Vehicle Grounding 101

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HI-TECH

Vehicle Grounding 101

#27202

Post by HI-TECH »

well I’m writing this for all you newbs out there who are new to the world of electricity, electronics and rf (radio frequency) even if you think "blahh I dont need to know electronics" but if you want to be a big straper out on the band and do everything yourself then your going to learn, even if you don’t try you will find yourself learning slowly about it without even knowing :mrgreen:

first off i'm not going to go into a bunch of technical mumbo-jumbo I’m going to tell you how to properly ground your car/truck/minivan/whatever so you will hear more and get out father with just the same setup you have i.e. stock, pumped-up and/or amped. Now without the proper grounding you’re not using your equipment to its maximum potential, just because you got a magnet mount on your hood or trunk doesn’t mean it’s properly done.

First thing to remember is that electricity DOSE NOT flow from pos to neg, it’s the other way around, it flows neg- to pos+.

now think of your car/truck frame as a BIG power panel, your going to want to run a nice big strap or cable to the frame from the negative terminal to supply power to this panel the bigger the better. ether find a bolt or something to connect it to or tap your own but make sure where you attach it to the frame IS clean, hit it with a wire wheel or sand paper or steel wool, just make sure it down to bare metal and clean.

Now think of your cab and bed as devices you want to plug into this big panel, the better the connection the better it’s going to work right? You’re going to want to do the same from your panel (frame) to your cab & bed just like you did from the negative terminal. Make sure there clean and done right. The better the connection the better the power get supplied to the devices, now if you own a car or SUV with a back hatch or a trunk, think of them as extra devices that plug into the primary ones that are plugged into the panel. Still the same rules apply, the better the connection the better the flow of power though the device. So find a few points to connect the hood or truck with cable or ground strap, usually the hinges work good, just unbolt, clean up and attach the satraps and bolt back on. This is important because your signal can be absorbed by the car/truck if not properly grounded the hood is one of these points since it is one of the least grounded points on your car. The better the grounding the better the rejection the farther you talk and the better you receive… easy as that..

Also if you run a separate cable from your neg terminal to your radio/amp that doesn’t mean your grounded good it just means your devices are grounded good, got to quit thinking about your radio and pay more attention to your antenna, your antenna makes the radio no questions about it, done deal.
this also applys to both hard mounted and magnet mounted antennas

If anyone has anything to add to this feel free to add what ever you want..

Sincerely
HI-TECH
:mrgreen:

ps. this is my personal write up you must get permission from me to repost this anyware else..(just ask me fisrt before you do it i ususly dont care)
Last edited by HI-TECH on May 3rd, 2006, 8:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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