The Great Ground Debate
 

I thought I would start a debate on the best possible wiring setup I have heard many arguements and I thought I would see what your opinion is??

Is it better to run ground directly from battery to amplifier or ground of body to amplifier???

Both. But to choose, battery.

actually it depends. end of debate.

i have and i will not do it nexted time
i would if i tryed all othere places 1st

copper is best, I run a dedicated line all the way back to the battery. I also increase the primary to the alternator up to the same guage and replace the battery negative wit same guage. Light carbon steel is ok for signal lights, not 10 kilowatt SPL systems.

Absolutely back to the battery. No question and no debate, ground back to the battery.

Both.

Upgrade Bat-Chassis, then run from there to the back, ground there, then to your amp. Let your amp choose the best route!

An average chassis ground return is roughly equivalent to 3/0 wire....

The problem with grounding to chassis are many.

We know we like to have the same amperage capacity in our ground and power wire. If, as an example, we run 4AWG power to our amp and 4AWG ground from our amp back to battery we know that our power and ground have the same amperage capacity.

How do we know that grounding to the trunk or chassis has the same amperage capacity as our power wire? We don't! We can measure continuity between where our amp is grounded at the chassis and the negative on the battery easily with a multi meter (the sad part is most people dont even do this). So, we get something like 0.01 ohm resistance, what does that tell us? Not much useful except that we have a good ground at mili-amp levels. What is our ground potential at 10, 20, 40, 100 amps of current draw? I don't know either.

What path does the current connect back to the battery when chassis grounded? We do know that it takes the path of least resistance but where is that? We don't know, so does it really matter running our RCA cables anywhere specific? No it does not.

Do you think that the ground path of least resistance, when chassis grounding, changes with current draw? Absolutely it does.

Do you think vehicles with composite body panels and panels held together with adhesives offer good ground paths? Probably not as good as older vehicles with metal panels and spot welds.

By grounding back to the battery we answer so many quesitons and take so many variables out of the equation that it is well worth the extra funds and effort.

how do you know this? Is there a test report or something? Because I would be interested in checking it out.

hey HAUNZ where u get your info??? I not startin a fight but since I personally disagree with your statement about chassis ground=3/0 where u get your info and facts on that??

how about everyone try this in their own vehicle... run wire to chasis and test what voltage drop and spl is, then run ground wire and do the same test... my guess is that with older cars, its better to run wire back to batt... as for me, i'll stick to my chasis ground cause it made no difference what so ever, plus i have less wire in the car

Hey if chassis ground works for you thats good. I just have not seen many loud SPL vehicles using chassis ground.

Amplifiers will also be more reliable if the ground connection amperage capacity is the same as the power wire.

Direct run to the battery on both power and ground for that extra bit on big power. Depending on your vehicles age, the rust in most vehicles frames/unibody would cause the higher power amps to pull a bit more current than they would had you run a power&ground wire.

So IMO if its an amp under 1000wrms just make sure you have a good chassis ground. Over 1000wrms run power and ground directly to battery and it doesn't hurt to ground it at the rear either for other components that you may have and to stop any possible ground loops from happening with the deck that may be grounded at the factory ground.

Richard Clark did some testing in response to some claims that a normal chassis ground return was equivalent to 4awg wire.... IIRC voltage drop was measured with 100 amps of DC current passing through the chassis and the closing comments were something like most American made chassis were equivalent to 3/0~4/0


Obviously with a wide variety of manufacturers and types of assembly you should take that with a grain of salt... as you Kia my not qualify... :ohwell:

thanks for your input. KIA LOL could be worse a yaris LOL^^

or the worst of all.....a NEON

The best answer in this thread.

OH - and HEY! I like my Neon :)

So if I'm running 4 guage to my amp, it's safe to run a ground all the way back to the battery as 4 guage as well?

Did you guys not read this at the beginning ?.. point made .. haha

liv2ride i noticed you are form spencerville ontario. that is right near cardinal and angelos truck stop right?

yes and no, if ur runing decent power, no...if ur runnign small pwer(500 watts or so) then ya...

4 gauge is good for higher current on short runs, but the longer it goes the harder it has to work and more voltage drop.

do 0 gauge or so if theres any kid of real power

Power and ground need the same amperage carrying capacity. If you have 4 AWG power, 4 AWG ground of the same length will work well.

Yuli's right, it depends. Mainly on amperage required. Ground your starter motor through your trunk and see what happens, there's a reason it's got a dedicated ground line.