Big 3 Help Needed..

[SQMonte]

since electricity travels the path of least resistance, it makes absolutely no difference if you leave the factory grounds in or take them out

[Hotdog]

Now your ground on the firewall there .. is that a good ground point?

I though when you ground to the Chassis that it meant to the frame is that correct?

[SQMonte]

Now your ground on the firewall there .. is that a good ground point?

I though when you ground to the Chassis that it meant to the frame is that correct?

I've seen people do that, I keep my grounds to the chassis myself

[Hotdog]

Ok... I moved my ground on the battery from the Frame to the chassis (Shorter Run)and ran my 1/0 from Alt to Chassis and 6 ga from Alt to Battery with 80amp fuse(Temp until I get more 1/0). I went ahead and upgraded the wire from fuse box to bat with 6ga (Originally 10ga) and while I was at it I upgraded one more wire from ground on battery to headlight frame, there was one there that went to the battery to begin with it was like 12 gauge and I upgraded it to 6 gauge.

With that said my dimming / Pulsating lights that I was having while driving is now completely gone.

My Voltage at the battery before this upgrade was at 13.6v and when I was jamming the radio it would fluctuate 12.6 and back up to 13.6

Now it is at 14.1v and when jamming it will fluctuate from 13.6 to 14.1

So all in all.. nice little upgrade.. until I get more 1/0 Wire and another fuse to run from Alt to battery.

Thanks for your help guys..

[SQMonte]

Ok... I moved my ground on the battery from the Frame to the chassis (Shorter Run)and ran my 1/0 from Alt to Chassis and 6 ga from Alt to Battery with 80amp fuse(Temp until I get more 1/0). I went ahead and upgraded the wire from fuse box to bat with 6ga (Originally 10ga) and while I was at it I upgraded one more wire from ground on battery to headlight frame, there was one there that went to the battery to begin with it was like 12 gauge and I upgraded it to 6 gauge.

With that said my dimming / Pulsating lights that I was having while driving is now completely gone.

My Voltage at the battery before this upgrade was at 13.6v and when I was jamming the radio it would fluctuate 12.6 and back up to 13.6

Now it is at 14.1v and when jamming it will fluctuate from 13.6 to 14.1

So all in all.. nice little upgrade.. until I get more 1/0 Wire and another fuse to run from Alt to battery.

Thanks for your help guys..

Nice results there. I had similar results once I did the Big 3, which was actually the Big 2 since I didn't have enough wire to do the positive alt lead yet.

[Hotdog]

As long as I can hold the Voltage from 13.6 to 14.1 do I still need to upgrade the Alt or battery or am I good. atleast until I add another amp?

[Boon]

since electricity travels the path of least resistance, it makes absolutely no difference if you leave the factory grounds in or take them out

That's a very very simplistic way of looking at things... it does make a difference and electricity doesn't take the path of least resistance, it is distributed proportionately according to resistance. Put a 2 ohm woofer and a 4 ohm woofer in parallel, they both play still don't they....

[SQMonte]

That's a very very simplistic way of looking at things... it does make a difference and electricity doesn't take the path of least resistance, it is distributed proportionately according to resistance. Put a 2 ohm woofer and a 4 ohm woofer in parallel, they both play still don't they....

It's a simple way of looking at a simple scenario. You're wrong though, electricity DOES take the parth of least resistance, but it also takes all other paths available to it. To clarify, electricity doesn't ONLY take the path of least resistance, however the amount of current through each path is inversely proportional to its electrical resistance. So if you took measurements of current flowing through the subwoofers in your example above it would come as no surprise that the one w/less resistance would be the one with more current flowing through it.

This can be proven by an issue all of us have dealt with at one time or another, the dreaded disco lights. When you're overextending your electrical system in your car due to high powered stereo system, you can see the effects of this when the lights dim when a large draw is placed on the system by the amplifier.

Edited June 25, 2009 by SQMonte

[Boon]

It's a simple way of looking at a simple scenario. You're wrong though, electricity DOES take the parth of least resistance, but it also takes all other paths available to it. To clarify, electricity doesn't ONLY take the path of least resistance, however the amount of current through each path is inversely proportional to its electrical resistance. So if you took measurements of current flowing through the subwoofers in your example above it would come as no surprise that the one w/less resistance would be the one with more current flowing through it.

This can be proven by an issue all of us have dealt with at one time or another, the dreaded disco lights. When you're overextending your electrical system in your car due to high powered stereo system, you can see the effects of this when the lights dim when a large draw is placed on the system by the amplifier.

You were saying it as if it solely takes the path of least resistance, which is completely untrue. And you implied this by suggesting that removing the factory grounds doesn't make a difference. That's like saying that if I have a 10 ohm resistor in parallel with a 2 ohm resistor and I remove one of them the overall resistance will not change.

The lights dimming is caused by voltage drop across the entire system, not because one item in the circuit is stealing all the current.....

Remind me at which point I was wrong? :01nocomment8so:

[SQMonte]

You were saying it as if it solely takes the path of least resistance, which is completely untrue. And you implied this by suggesting that removing the factory grounds doesn't make a difference. That's like saying that if I have a 10 ohm resistor in parallel with a 2 ohm resistor and I remove one of them the overall resistance will not change.

The lights dimming is caused by voltage drop across the entire system, not because one item in the circuit is stealing all the current.....

Remind me at which point I was wrong? :01nocomment8so:

I'm not going to get into a pissing match with you bro, I clarified what I initially said. I agree, the way I said it insenuated that it ONLY takes the path of least resistance, hence my clarification.

I think it's a good idea, especially for noobs, to leave the factory wiring intact when doing this upgrade just in case. I wasn't going to leave my wiring in but I did for a couple reasons; I wasn't able to locate the block -> chassis ground and the wires going to my battery negative terminal were connected via proprietary connector...I could upgrade the terminal but I don't have one yet.