Safe to run >3 feet grounds?

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

Hey, I was wondering if I could play it by ear, safely, to see if I can run greater than 3 feet grounds. I have Big 3 done, and it would only be roughly 3'3" or so, but my ground isn't quite long enough.

I have one other place I am going to try, but that spot caused isolation a year ago. That was before Big 3, although Big 3 doesn't get rid of isolation, but it may have helped.

Any thoughts on it?

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[Chevyaudio 5,000+ posts]

it will be fine.

 

[danteBirosel 5,000+ posts]

Shit im running 2 runs of positive and negative from batt to amp. fuq grounding it to chassis. lol //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

dB

 

[Chevyaudio 5,000+ posts]

well...when grounding to the chassis, you are using the chassis as the "conductor"...everything goes back to the neg. battery terminal. just depends on if you have the cash to spend the money on wire.

 

[brendan_121212]

It is better to ground to the chassis, it has lower resistance, than running it to the battery, it is cheaper, too.

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

It is better to ground to the chassis, it has lower resistance, than running it to the battery, it is cheaper, too.

Error, wrong ... Depending on the size of wire you are running. If you are using 4, 2, or 1/0 it is lower resistance to run a ground directly to the battery.

A few tests have concluded that the average unibody vehicle has the resistance equal to a 4awg wire, and an older car will have rust and possibly holes in the body making the path of least resistance very curvy.

Now ... Most of the time when playing music, the amount of amperage drawn will be less than playing test tones. That is why grounding to the chassis with a 1/0 wire is just fine in the rear, so long as you have upgraded the chassis to battery ground to 1/0. (most stock battery to chassis ground wires can be as low as 8ga)

 

[psych0ticnemes1 5,000+ posts]

It is better to ground to the chassis, it has lower resistance, than running it to the battery, it is cheaper, too.

hmm... i've never heard that it is 'better' to ground to the chassis.

 

[Chevyaudio 5,000+ posts]

Best way to ground would be 2 or so runs on 1/0 to the negative post of the battery...

unless you are a dbDrag guy and use your wire to store power, and have 15 runs of power and 15 runs of ground.

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

Best way to ground would be 2 or so runs on 1/0 to the negative post of the battery...
unless you are a dbDrag guy and use your wire to store power, and have 15 runs of power and 15 runs of ground.

I hear 30 is more fun....

 

[psych0ticnemes1 5,000+ posts]

Best way to ground would be 2 or so runs on 1/0 to the negative post of the battery...
unless you are a dbDrag guy and use your wire to store power, and have 15 runs of power and 15 runs of ground.

this is what i have known to be true as well, thanks

 

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

I'm Big 3 on 4 gauge, and my power/grounds for each amp are 8 gauge, running off of a 4 gauge to distro.

I'm going to try to move the ground and see if isolation occurrs.

On a side note, I got my Xenon 600.1 //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/yumyum.gif.0556df42231b304b9c995aefd13928a8.gif

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

hmm... i've never heard that it is 'better' to ground to the chassis.

you haven't heard much

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

A few tests have concluded that the average unibody vehicle has the resistance equal to a 4awg wire

I've only come across 2 tests that I would consider bonfide fact. One was by Esoteric - who would obviously benefit by selling 20 extra feet of ground wire every time they sold some pwr.

Their conclusion was that the floorpan of a car will generally carry more current than a 1/0 wire.

The other was RobM, one of the more knowledgable contributors at carsound.

His data indicated at LEAST 1/0, in some cases close to 2/0.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

I've only come across 2 tests that I would consider bonfide fact.

So Manville Smith at JL (well before they sold wire) doesn't hold any credence with you?

The conductivity of the car is going to very depending on not just the model of car, but the individual car as well. If you tested a sampling of 10 of the same model car you would get 10 different values for the resistance of the path from the same point of the chassis to the negative battery post. Not just a small variance either. Do the same thing with 10 samples of the same brand, size and length power wire and you will find a much more consistent result. Likely immeasurable.

Believe what you want and who you want, but unless you have done a conclusive test of your chassis grounding point on your car, you have no idea what the quality of your amp ground is. I can tell you exactly how good mine is. It is exactly the same as 1/0 of copper wire. I know that because that's what I used to ground it.