7-10 foot amp ground? bad idea?

[mason_herold 2]

ive got some knu concept 1/0 guage wire and i was planning on running it up to the engine battery cuz i figured that would be one of the best grounds i could find but its about 7-10 feet away from my amp and ive been looking around and i read that really long amp grounds were a bad idea? is it true?

[ricksi30 923]

What do you drive?

[mason_herold 2]

06 chevy colorado crew cab

[Randal Johnson 544]

Where is your amp located ??

[Godsmack 361]

Drill a hole and put a rubber grommet on it and go straight to the frame. The shortest path is the path of least resistance, which is key in any install.

 

 

 

J

[mason_herold 2]

my amp is under my backseat, and if i didnt want to drill a whole through the floor would the seat mount be a good choice or not? im ok with drilling the hole just want to find the easiest way but ill choose the best way even if its not the easiest way.

[ricksi30 923]

Seat bolts usually aren't the best place. You want to ground to the frame if at all possible.

[mason_herold 2]

ok to the frame it is!  and by the way im going to be running a crescendo bc3500 and i was wondering if a knuconceptz 300 amp anl fuse was overkill to the point that it takes away from the system?

[ricksi30 923]

ok to the frame it is!  and by the way im going to be running a crescendo bc3500 and i was wondering if a knuconceptz 300 amp anl fuse was overkill to the point that it takes away from the system?

You fuse according to the wire you use, not the amp.

[mason_herold 2]

ok well i was reading a chart and it had a range of the fuse size and it had the watts right next to it so thats why i was kind of going by the amp, and i have knuconceptz 1/0 guage by the way.

[edouble101 314]

I see this myth is still floating around. 

 

As long as the ground is good it doesn't matter how long it is. 

[djjdnap 78]

I agree.

The reason people run it from the front is because they say that spot welds are usually  bad.

Will you notice probably not, unless you have too small of wire.

[dbsupra 69]

ok to the frame it is! and by the way im going to be running a crescendo bc3500 and i was wondering if a knuconceptz 300 amp anl fuse was overkill to the point that it takes away from the system?

You fuse according to the wire you use, not the amp.

Back up a bit there.

I agree fuse for the wire when you are talking about fusing the wire at the battery. Which should be as close to the battery as possible.

However, when you are talking about fusing for the amp that is something different. Most mfg will spec what size fuse to use for a particular amp and you want that close to the amp.

If you run an amp with internal fusing that is not required, only fusing for the wire at the battery.

[Impious 1,476]

I see this myth is still floating around. 

 

As long as the ground is good it doesn't matter how long it is. 

I agree, to a point.  In a vehicle with a real frame the frame will typically have less resistance than 1/0 gauge wire.  If it were a vehicle without a real frame such as a unibody then direct to the battery may end up being a better method.  But you are correct, a good ground is a good ground rather that's to the frame or direct to the battery and is not determined by some arbitrary length of the ground wire itself.

 

For fuses....if the amp doesn't have an internal fuse, then you can use the fuse at the battery to fuse the amplifier as well and fuse according to the amplifier.  No point in fusing again at the amplifier.  The battery fuse will protect both the wire and amplifier, assuming you are using appropriately gauged wire.

[Tirefryr 1,742]

Seat bolts usually aren't the best place. You want to ground to the frame if at all possible.

On the contrary, they are one of the best places provided you properly remove the paint.  They have a weld nut on the back and are a large thick spot of metal.  It is structurally superior to regular sheet metal.  Think about it, they bolt your seat down there.   

 

I don't know what the fuss is about unibody vehicles either.  In this instance, the entire vehicle is the chassis and frame. It is one large ground, unlike a body-on-chassis vehicle which has isolating body mounts and requires the body of the vehicle to be grounded to the fram via ground straps.

[Impious 1,476]

Problem with non-frame cars is the connection of panels.  How well the ground conducts in these instances depends on how the vehicle was constructed and the quality of the welds.  Some are better than others.  That's not to say they are all bad, many are fine but some are worse than others.  Whereas a frame is usually a pretty continuous chunk of steel.

[Tirefryr 1,742]

There are thousands of spot welds throughout these cars, panel crimps, etc. . .   Should have no issues with grounding unless we're speaking of outdated vehicles made where car makes you.

[mason_herold 2]

i was talking about the battery fuse my bad.