The search tool is not available at this time, need some suggestions related to ground cable size, location etc. for my new amps. This is the first aftermarket sound system that I've installed in years...so please give an old guy a few tips.

The amps came with short 2 and 4 guage ground cables. The suggestion is to ground them to the body somewhere? The power cables are 10 and 4 guage, if that makes any difference, that I've run directly to the battery. Would it be wise to use the supplied ground cables, grounded to the body or would it be better to run new cables from the amps to the ground side of the battery, along the opposite side of the car?

Thanks for the advice.

 

First of all what kind of wattage are you running? My 500 watt amp runs on 10 gauge wire just fine. If you're running a lot of power I'd run 2 Gauge wire directly to the battery. That way you're safe. If you're in the experimenting mood you could use the 10 gauge wire that I assume is already run and see if the wire gets warm. If it does then you need to get a thicker wire, otherwise it should be fine. Make sure to run it for a while to make sure it doesn't warm up over time.

Good Luck...

 

The rated power out form the amps it's what you should be looking at here. It the fuses in the amps. If the amp has more then one fuse add the values together. For grounds, that can't be to good, The better they are the better.
Post back the fuse info first. Then we'll look at the hole thing.

 

The chassis is connected to the negative terminal- there's no need to run a negative battery cable all the way to the amp. Higher gauge cable won't hurt either. Get a decent sized cable and ground to the chassis.

 

The 400 watt amp has a 30 amp fuse and the 800 watt amp has a 50 amp fuse. The 400 has a 10 guage power cable and the 800 a 4 ga. The factory supplied ground cables with instructions to make and ground them to the body. Just wanted to make sure that I shouldnt need to make or extend the grounds all the way back to the battery.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

The reason I don't like grounding to the Chassis is the fact that in order to get a good ground you need to clean the paint from the grounding point. If you run a cable to the battery you for sure have a great ground. Just my two cents.

 

i hope all of you know that your ground is more important than anything else. the actual flow of electrons comes from the ground and not the positive. therefore your power comes from the negative battery and/or chassis. Dont waste time and money running a cable from the amp to negative on battery, instead make sure you have a good cable that connects the frame and negative on battery. then take an angle grinder and just shave some paint off where you want to ground that will only take 2 mins tops.