just hooked up a new system

[csu87 10+ year member]

AHAHAHAHA.... Your battery is hooked up to the alternator, its part of your vehicles electrical system.
Is the ground bare metal??

Dammit CSU87 i was gonna take that for my new sig quote.

i knew it wouldnt be open for long so i had to snatch it up

 

[Needhelp09 10+ year member]

my ground is fine, my lights didnt used to dim until today when i switched out my 40anl fuse and 8 gauge power wire to an 80anl fuse and 4 gauge wire.

So im guessing my ground needs to be bigger too?

 

[sparkplug121988 10+ year member]

Change the ground and make sure its going to bare metal and like stated use 4 gauge and make it as short as possible. Then make sure all your connections are clean and tight. as far as the big three..... Its just the ground running from the chassie and the block to the - battery and the wire running from the + from alt to the + on the battery. Then bring it up to auto zone and get the electrical tested.

 

[Needhelp09 10+ year member]

Thanks a lot! I think its just my ground wire being smaller than the power cable, i had ordered 16 feet and it wasnt enough to make a ground and run to my battery so i thats why im not using 4 gauge for the ground

 

[pettyt18]

your ground should be same gauge as the power wire. and yes, you are using an alternator.....
sounds to me like your ground sucks... you shouldnt have any issues whatsoever only running 300 watts.

x2 the ground should always be the same size as your power, if not bigger. as well as short as possible and to a CLEAN SANDED METAL SURFACE

 

[joeboxer5876 10+ year member]

fix it and take pictures!

 

[CobraStang98 10+ year member]

fix it and take pictures!

x2 i'd love to see pictures of this setup.

Absolutely no sarcasm there, i swear.

 

[ThatChevyGuy 5,000+ posts]

Where is the ground? Make it as close to the amplifier as possible.

 

[Needhelp09 10+ year member]

its not far at all.

ill upload some when im all done.

i just ordered 2 feet of 1gauge ground wire and a 120anl fuse and fuse holder.

 

[Needhelp09 10+ year member]

So what do you think of this setup...please let me know if i need to change anything.

Im going to have two 12" Kicker L5 Solo-Barics connected to a KickerZX1000.1 Class D mono amp

I will use 12 gauge speaker wire, 1/0 gauge ground wire, 4 gauge power cable, and a 120ANL fuse.

The ground will be about a foot long...the only problems i have is fitting the wires into my amp i have now (300.1 kicker) and i was just gonna wire everything up to my 300.1 amp so when my new amp comes in all i have to do is take out the cables and put them right back in.

 

[metsfan89 10+ year member]

Power wire and ground wire need to be the same! Come on man its been said five times in this thread. Get 4 or 0 awg FOR GROUND and POWER they need to be the same awg and you will be fine.

 

[AllDayMJ 10+ year member]

Power wire and ground wire need to be the same! Come on man its been said five times in this thread. Get 4 or 0 awg FOR GROUND and POWER they need to be the same awg and you will be fine.

if your running that kicker zx amp your going to need 0ga for it because it can put out ~1400w RMS... and thats for both power and grnd.

 

[Twista89 10+ year member]

What I dont understand is why does the ground have to be the same size if hes only runing 300 watts...8 GA can handle 300 watts fine...if hes not pulling the power then why is it needed??? Dont worry I have same size powers and grounds but thats just something I dont understand...