need help with batteries in parallel asap

[stockgp 10+ year member]

first, the vehicle is a 96 international eagle 9300.

background: truck had new batteries just before christmas, 4 die hard marine deep cycle. i eliminated the 1/0 gauge battery cables and put buss bars in their place. also did a big three upgrade.

now for the problem: yesterday the truck started and ran fine. today, my stepdad goes to leave and the truck won't start and the batteries are smoking.

my first thought is there is a short somewhere. i can't find any bare wire touching metal anywhere.

i'm almost positive it's a short, because the smoke is pouring from the ground cable where it is hooked to the bank of batteries.

picture this: the batteries are hooked in parallel by buss bars as i said. the positive wires are hooked to the terminal of the first battery in the bank. the ground wire is hooked to he terminal of the last battery in the bank.

as i stated before, cable gets hot at the point where the ground cable is hooked to a battery. if i unhook the last battery from the bank and move the ground cable over, the same thing happens with the next battery.

i'm flummoxed, and i need to get this fixed asap so i can get my step dad back on the road.

thanks in adavance for any help.

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[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

ground wire not big enough? I dunno what kinda car that is. I melted some carpet with a ground wire too small one time

 

[stockgp 10+ year member]

this is an 18 wheeler. the ground cable is 4/0 gauge. should be way more than sufficient

 

[Cabin_Pressure 10+ year member]

Last semi i worked on was a 24v system with a positive grounding system. This one is a 12v negative ground system, correct?

 

[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

um yea i just thought about that, doesnt it have a 24v alt and you are running a 12v battery bank?