Grounding to the battery

[ArcFault 10+ year member]

Well yes, I did read the grounding tutorial.

I am going to be running a 4awg power wire. Would it not be better to just run another wire all the way back to the battery? I have the the extra wire.

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[ArcFault 10+ year member]

Bump

 

[93dakota 10+ year member]

yes, it is always better to ground directly to the battery.

 

[ArcFault 10+ year member]

Thanks a lot!

 

[Plottin4success 10+ year member]

Well, in theory, you would want your ground to be as short as possible.

 

[RJesus 10+ year member]

what type of holes do you need in your battery terminals?

I have a stinger and a tsunami positive / negative terminals. I'm upgrading to all 0g wire so I need some bigger terminals.

pm me the answer.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Well, in theory, you would want your ground to be as short as possible.

You misunderstand that concept. That is true only if you plan to use a chassis ground, as extra length in the wire only adds resistance. But even when using the chassis to ground to, the electrons ultimately end up back at the battery to complete the circuit. So bypassing the chassis and running a wire directly back to the batt is not only acceptable, many people believe it to be the superior method. Reality is that it depends which is best, depending on the vehicle, as some chassis exhibit more resistance than others. On a full-framed vehicle, its basically not necessary to use a specific ground wire back to the batt, while on some unibodied vehicles it will result in less resistance to run the wire. If in doubt, if you drive a unibody, and if you have the extra wire anyway, run the ground back to the batt. But if your vehicle has a frame, use the frame instead.

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

problem with grounding at the battery is 1 the batteries ground must beable to handle the entire load, and 2 poor conductivity from stacking connectors..

i reccomend grounding near the battery grounding every component individually including the battery..

find a spot where you can drill and tap you some holes..

now it is true that ideally you want to keep you conductors short as possible, but if you use one size up its very little difference..

 

[Plottin4success 10+ year member]

You misunderstand that concept. That is true only if you plan to use a chassis ground, as extra length in the wire only adds resistance. But even when using the chassis to ground to, the electrons ultimately end up back at the battery to complete the circuit. So bypassing the chassis and running a wire directly back to the batt is not only acceptable, many people believe it to be the superior method. Reality is that it depends which is best, depending on the vehicle, as some chassis exhibit more resistance than others. On a full-framed vehicle, its basically not necessary to use a specific ground wire back to the batt, while on some unibodied vehicles it will result in less resistance to run the wire. If in doubt, if you drive a unibody, and if you have the extra wire anyway, run the ground back to the batt. But if your vehicle has a frame, use the frame instead.

Ahhhh I see. You are the FIRST to ever explain that to me. I've always been told its better to have a shorter ground "Just because". Thanks.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

problem with grounding at the battery is 1 the batteries ground must beable to handle the entire load

What do you mean by this exactly?

And you can ground multiple things to the batt terms without stacking connectors. Many companies make distro blocks for batt terms these days. Good point on stacking terminal connectors though.

 

[ArcFault 10+ year member]

Well if I grounded to the frame would it not be the same distance? It has to travel the entire frame to the battery anyways. This way I am just running a 4 gauge from amp to battery.

What was that about running a ground from my battery or something? I need to tap some holes?

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Well if I grounded to the frame would it not be the same distance? It has to travel the entire frame to the battery anyways. This way I am just running a 4 gauge from amp to battery.
What was that about running a ground from my battery or something? I need to tap some holes?

Same distance yes, assuming no wasted wire length. But a frame will exhibit less resistance than (for your example) a 4ga wire. Realistically the difference is not noticeable unless you are a serious SPL competitor shaving tenths. At some point financial benefits outweigh performance gains. Amp-to-frame-to-batt.

 

[ArcFault 10+ year member]

So for now I will be fine just running another wire to the battery?

 

[seedubs1 10+ year member]

If you are only running 4 awg, you aren't running enough power to make it necessary, or even worth your time to run the wire.

Most people will tell you that grounding to the chasis is about equivelant to using a 4 awg wire to ground back to the battery.

 

[ArcFault 10+ year member]

Alright, so ground to the frame and then run a wire from the frame to the battery? SMy ground wire is 4awg from the amp to the frame.. So I need to have another 4awg from frame to battery post?

Also, it wont hurt though right? To run the wire back to the battery? Because my girlfriend will feel bad that I bought the extra wire that I did not need. She was very sure it needed to go back to the battery despite what I was saying.

Also, how far down the line should the inline fuse go?