check out this ground

[germandark 10+ year member]

could have been done a lot better, obviously. but like someone said earlier, that is more surface area to the strands. kind of makes me get some ideas on doing grounds from now on.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

do explain how the chassis could EVER be better than the battery for a ground?

You should know I dont post info without being able to back it up. Might want to consider that next time when deciding how to word your response to me. Its okay, you are forgiven.
How much metal is in your ground wire? Now, how much metal is in your vehicle's chassis? The car has ALOT more, doesn't it? More metal means less resistance, doesn't? Less resistance is a good thing, right? It varies from vehicle to vehicle, but most cars will pass current just as well, if not better, than using a dedicated ground wire (unless you grossly over-size your wire). A full-framed vehicle, for example, will display much less resistance via a chassis ground than will any realistic sized ground wire.

So, knowing your full sized Chevy's frame will act perfectly well as a giant buss-bar, wouldn't it be rather silly to spend all that extra money buying copper to bypass the chassis?

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

that doesn't make it better. that makes it ~ the same.

my battery is close to the amp though. and i wasn't tryin to be a dck. it just doesnt sound legit.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

that doesn't make it better. that makes it ~ the same.
my battery is close to the amp though. and i wasn't tryin to be a dck. it just doesnt sound legit.

Less resistance for less money is the same?

 

[InhumanAcura 5,000+ posts]

Might as well have just welded it //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

weld copper huh..yeah, good luck with that. lol

 

[duece212 5,000+ posts]

You should know I dont post info without being able to back it up. Might want to consider that next time when deciding how to word your response to me. Its okay, you are forgiven.
How much metal is in your ground wire? Now, how much metal is in your vehicle's chassis? The car has ALOT more, doesn't it? More metal means less resistance, doesn't? Less resistance is a good thing, right? It varies from vehicle to vehicle, but most cars will pass current just as well, if not better, than using a dedicated ground wire (unless you grossly over-size your wire). A full-framed vehicle, for example, will display much less resistance via a chassis ground than will any realistic sized ground wire.

So, knowing your full sized Chevy's frame will act perfectly well as a giant buss-bar, wouldn't it be rather silly to spend all that extra money buying copper to bypass the chassis?

When does the big difference in conductivity between copper and steel come into play when comparing throughput of the frame and say a few runs of 1/0 copper wire?

 

[alvitae 10+ year member]

I don't know which is better but I do remember reading on some tutorial site that electricity follows the path of least resistance. And the guy went on to say copper conducts better than steel so wire was the way to go with the ground.

I asked about it and some one said to just use a dmm to see. check between your grounding points, Then check the resistance from one end of the wire run to the other.

 

[jdc753 10+ year member]

Dang its crazy what people will come up with pressed with a problem, make this work, or drive and buy the proper materials.

Like others I thought it was welded at first and then saw all the screws, wonder what it will be like when it rots/vibrates a nice 1" square or so piece seperate from the vehicle lol.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

When does the big difference in conductivity between copper and steel come into play when comparing throughput of the frame and say a few runs of 1/0 copper wire?

You will find that the construction of the vehicle itself will be a much more dominant factor. Richard Clark and David Navone did an experiment a few years ago to measure the resistance of several (then) modern vehicles. It was found that most displayed extremely low resistance when using the chassis ground, but a few models displayed a much higher resistance. It was determined to be caused due to the uni-body construction plus a few design choices that did not lend themselves to quality current transfer.
Basically, if you have a full framed car, dont even consider running a dedicated ground cable. If you have a uni-body car, it may or may not be advisable, and if you are concerned then test your chassis resistance versus your power cable resistance (to give a comparison) using your DMM.

The less conductive nature of steel versus copper plays almost role in this comparison, due to the sheer amount of steel in question.

 

[alvitae 10+ year member]

Ahaa, Mine is a uni-body. thanx I will look into that.

Edit: I know this spring I gained 2-3 decibals messing around with my ground. I need to work on it some more I think.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

I don't know which is better but I do remember reading on some tutorial site that electricity follows the path of least resistance. And the guy went on to say copper conducts better than steel so wire was the way to go with the ground.

That guy obviously doesn't understand some of the most basics of electricity. Yes electrons flow through the path of least resistance. But what this guy is missing is, its not just the material type that dictates resistance. If we were to believe this guy, a single run of 20ga copper wire would display less resistance than would a 20 ton piece of steel, simply because the wire is copper.
Trust me, your car's steel frame will show less resistance than will any realistic sized copper wire. But again if your car doesn't have a frame, yes check it out with a DMM, or just go with a ground cable back to the batt if you are worried. But dont fool yourself into thinking that is always the best method.

Ahaa, Mine is a uni-body. thanx I will look into that.
Edit: I know this spring I gained 2-3 decibals messing around with my ground. I need to work on it some more I think.

Glad to help.

 

[James Bang 5,000+ posts]

hmmmm

why do people think the battery is the true ground...

where the **** is the battery grounded to?

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

hmmmm
why do people think the battery is the true ground...

where the **** is the battery grounded to?

Because it is. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif The battery is the true ground spot, NOT the chassis. All the chassis is is a method with which to transfer current flow, it is not the final 'ground' as many people tend to think. A battery releases its stored energy by transferring electrons from the anode to the cathode. The anode and cathode are represented by each terminal on the battery. So as you can see, the battery IS the final grounding point.
Technically speaking the battery does not ground to the chassis, the chassis grounds to the battery. But people dont like to speak technically accurate, they like to say what's easiest. Hence the misnomer.

 

[James Bang 5,000+ posts]

the battery needs to be grounded for misbehaving.

 

[king ranch 5,000+ posts]

So if you grounded your rear battery to the front battery and chassis as well then you are safe either way bc the electricty will follow the least resistance right??