With the increased power demands and better battery in the FJ I figured it was time to upgrade the chassis grounding. Toyota uses a wire gauge that I consider to small for the demands that we are going to place on it. With the new grounds in place the starter does turn noticeably faster.
First I replaced the battery – chassis ground with a 2 gauge wire. The original wire must have been about 8 gauge.
Battery Chassis ground
Second was to install another block to chassis ground. Again I utilized 2 gauge wire for this ground.
Additional block ground
I am going to continue through the FJ and replace or install additional grounds. The following still needs to be completed:
- Frame – chassis
- Chassis – hood
- chassis – doors
The grounding of the doors and hood will improve the performance of my radios as well as provide and better Faraday shield in the event that we are struck my lightning.
Hi dear
First I want to congratulate U for the new FJ and to sorry about the old one.
Second I had this idea long time ago but when I ask expert hear home they told that there is no need for it!
I need to know if it is worth the work
My loads are 2 extra 12v sockets and HID kit 35W and auxiliary light LED 36W and 220V converter AC-DC 1000 W
I am thinking of adding more stuff but I don’t know how to calculate the load by amp to chose the right fuse
Good Day!
Can you send me a better picture of your chassis to motor ground? I run a Yaesu FT-857 HF/VHF rig in my truck and grounding is very important, but I have always overlooked this.
Second, how do you propose to ground the back door? I have a very “sloppy” grounding back there for my HF antenna… I would like to see how you do it; perhaps compare notes.
Drop me an email if you have a chance!
Cheers,
Ray
amperage is calculated by taking your watts and dividing by volts. ie: 35w divided by 12v = 2.91 amps