Ground to Negative???

**Motorcity** · 03-19-2007, 03:01 PM

Originally Posted by MatrixPC

To confused you even more. In other place in the world, it also called Earth.

Ground, Negative, Earth are all the same thing (well for DC, it is.)

And more. 0v or 0 volts. (again this would be for DC)

**RedGTiVR6** · 03-19-2007, 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by evandude

Positive?

ouch!

I was talking with Darque at the time about his install and the positive battery terminal.

Thanks for catching that. I've changed it.

**incudie** · 09-19-2007, 04:51 PM

Sorry to revive an old thread but I thought it would be better than to create a new one concerning the same thing.

So if I choose to ground directly to the negative battery terminal and I ground multiple devices I would think I could use a distribution block. Would that cause a problem using one in the reverse? I mean going from 8 gauge up to 4 gauge then to the negative terminal?

Thanks,

**BiG K** · 09-19-2007, 05:48 PM

Nope, using a distribuition block is fine, except that some distribuition blocks come fused. You generally don't want to fuse a earth/negative/ground so buy a non-fused distro block.
Also remember the wire going from the distro block to the battery MUST be the same guage as the positive/live wire. If for example you have two 8guage positive wires, you must use a 4 guage ground wire etc

**incudie** · 09-19-2007, 05:52 PM

Awesome thats exactly what I needed to know.

Thanks BiG K!

**kazzxtrismus** · 09-19-2007, 05:59 PM

the battery is grounded often to the engine and chassis.
but to clarify why electrically you should use the battery is because it will act as a buffer and "dead zone" for some of the voltage "signals" that can be sent through the ground or chassis.

chassis grounding is inferrior to battery grounding...BUT can be superior if you do not run large enough cable, the OE grounds and contacts are REALLLY dirty or old, if you have a high electrical usage devices are far away and near other shorter routes to ground by using their chassis ground.

you really haven't grounded anything if your car comes off the ground with no way to ground to the planet earth effectively.

this is why their is such thing as a "floating ground"

picture a car on a crane held up with a non conductive strap.

all ground lines will eventually work back to the battery...if the battery is grounded to the engine and chassis too.

to confuse even further the actual fact is, electricity travels from negative to positive....as the charge is an electron being passed between molecules...which is negatively charged..... but we measure based on a positive system...so we look at it inversly.
the spare electrons are stored on 1 side of the system...the "loser" molecules who want an electron are on the other side.
this is why we say positive and negative.

reeeeeallly sesame street but accurate for picturing anyway.

large draw items like a 1500Watt amp "CAN" cause a signal to interfere with another item if grounded close to the same point...(much safer if this point is a battery).

this is why some items are protected on both sides of their circuit.
some poeple use a "small" resistor on the ground side as a "fuse" but also because it can help with SOME signals that may be coming in through the negative side causing interference.

large (7+ hp) motors in the manufacturing environment have filters on the posotive and negative side, as the "ground signal can burn their controllers if not already filterd and protected.

some manufacturing environments filter everything for equipment and operator and health and safety reasons.

dont forget that a ground line is still live....think series vs parallel.

**Caelric** · 09-19-2007, 08:39 PM

Originally Posted by incudie

I mean going from 8 gauge up to 4 gauge then to the negative terminal?

Thanks,

If you are just going to run 4 gauge from the distro block to the negative terminal, there is really no reason to do so. You would be better off running a short run of 4 gauge to the nearest chassis point, sandpapering the chassis to bare metal, and grounding there.

If, on the other hand, you run 2 gauge, or even better, 0/1 gauge to the battery, it is worth it.

Dave

**incudie** · 09-21-2007, 04:37 PM

Thanks

I was wondering about that the other night... your explanation helps greatly.

I have heard that separating the grounding points (running a "-" distro block for audio equipment) was good to keep out noise (such as the alternator) but non audio equipment could just ground straight to the chassis. Would that not be true then?

**Caelric** · 09-22-2007, 04:59 AM

Well, maybe. I grounded directly to the battery for two reasons. The first was that I have a lot of electrical equipment, drawing a good bit of power at full blast, and I wanted to provide a solid ground with 0 gauge cable. Second was that I was getting some ground loops grounding to the chassis, and thus some audio noise, and ground everything to a single distro block and then from there to the battery seemed to clear up a lot of my audio noise.

Dave