I think I may have an improper ground. Input Please.

[Zaytser 10+ year member]

Hi all. A few weeks ago I finished my install and thought that I had made sure everything was proper. But I got reading some old car audio books and magazines on grounding and realized that I probably screwed up my ground.

Basically what I did was I took both ground wires from my two amps, and soldered some screw type ends on them. This allow the ground to be screwed into opposite ends of a steel manifold bar (the manifold has multiple threaded holes) that you would normally use for air systems. Then I ran another ground wire from that manifold to negative terminal on my second battery in the rear of my truck and from there the battery is grounded to the frame. I ground away all of the rust on the frame where the line ends and used a washer with teeth to digg into the frame.

I haven't had any issues, but the litterature that I read mentioned that amps sharing the same ground point is a bad idea. It also said that rather than having the grounding points a foot apart it would be better if they were only a few inches. Now I can't remeber the reason why they said it was bad, could someone explain to me what may happen if I leave my set up like this. My amps are grounded to the battery and then the battery to the frame so you could say that essentially, they are sharing the same ground.

I would just assume change it right away, but I would like to understand why and what would be my best solution when using multiple amps, as I am thinking of adding more into my system. Thanks for any input or links you can throw my way. I will continue to search the forums for answers.

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[OoMesKoO 10+ year member]

Pics?

 

[redfred18t 10+ year member]

I dont see how if they share a ground point it is a bad idea considering many places sell ground distribution blocks

 

[OoMesKoO 10+ year member]

I dont see how if they share a ground point it is a bad idea considering many places sell ground distribution blocks

Point exactly. A ground disto. is for multiple grounds in various locations.

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If thats the cliffnotes, definitley seperate the grounds.

 

[Zaytser 10+ year member]

According to this book that I have it says that, "If you are installing serveral components, ground the amps separately. This prevents the high currents drawn by an amp from modulating the ground voltage of any of the other components."

I haven't got a clue what that means. By no means am I an electrical engineer, but I thought grounding my amps straight to the battery would be best, but according to this fella, I run the risk of modulating the ground voltage. I will continue to look into this.

Oh... Sorry I don't have any pics. Like I said the the ground wires coming from the amps go into a home made distribution block, and then a single ground runs from the dist. block to the negative terminal of my second battery. Then another ground wire runs from the same negative terminal of the battery to the frame of my truck.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

What they're getting at is ground the amps separately from the other component (like a crossover or EQ), not each other. Their reasoning is flawed though. Eventually every component in the car shares the same ground point at the source.