Posted March 14, 200718 yr Does a car battery need to be grounded to something in order for it to work properly?The reason I ask this is because a friend and myself are doing a school project (we have to design an entire business), and we thought it would be cool to make a movable car audio display. It would contain some OEM speakers from my Lumina, as well as my friend's Kicker L5 8", Audiobahn amp, a Kenwood head unit I've got laying around, and my car's battery that I'm soon to be replacing.We're thinking of hooking the amp and H.U. directly to the battery (well, fused of course), with a switch on the H.U.'s power lead so that we can turn it on/off that way. The ground for the amp and H.U. would both run straight back to the ground on the battery terminal. We, so far, have not planned to ground the battery to anything.Should we ground the battery to something? Does it need to be grounded? We don't plan on running it for very long -- maybe a minute or two max. Any other flaws you see in this?All help will be much appreciated, we'd really like to blow the class away with this one
March 14, 200718 yr No need to ground it to anything, just make sure it is a deep cycle and fully charged. 12v isn't nearly the same as running of alternator voltage.
March 14, 200718 yr Author No need to ground it to anything, just make sure it is a deep cycle and fully charged. 12v isn't nearly the same as running of alternator voltage.Would there be a problem if it wasn't deep cycle (IE: OEM Chevy Lumina battery) as long as it was fully charged? It doesn't have to get extremely loud, and it only needs to run for a few minutes max.
March 14, 200718 yr IMO it wouldn't hold out as well on a constant level possibly creating a voltage spike.J
March 14, 200718 yr it should be fine, i've hooked an amp and sub up in my house wt a regular car batt, only had the problem of the battery dieng after so long
March 14, 200718 yr For running a couple minutes, you can use any 12volt battery that will supply your amp/hour needs. I'd go with Sean on the deep cycle if this is something for continuing usage that may get near a full drain and need multiple recharges and discharges.
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