Posted November 10, 201014 yr Right now for my SAZ-3500Ds that are strapped i'm grounded to my frame but it's a pretty long wire and i don't want it that long. I cannot make the ground wire short and STILL ground to the frame, just can't. So this leaves me with grounding to the body, which i've only done with multi-channel amps.. no big mono blocks. I have (1) Yellow Top under the hood, (4) XS Power D3100s in the bed, (1) 320 amp Alternator from DC Power, Big 3 all inside a 1986 S-15My concern is that grounding to the body will not be efficient enough for my SAZ-3500Ds. What is your input?
November 10, 201014 yr wire length is fine, if you want to shorten it go for it, I doubt you'll notice any difference.
November 10, 201014 yr Author Better the shorter, no? Also would like some input on grounding to frame vs body search function didn't really help.
November 10, 201014 yr Everytime I ground to the body I get a bunch of ground loop noise. IMO ground to the frame with all high powered amps and rear batts
November 10, 201014 yr Author Ground wire is about 4 feet FYI. I'm looking to make my voltage more stable.
November 10, 201014 yr Why dont you just cut a short piece and try it. You are only talking about a few dollars. I personally run a ground from the front battery to the rears. Overkill prolly, but that's how I do it.
November 10, 201014 yr Why dont you just cut a short piece and try it. You are only talking about a few dollars. I personally run a ground from the front battery to the rears. Overkill probably, but that's how I do it.This is what I do as well, it's the only surefire way to know that you are getting the least resistance.OP I noticed you did 2 1/0 runs on the positive, but did you do two 1/0 chassis grounds when you did the big 3? The ground is just as important as the positive.
November 10, 201014 yr I ground to the battery, the batter is grounded to the frame, no worries that way
November 10, 201014 yr Author Why dont you just cut a short piece and try it. You are only talking about a few dollars. I personally run a ground from the front battery to the rears. Overkill prolly, but that's how I do it.I have hundreds of feet of 0 gauge stinger wire brand new.. i'm just lazy man. Are you talking about runnin' a neg from the batt under the hood to the neg on the batt in the back? If so, I have a few runs.
November 10, 201014 yr Why dont you just cut a short piece and try it. You are only talking about a few dollars. I personally run a ground from the front battery to the rears. Overkill prolly, but that's how I do it.I have hundreds of feet of 0 gauge stinger wire brand new.. i'm just lazy man. Are you talking about runnin' a neg from the batt under the hood to the neg on the batt in the back? If so, I have a few runs.Perfect, now just ground your amps to a battery in back and you are set!
November 10, 201014 yr Author Why dont you just cut a short piece and try it. You are only talking about a few dollars. I personally run a ground from the front battery to the rears. Overkill probably, but that's how I do it.This is what I do as well, it's the only surefire way to know that you are getting the least resistance.OP I noticed you did 2 1/0 runs on the positive, but did you do two 1/0 chassis grounds when you did the big 3? The ground is just as important as the positive.Tomorrow i'm going to go through everything and double up where its not. I'm prepping for the up coming show.I ground to the battery, the batter is grounded to the frame, no worries that wayWouldn't that be the same as grounding straight to the frame though or is grounding to the batt better?
November 10, 201014 yr Why dont you just cut a short piece and try it. You are only talking about a few dollars. I personally run a ground from the front battery to the rears. Overkill probably, but that's how I do it.This is what I do as well, it's the only surefire way to know that you are getting the least resistance.OP I noticed you did 2 1/0 runs on the positive, but did you do two 1/0 chassis grounds when you did the big 3? The ground is just as important as the positive.Tomorrow i'm going to go through everything and double up where its not. I'm prepping for the up coming show.I ground to the battery, the batter is grounded to the frame, no worries that wayWouldn't that be the same as grounding straight to the frame though or is grounding to the batt better?It is, but my battery is closer than my frame
November 10, 201014 yr Author Why dont you just cut a short piece and try it. You are only talking about a few dollars. I personally run a ground from the front battery to the rears. Overkill probably, but that's how I do it.This is what I do as well, it's the only surefire way to know that you are getting the least resistance.OP I noticed you did 2 1/0 runs on the positive, but did you do two 1/0 chassis grounds when you did the big 3? The ground is just as important as the positive.Tomorrow i'm going to go through everything and double up where its not. I'm prepping for the up coming show.I ground to the battery, the batter is grounded to the frame, no worries that wayWouldn't that be the same as grounding straight to the frame though or is grounding to the batt better?It is, but my battery is closer than my frame Gotcha, in my bed where my 4 XS batts are i'm only using 1 run of 0awg wire to connect each batt.Like so;I'm thinking about doubling up on it, sound like a good idea to you guys?
November 10, 201014 yr Why dont you just cut a short piece and try it. You are only talking about a few dollars. I personally run a ground from the front battery to the rears. Overkill probably, but that's how I do it.This is what I do as well, it's the only surefire way to know that you are getting the least resistance.OP I noticed you did 2 1/0 runs on the positive, but did you do two 1/0 chassis grounds when you did the big 3? The ground is just as important as the positive.Tomorrow i'm going to go through everything and double up where its not. I'm prepping for the up coming show.I ground to the battery, the batter is grounded to the frame, no worries that wayWouldn't that be the same as grounding straight to the frame though or is grounding to the batt better?It is, but my battery is closer than my frame Gotcha, in my bed where my 4 XS batts are i'm only using 1 run of 0awg wire to connect each batt.Like so;I'm thinking about doubling up on it, sound like a good idea to you guys?I wouldn't bother with such short runs, with 1/0 there isn't very much resistance with such a small run, its the long runs that it really helps.
November 10, 201014 yr Author Won't hurt anything You down to come help?----Thanks for the tip ulrisa
November 10, 201014 yr the frame is always going to be the best ground possible.. since your alternator is grounded to your engine and then your engine is attached to the frame it's always going to be best.
November 10, 201014 yr Did you actually measure a voltage decrease anywhere in your setup? I would check for ground resistance at various locations on the frame and voltage at the amps. You possibly do not have any issues. Your best bet, if you have a voltage decrease due to grounding, is to double up on your ground wire to frame.
November 10, 201014 yr the frame is always going to be the best ground possible.. since your alternator is grounded to your engine and then your engine is attached to the frame it's always going to be best. Not really... the path of least resistance will be the best ground. If your frame ground measures over 0 ohms, and a run from the battery measures less than that... the optimal ground is the battery.
November 10, 201014 yr I was reading about KK wiring and CCA type stuff, I'm fixing to order some of that to do the big 3 and then some.And then get a secondary battery too, good luck broham!
November 10, 201014 yr Needing a short ground is one of those car audio myths developed by companies always selling kits with 3 feet of ground wire.As posted above, the absolute BEST ground is the path of least resistance to the front battery/alternator. Now which way you accomplish that is up to you, but by no means does your ground wire have to be short. Hell, before I added batteries in my bed I had 15 foot grounds to the front batteries and never had any issues.Truth be told 9 times out of 10 a piece of 1/0 all the way to the front is going to be the best (aka, least resistant) ground because copper is FAR more conductive than steel (what your frame is made of) and it doesn't have to deal with a lot of corrosion, welds, etc. But for most "normal" powered systems, a frame ground works fine, especially since you have batteries near the amp(s).
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