im not using a ground distroblock

I would use that unfused distro block for the grounds, and buy a fused distro block for the power. Grounding back to the battery is more efficient than grounding to the chassis.

Well a user posted this before

"When grounding amps, never ground to the battery. Ground each amp SEPARATELY. Grounding more than 1 amp to the same contact point can cause undesirable results"

so if you use the distroblock the ground is coming from the battery So wouldnt it just be better to ground them seperatley?

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The right way is to fuse any line that comes from a power source for the amount of power it can handle, so really you should fuse the smaller 4ga at less than the larger main line and that would fuse the amps too that are on the 4ga. But like I said lots of people don't, and chance of that short run of 4ga shorting or an amp shorting that way are low so its up to you. You are just fusing the wire so it does not catch on fire; smaller wire = smaller fuse. Then again, it takes a lot to smoke a 4ga wire possibly more than your main fuses but you need what, 300A for 2KW?

Can you get a little more 1/0? If I were doing it I think I would put the main fuse on the rear battery, then I would hook everything to the fuse. Put the line to the front on it; run 1/0 right to the sub amp off it (if only 3' why not it would look cool too and you don't have to fuse it again), and then put a smaller fuse block with 4ga run to your high amp (or put that right on the battery if fused). Too bad they don't make a fused post mount, you could do it all right on the battery but I could not find one. The sub amp (& high amp if hooked there) hooked outside of both main fuses could see amperage from both however, but the rear battery on its own would have less power than the front plus alternator. But that way your sub amp would only see mostly one fuse in the supply not three. Make your main fuses equal roughly max draw of all amps depending on if the high amp is on the battery or on the front/rear line.

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So i need to fuse the 1/0 gauge right before the second batt with a 300 a fuse. Then i need to fuse the 4 gauge going to the 2000 watt amp with a 300a fuse and then fuse the 4 gauge going to the JL amp (75 x4 at 4ohms) with like a 100a fuse?

Edited by SEC

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4 awg can only handle 150a max. So fusing with a 300a fuse isn't going to work for you.

Also, stay away from AGU fuse holders for this application. They only go up to 80a. You'll need Mini KF/ANL or ANL.

Grounding all to the same spot is the CORRECT way to ground. Putting amps and processors to different spots is where you run into problems.

Run two runs of 1/0awg from the front battery. One for the positive terminal (fuse it on both ends) and one for the negative. Then run the unfused distro off of the rear battery negative and connect the amp grounds to that. Buy a fused distro that can handle 150a fuses for the Positive connections off of the positive terminal.

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i dont have any runs of 1/0 gauge left cause i got all my wiring done. Cant i just ground the 2 amps and the second battery to the same location on the chassis?

so this is the fuse holder i need for the 4 gauge right?

http://cgi.ebay.com/DUAL-PLATINUM-LED-ANL-...1QQcmdZViewItem

or could i run 0 gauge off the second batt into this distroblock and then do the 2 runs of 4 gauge out?

http://cgi.ebay.com/DUAL-PLATINUM-ANL-DIST...1QQcmdZViewItem

will that run of 1/0 gauge coming off the batt need to be fused?

Edited by SEC

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You could, but it would provide you with less than optimal results.

And the fact that you're even thinking about putting an extra battery in means you probably don't have a small system. I know you have 2 15" ICONs.

What did you wire your car with already?

Edit: yeah that fuse block will work fine.

Edit2: you don't need to fuse the 1/0awg coming off the second battery into the distro.

Stop editing your post damnit.

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I got 1/0 gauge of kicker hyperflex going through my car. And for this fused distroblock i wont have to fuse the short run of 1/0 gauge coming off the battery into this fuse?

<a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/DUAL-PLATINUM-ANL-DISTRIBUTION-BLOCK-CQ-3222-FREE-FUSE_W0QQitemZ300195285190QQihZ020QQcateg

oryZ50551QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem" target="_blank">http://cgi.ebay.com/DUAL-PLATINUM-ANL-DIST...1QQcmdZViewItem</a>

this is whati got

finaldigram.jpg

Edited by SEC

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