Ground point location for amp in rear?

atomic punk

atomic punk

New member
4th gen.

Is there an easy to get to - short lead length - grounding point in the rear storage compartment that everyone has used? The empty space over the wheel well - the passenger side. I'm looking to install a small 200-300w amp back there for a 10" sub. Thanks....
 
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under the rear seat cushion there is a perfect spot. Open it up and you will see. Make sure you sand it first to create the best possible connection. There is also room here to hide the extra length of cable.
 
Cool, thanks.

Just to make sure: 2nd row of seats? Using a sheetmetal screw - directly into the floor - so I assume that there is nothing underneath that area that I will be screwing into.
 
Here is a pic:

Ground_Wire.jpg



As you can see, these little tabs are perfect. I sanded first to remove the paint, then added a washer on the top and a lock nut underneath. Very secure and solid ground point. As you can see, all of my wires are very long and I keep the extra lenth hidden out of sight down there. This allows me the ability to move things around when hauling cargo.

Just occured to me that you are mounting in the cargo cubby, so you will probably have several choices in that area, or there may be another of theses tabs on the passenger side.
 
yeah, when I take apart that cubby area, I'll look around for something in there because it will be closer - as you probably already know, it's best to keep all ground wires as short as possible, especially with sub amps... but this is great info, thanks!

Hey, how did you get UNDER the floor to attach the locknut to that bolt? In my jeep, I just used sheetmetal screws to secure the ground lug (not the BEST idea, but I couldn't thread a nut onto it)
 
atomic punk said:
how did you get UNDER the floor to attach the locknut to that bolt?
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If you look at the tabs, they stick up about 1/2" from the floor. There is a gap where you can just slide a nut under neath. Hmm..Now that I think about it, though, I remember it being kind of a PIA because the gap is so small. You know how some projects make you wish you had smaller fingers?

Anyways, good luck. I would bet you find a good spot behind one of those panels.
 
if your gonna drill in a self tap screw, scrape off some paint on that small area. thats what the installer did with my amp, if i remember what he said.. it was something of like a better ground connection.

Edit : oopsie Cleric mentioned that paint thing already.. my bad :)
 
CLERIC:

you ever finish that car computer ???? I have been browsing through alot of posts in MP3Car.com and saw that you were discussing it with Rando a while back. I'm kicking around the idea now.
 
atomic punk said:
CLERIC:

you ever finish that car computer ???? I have been browsing through alot of posts in MP3Car.com and saw that you were discussing it with Rando a while back. I'm kicking around the idea now.
Click to expand...

Interesting you should ask. I just started kicking around the idea again, recently. I was going to get one of the Eclipse AVN units, but decided that the features don't justify the $$ for my purposes. I also want a lot more customization options. My only concern is reliability. There is something nice about pressing a button and having everything work the way it should (same reason I don't buy used vehicles anymore). I may start work on this in the new year, but don't want to start my install until I have worked out the major bugs.

Please share your progress if you go this route, as there is not a lot of vehicle-specific info over there for us T4R folks. Mostly Subys and Hondas it seems like.

Also, there is a new M-2 PSU that is supposed to be released soon (or it has been in the past couple weeks since I visited those forums). I have been waiting to see some user opinions.
 
Cleric, I echo your thoughts EXACTLY..... the Eclipse vs. the computer... the reliability question, the cost justification, etc.

I have just about decided that I'm going to buy a pre-built caputer, which should cost me about $1200-$1400 and should meet all of my needs: MP3 mass storage, CD/DVD playback, Nav, and web access. Buying a prebuilt system is not the popular choice in the mp3car forum, but it "should" be just about maintenance-free and I hopefully won't have to troubleshoot it much - or at all - if the company I buy it from puts it together and bench tests it for me. Now I just need to come up with the cash plus find out "where" I should buy it...

I will definitely keep you all posted on my progress (do the same for me). I'll probably post my progress in here more than the Mp3car forum 'cuz they simply don't care about prebuilt systems whereas I'm sure others in this forum would be very interested in a plug'n'play carputer which costs LESS than an Eclipse Nav for sure. Rando did a hell of a job with his system, but I don't have the time nor the patience to build it all myself piece by piece like he did.

...until later...
 
I have looked into putting a computer in a car, heck its been something I've wanted to do for years. However the shuttle I had was a little too big.

If you want to get a prebuilt or custome built computer into your car, there are a couple of concerns. These would be POWER, and HEATING/COOLING.

Powering the computer would require the proper voltage and power source, which in turn would require, an inverter and maybe even an upgrade on your alternator.

However, that is the easy one, the HEATING/COOLING is the main concern. No matter where you put it, your micro PC is going to get extremely hot, and its going to be hard to keep it cool especially if you want to keep it small. Water cooling is cooled by fans as well.

However, if your going to get a mini computer... I would recommend going with the mac mini and for the mass storage you can get a USB or firewire external HD. and then whatever video connection you were to use.

my two cents.

David
 
SH0ck-D,

Check out the forums at www.mp3car.org There are several DC-DC power supplies out there, as well as mini motherboards designed to offer low heat and power consumption that are ideal for the automotive environment. I would stay away from the mac because most of the front-ends are designed to run on windows machines.
 
atomic punk said:
Cleric, stop wasting your time posting and get to work building that caputer!!!!! Ha-ha...
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Ha, actually, instead of going out and partying last night, I stayed home looking at the mp3car forums all night (until they had some kind of server problem or maintenance). I get my next bonus check January 16th. I am thinking about spending it on an OME lift and all of the beginner components for my carputer. The rest will be invested. We'll see...
 
atomic punk said:
.... The empty space over the wheel well - the passenger side. I'm looking to install a small 200-300w amp back there for a 10" sub. Thanks....
Click to expand...



Any progress? I have everything I need for the install. But I'm not sure how much farbrication is involved. I have some MDF board and sheet metal screws. I don't want to have the truck in pieces, only to find out I need to make a trip to the store.

I thought about placing the amp on the back of the rear seat. It is just not very clean & I would bash the amp up carrying cargo.
 
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