Big 3 ground?

[WrenchGuy 10+ year member]

All alts are regulated. Just add don't take. Current follows the path of least resistance. You dont get more from the upgrade just less resistance.

 

[xtremebassjunky 10+ year member]

exactly

 

[SPL Blazer 10+ year member]

I see... As long as you have a block to chasis, you'll be fine. You can put a block to cab for extra protection, but I don't really see any major gains by doing that. Might try it if you have a ground issue.

Not sure how Nissan does things, but every vehicle I've ever seen has a grounding strap running from the engine block to the body of the vehicle, in your case the cab. If your going to ground your amps to the body then you need to ground your engine block and the batteries (-) terminal to the body as well.

 

[R05Nismo 10+ year member]

Not sure how Nissan does things, but every vehicle I've ever seen has a grounding strap running from the engine block to the body of the vehicle, in your case the cab. If your going to ground your amps to the body then you need to ground your engine block and the batteries (-) terminal to the body as well.

The stock ground runs from the battery - to the block. I have the amps grounded in the cab. I'm going to check with the Nissan dealer before I do the Big 3. Truck only has 30,000 miles on it so better safe than sorry.

What would be the best brand of 4 gauge wire to use for my amp grounds?

 

[SPL Blazer 10+ year member]

Normally on the back side of the engine block, sometimes out of sight, there should be another ground running from the engine block to the body of the truck.

There are lots of good 4 ga wire brands out there. You generally want to use the same kind that you are using for your power wire, this ensures that you have the same strand count in both runs. Stinger makes some good wire, something in the HPM line. Knukonceptz makes good wire, I prefer them. I've heard that Kicker makes some decent wire, RF make some. As long as it's pure copper and has a lot of wire strands it should be good.

 

[jrwalte 10+ year member]

I used the 0 guage kicker kit and did a 0 guage big three and I get the same voltage at my amps as I do at my battery. It varies from 14.2 to 13.9.

 

[R05Nismo 10+ year member]

Normally on the back side of the engine block, sometimes out of sight, there should be another ground running from the engine block to the body of the truck.
There are lots of good 4 ga wire brands out there. You generally want to use the same kind that you are using for your power wire, this ensures that you have the same strand count in both runs. Stinger makes some good wire, something in the HPM line. Knukonceptz makes good wire, I prefer them. I've heard that Kicker makes some decent wire, RF make some. As long as it's pure copper and has a lot of wire strands it should be good.

I have streetwire's 4 gauge. I'll have to check but I dont think its copper.

 

[R05Nismo 10+ year member]

I found this, its a grounding kit for my truck. Looks like grounds everywhere but none of them go the battery? What would be the benefit of having all these grounds?

http://www.nathanweltonphoto.com/frontier/groundingkit.pdf

 

[R05Nismo 10+ year member]

I found this, its a grounding kit for my truck. Looks like grounds everywhere but none of them go the battery? What would be the benefit of having all these grounds?
http://www.nathanweltonphoto.com/frontier/groundingkit.pdf

bump....should I just do a grounding kit like this?? It says NOT to have any wires going to the battery -

 

[SPL Blazer 10+ year member]

Thats a lot of wires used, and grounding the transfer case? Never heard of anyone doing that before.

 

[IDSkoT 5,000+ posts]

I replaced my 1 farad cap with that battery to my 04 silverado running 1200 watts, and it didnt make much of a difference. Voltage dips below 11volts still. I started reading these threads soon after and decided big 3 is my next step. Hope this helps.

LOL, because Caps are worthless //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

And the reason your voltage drops is because your alt isn't powerful enough to supply the battery, car, and your amps with the power it needs... a cap isn't going to help-- it just puts more of a strain in the long run. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif