running ground wires from the battery
 

Here's a little something that I heard over the weekend and I wanted to know how true it is or if anyone knows about this....I was speaking to a gentleman who has been an electrical engineer for a while and I asked him if it was necessary to run all those negative ground wires from the battery to the back of the amps. he infrmd me that the reason why it itsn't necessary is due to the fact that if you ground to the chassis of the vehicle then it would be just as good. I couldn't figure out why he said this and why do the pros do this. I spoke to a friend of mine and he explained to me that if your car is a unibody then you really wouldn't need to run those wires to the bak from the battery. He explained to me that the reason why guys do run negative grounds from the battery is due to the fact that all the new cars are not really unibody and have been welded together. These welds cause resistance which would not be good at all when trying to ground to the body. All the different welds would actually stop you from have a good chassis ground because the car would not be a solid ground. Please let me hear your input on this matter and why would I still run negative grounds from the battery to the back even if my vehicle is a unibody???:dunno:

seems to make some sense but i still wouldnt run my grounds back to my battery unless i am having problems and cant fix it or i am competing with some serious power.

I don't see any reason why you would run ground wires if you have a unibody

I'm grounded to a spot right near my trunk latch, works just fine

did someone advise you to run the negative from the battery?

I can, it is called resistance on a ground return. Electricity is a algebra equation, what you do to one side you must do to the other. If you have a buildup of resistance on the ground return, it will manifest itself as a amp problem. While it may not cause a instantaneous problem (but can), it does lead to failures in time that seem to have no install related probems, save for the installer not actually verifying that he had a good ground.

A good ground is one that is under 1/2 ohm of resistance on the return. Any more than that and here is a graphic of what to expect. Go to Subway and eat a foot long sub, then get your a$$crack sewn shut, get the drift.

I had subway yesturday, must say, I wouldn't like my A55hole sewn shut:o

A search would reveal that this topic has been debated many times.

I am running 0gauge power and ground wires to the battery from my amps. But I remember a while ago when I first got into car audio, that grounds should be no more than 3 feet long. Why would somebody say this? I forgot.

grounding to the chassis just goes to the negative terminal eventually anyway. The only thing it does is save on wire and make possible spots for increased resistance.

My amp was running hot and shutting down on me,i searched the issue and went for the bad ground route.
I ran a 4 awg ground directly to batt- to match my 4 awg power +wire. The problem is now gone!.

jeep cherokee's are deffintly not unibodys then...