ok, a mechanics perspective on the BIG3

Every time I curse at the inefficiency of my chargin system I laugh and remember that hondas and such have small alts, my corsy, she has a 105, not bad for a grocery getter //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Anyways... as of now im pushing 1000 rms on 4 awg, 105 A alt.... interstate battery, prior to the big 3 I was going as low 11.8 full throttle. a Big 3 later (in some spare 4 guage) my voltage reads steady at 13.6, with acc. on 13.2 or so, ccasionally it gets as low as 12.8 with long flat tones or a test tone cd in.

Thats my reults with only 4 guage, my idle is 14.7 to 15. So the big three definately is an impovement.

The oddest thing was, I was buying set screw ring terminals and I was telling an installer at the shop about the big 3, and he never even heard of it, even tried to sell me a cap... lol

 
Every time I curse at the inefficiency of my chargin system I laugh and remember that hondas and such have small alts, my corsy, she has a 105, not bad for a grocery getter //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif
Anyways... as of now im pushing 1000 rms on 4 awg, 105 A alt.... interstate battery, prior to the big 3 I was going as low 11.8 full throttle. a Big 3 later (in some spare 4 guage) my voltage reads steady at 13.6, with acc. on 13.2 or so, ccasionally it gets as low as 12.8 with long flat tones or a test tone cd in.

Thats my reults with only 4 guage, my idle is 14.7 to 15. So the big three definately is an impovement.

The oddest thing was, I was buying set screw ring terminals and I was telling an installer at the shop about the big 3, and he never even heard of it, even tried to sell me a cap... lol
shops want to make money so they push caps and rear speakers.

 
Every time I curse at the inefficiency of my chargin system I laugh and remember that hondas and such have small alts, my corsy, she has a 105, not bad for a grocery getter //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif
Anyways... as of now im pushing 1000 rms on 4 awg, 105 A alt.... interstate battery, prior to the big 3 I was going as low 11.8 full throttle. a Big 3 later (in some spare 4 guage) my voltage reads steady at 13.6, with acc. on 13.2 or so, ccasionally it gets as low as 12.8 with long flat tones or a test tone cd in.

Thats my reults with only 4 guage, my idle is 14.7 to 15. So the big three definately is an impovement.

The oddest thing was, I was buying set screw ring terminals and I was telling an installer at the shop about the big 3, and he never even heard of it, even tried to sell me a cap... lol

Yeah, got in a converstaion with a CC guy and told him i was using about 0/1 gauge on my amp and big three, not only did he not know what a big three was but he never even contemplated wire being thicker than a 4 gauge. tried to sell me a 4 gauge kit...

 
i dont understand why people say not to run the battery ground to the amps. i would think it would have less resistance through a wire than through the cars frame. is it just the hassle of doing it, or is it actually bad somehow to do this? i ask because i have 17 ft of 1/0 and a distributor block, and was planning on doing that to get around my alternator whine and get as much current as possible to my crossfire. as soon as i finish removing a broken bolt from my frame where the crossmember bolted up anyway. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/mad.gif.c18f003ab0ef8a0d9c27ca78d77a6392.gif

 
i dont understand why people say not to run the battery ground to the amps. i would think it would have less resistance through a wire than through the cars frame.

Depends on who you ask. I've seen valid tests that indicate most vehicle's chassis to have resistance equivalent to that of 4ga wire, in which case if you are using a ground wire bigger than 4ga it would be best to ground directly at the battery.

But I've also seen valid tests that indicate most vehicle's chassis to have resistance equivalent to that of 0/2ga wire....in which case it would only be worthwhile to ground directly at the battery if you are using a wire larger than 0/2ga (which VERY few people use).

Add onto that the cost of the extra wire and hassle of running another large gauge wire through your vehicle, through your firewall, through your engine compartment and back to the battery........9 times out of 10 you will be perfectly fine with grounding to the chassis.

 
yeah but i already have the wire and dist. block, and hole in my firewall, i just need to get my car off the jackstands before i can go crawling around inside lol. just wanted to make sure there weren't any good reasons not to. easier than putting more effort than already has gone into tracking down my ground problem. i've tried 3 different locations each front and back for the grounds, always properly sanded down to the metal with clean bolts, and still get the same alternator whine. i hooked up my portable mp3 player straight to the amps, and got the same whine so i know it isnt the deck or rcas. also get a minor buzz with the engine off. annoys the piss out of me.

 
hey mods, i was wondering if you can delete the derogatory posts and make this a sticky, like th eone with me yelling at the dude and stuff, even change the title of the thread or something, there is some useful information here.

 
(do not run your ground back to the battery, please dont - its a huge waste of wire and time) QUOTE]



I want clarifiaction on this based on fact as I have contraditory evidence based on fact spread over 18 years of installation. To make such a bold statement is quite something. No disrespect intended either. Perhaps we all can learn something here from both sides of this discussion.
 
(do not run your ground back to the battery, please dont - its a huge waste of wire and time)
I want clarifiaction on this based on fact as I have contraditory evidence based on fact spread over 18 years of installation. To make such a bold statement is quite something. No disrespect intended either. Perhaps we all can learn something here from both sides of this discussion.

there ya go. i fixed your little quote-thing

anywho, i never said it didnt work. but 9 times out of 10, you are just as good grounding out in the rear of the vehicle and saving tons of time just upgrading the ground at the battery\engine. as long as you make sure you ground to a clean\paint-free spot that is on or near the chassis of the car, you should be perfectly fine. from what ive read, a cars chassis is designed to be a low-resistance path back to the bettery, so why not use that? it saves a ton of wire and labor, and usually will work just as well if you ran a wire back to the battery

dont get me wrong, if you have a HUGE multi-kw system, chances are you might wanna put a nice fat set of +\- 0~0\2 wire back to the battery like most competitors do. or just have more batt(s) in the trunk.

honestly? ive never had to resort to running a ground all the way back to the battery. and ive only came in contact with one vehicle that had recurring noise issues, but then again - i didnt work on it //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

lol.

as far as the topic is concerned - for the time and effort you have, adding a foot long piece of 4~0 guage wire to re-ground the battery is a great upgrade that usually can raise your voltage at the amplifier enough to warrant the upgrade.

 
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