1/0 Rockford Fosgate Power wire and 1/0 Ground wire okay?

[95BLKSS 10+ year member]

I'm planning on running a dual battery set-up (one under hood and other in trunk). I had a Rockford Fosgate dual amplifier wiring kit that came with 1/0 power wire and I bought 1/0 welding cable recently to run ground from battery under hood to battery in the trunk. Simple question; will 1/0 ga welding cable be okay for ground? Only reason I was questioning is because, the RF wire looks a little larger and read somewhere that the ground wire needs to be equal or larger than power wire... Thanks in advance.

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[WhyUmad 10+ year member]

Because of the shorter length of the ground wire it is ok to be a little smaller

edit: if you are running it the length of the car it should be similar size to power but all the 2nd battery setups had them grounded in the trunk to bare metal frame

 

[95BLKSS 10+ year member]

Because of the shorter length of the ground wire it is ok to be a little smaller
edit: if you are running it the length of the car it should be similar size to power

Since, I'm running length of car... Front battery to trunk battery; will it still be okay? It is similar size, both are 1/0 but, the RF Power wire is noticeably a little bigger... Also, I know there is a lot of debate but, can I ground my amps to rear battery as well? Thanks.

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

why not use the larger wire for the ground? and yes you can ground at the rear battery. i use my rear battery as a distro block. nothing wrong with that.

 

[95BLKSS 10+ year member]

why not use the larger wire for the ground? and yes you can ground at the rear battery. i use my rear battery as a distro block. nothing wrong with that.

I wouldn't have a problem using larger wire for ground but, I already purchased 20ft of 1/0 welding cable wire... It looks a little smaller than Rockford Fosgate 1/0 but, it is 1/0 nevertheless... I don't really want to spend another $70 on 2/0 ground welding cable wire if I don't have to. Cool, definitely going to use rear battery as distro block as well. Also I'm running a 3 amp set-up (old school MB Quard DISCUS 2 480s and 1 2000.1d); can I get by just fusing the power wire between DISCUS 2000.1d and battery since the 480s have fuses built-in?

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

i recommend fusing every wire off the battery. even if the amp is fused. not for the equipment, for the off chance that wire pops loose and grounds out.

and what i'm saying is... use the rockford as the ground, and the welding cable as the power. honestly though, if you're not pushing the wire to it's limits it really won't matter.

 

[WhyUmad 10+ year member]

I would not ground the amps directly to the battery terminal, usually they will have some ground noise issues, ground the amps to the chassis.

You want to put a fuse right after the front battery wire going to the back and also right before the rear battery and also on every wire coming off of the rear battery. So 3 amps = 3 fuses plus one up front and one BEFORE the rear battery so 5 total.

^ this is the correct way I don't care what anyone else says to do if you want to do it right this is how

 

[95BLKSS 10+ year member]

I really didn't want black wire as my power and red as my ground... Even though that is a good idea. Since I work 10 mins away from weldingsupply.com; I'm going to call and see if I can just take back wire and get bigger wire. Good thing they have a return policy. Called and they have a 10% restocking fee; If I can get away with 1/0 welding than I might just do it; no sense in wasting money.

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

I would not ground the amps directly to the battery terminal, usually they will have some ground noise issues, ground the amps to the chassis.
You want to put a fuse right after the front battery wire going to the back and also right before the rear battery and also on every wire coming off of the rear battery. So 3 amps = 3 fuses plus one up front and one BEFORE the rear battery so 5 total.

i don't understand your ground logic. the battery is the source. anything else adds resistance. if the front battery is grounded to the rear, and both to the chassis then they should all be equal.

 

[95BLKSS 10+ year member]

I would not ground the amps directly to the battery terminal, usually they will have some ground noise issues, ground the amps to the chassis.
You want to put a fuse right after the front battery wire going to the back and also right before the rear battery and also on every wire coming off of the rear battery. So 3 amps = 3 fuses plus one up front and one BEFORE the rear battery so 5 total.

^ this is the correct way I don't care what anyone else says to do if you want to do it right this is how

I currently have 2 300a fuses (one for front battery, one for rear battery). I also have a fuse holder and 200a fuse for my 2000.1d. I guess I'll buy a fused distro block for my 2 480s. I don't mind grounding batteries separately as long as that is correct way to wire... It gets confusing with a lot of people grounding directly off rear battery and seeing kinetik wiring diagrams with amplifiers grounded off rear battery.

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

I currently have 2 300a fuses (one for front battery, one for rear battery). I also have a fuse holder and 200a fuse for my 2000.1d. I guess I'll buy a fused distro block for my 2 480s. I don't mind grounding batteries separately as long as that is correct way to wire... It gets confusing with a lot of people grounding directly off rear battery and seeing kinetik wiring diagrams with amplifiers grounded off rear battery.

grounding to the chassis and to the battery should be equal given everything is wired correctly. whichever is closet should suffice.

 

[WhyUmad 10+ year member]

grounding to the chassis and to the battery should be equal given everything is wired correctly. whichever is closet should suffice.

In my experience I have gotten alternator wine when a highs amp is grounded to the battery, never noticed anything with a sub amp. I just always ground to the chassis to be safe because I hate doing things twice.

 

[WhyUmad 10+ year member]

double post

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

i doubt it was solely because of that. i had issues grounding places other than directly to the battery. most noise is introduced thru the RCAs. and those god awful pioneer decks //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[WhyUmad 10+ year member]

^ it was cleaned up but simply changing the ground from battery to chassis