Lucky you, in my experience optima batteries are garbage. What you said about chassis grounding makes no sense. Steel is a conductor, I am not arguing that. What I am arguing is finding the "right place" to chassis ground is not straight forward and isn't practical to test. I know If I run a cable exactly what the specs for that will be, picking a spot on the chassis is at best an educated guess.

 

I have heard that later optimas have issues... mine is quite old..

As for the grounding.. we are actually saying the same thing.. Grounding trough the chassis is not the issue... Finding the right spot to do so is important, as well keeping that spot corrosion free. I have used the central spare wheel thread in the trunk floor with no issues..

 

If you have a small enough battery, is there adequate space for mounting in the spare tire area so that it stays under the floorboard?

 

It'd have to be gel or Li to be on it's side like that, but yes.

 

yeah, I didi it like that with optima spiral cell...

 

Based on the feedback generated I think it's safe to assume the trunk of the Evo has good conductivity with the rest of the frame/engine compartment. For what ever reason some cars do not, or just some panels don't.

Electrical noise is another concern, but we can just save that for another time. The closer you are to stock the less of a concern that probably is anyway.

 

I mounted my optima in the trunk, and used one of the studs on the driver side strut mount for a ground. I removed the paint from underneath of it of course.

On my friends 2G DSM (GSX), we also put the batter in the trunk and used the spare tire hold down deal for the ground.

Both seem to be fine. I daily drove my car for 3yrs without an issue, in all varying weather. 115* summers, 10* winter weekends going snowboarding, etc. Both cars we also noticed no difference in cranking speed (cranking being the highest draw the system will ever see) after doing the relocate. We also used 1/0 welding lead. Love that stuff for main power/grounds. Soooooooooooo many strands.

I do agree that on some cars it may not be the best, it really depends on the glue to spot weld ratio that particular chassis has holding it together.

 

Yeah I don't know what it is, maybe the penny pinchers in accounting get their way and half the car is glued together or something. I was working on this minivan with a system installed in it and the customer was complaining of demonic noises coming over the speakers. She even recorded it to play for us. Well a bunch of diagnosing and it just turned out the panel that the amp was grounded too just wasn't up to it and it was forming ground loops and creating audible noise over the speakers. It really did sound like the car was possessed or something. We moved the ground to a different area and it was fine. Just one of many stories that have diminished my faith in chassis grounds.

 

Annual MoTeC sale time:
IIRC, the discounts were bigger in previous years. Business must be good for MoTeC.

 

Looked on JRR's site, the Evo9 kit is same deal as last year. 3500, on sale for 3150.

 

I hate that he lists all this stuff, talked about keypads, but doesn't list them, and then insists on phone call/emails that he never returns....

 

I can fully appreciate needing to have a discussion before finalizing the sale because of how many details and options there are. But of course you gotta respond...

If you want someone that will talk to you, message my buddy Myles @ER. He will get you sorted 100% and will respond fast. He's getting mine organized for me (havent actually ordered yet, at a weird tax spot where depends on order of events if I buy 2020 or 2021).

Im going M150 because I want TBW later and adding ACD control stuff. Also changing out OEM crank trigger for the ER trigger wheel that uses stock sensor just more pulses. Its more money too of course but buy once cry once.

 

I thought JRR's M130 setup included ACD control?

I know JRR's discounted firmware must be locked to a specific trigger wheel pattern. I wonder if he can sell a version that works with the ER style trigger wheel.

 

It does with some extra wiring, I want the extra I/O to have everything!

 

I got a great deal on a motec but was thrown off by the need to get the firmware for like 700 bucks.. got a killer deal on a emtron kv8 but just want a plug in link g4.. LOL