Please 'Boom' Responsibly As most of you have noticed, the noise ordinances have become much tougher lately. Most of this is due to idiots, yes IDIOTS, who drive through residential areas with their windows down while their system is playing at full power. To make things worse, the music they listen to has all sorts of foul language that's not suitable for small children, (who may be playing outside). There are even a few people, who are even beyond idiot status, that play their systems at full power through residential areas after 10:00 PM (when many people go to bed). I don't believe that this type of behavior is good for the industry. If the fines get too stiff, people will stop buying large systems. If this happens, more people will get out of car audio (who wants a mediocre system). People get interested in things because they're exciting. A deck and four 6.5" speakers are not going to interest many of the younger car audio enthusiasts. If car audio enthusiasts keep annoying more and more people, the fines will keep getting tougher. All of this will only reduce interest in the equipment that fuels the industry. If you want to listen to your system at full volume, get out on the highway where there's little chance of bothering anyone. When you get to a red light, turn it down. If the only thing attractive about you is your 'system', you have some work to do. Bottom line... Think about what you're doing. Think about other people. It's not the end of the world if you have to turn the volume down for a little while.

Battery Ground Connection:
The reference 'ground' for the battery and charging system, as well as all accessories, is the chassis (body) of the vehicle. The chassis ground is the return path for all of the current supplied by the battery and/or alternator. The accessories (including the audio system) may draw copious amounts of current. Some amplifiers will draw well over 100 amps of current at full power.
Upgrades:
There are 2 connections which must be intact or upgraded when adding any components that draw significant amounts of current. The first is the short ground wire which connects the negative battery terminal to the vehicle's chassis. The other connection is the braided ground strap that connects the engine block to the chassis.
Problems that you'll avoid:
All drivetrain components are mounted to the vehicle on rubber mounts. Since the alternator is mounted to the engine, virtually all charging current flows through the braided ground strap. If the ground strap or battery grounding wire are missing, the current will try to flow through any conductor available. This may be the throttle or shift linkage/cable. If the current flow is high enough, a significant amount of heat may be produced. It may even produce enough heat to melt the plastic liner inside the cables, causing them to seize.
Vehicle Floor Pan:
The vehicle floor pan is, on many vehicles, a single piece of stamped sheet metal that runs from the trunk of the vehicle to the firewall. It is the best return path of the vehicle's chassis. When you ground any electrical accessories (including your amplifiers), ground them to the floor pan. Do not ground anything to braces or the wheel wells. These pieces are generally connected to the floor pan with a few spot welds. If you ground to any spot welded sheet metal, you will have more resistance in the return path. The floor pan will have less resistance. Any extra resistance will lower the voltage at the amplifier and your amplifier will produce less power.
Note:
The seat belt bolts are rarely a good place to ground your equipment. Sometimes there will be a thick tar like substance (used for waterproofing) that will prevent you from getting a proper ground. Even if there is no sealant, the connection may be less than perfect because the hardened steel seat belt bolts (relatively high resistance) go into a hardened steel nut that's pressed into a piece of stamped steel that's spot welded to the bottom of the vehicle (not exactly a great electrical connection).

You should remember:
1.Make sure that the battery's ground terminal AND the engine have a good electrical connection to the chassis of the vehicle. 2.Make your ground connections to the floor pan of the vehicle. 3.Don't use the seat belt anchor bolts for a ground connection.

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