Re: [K3] Why fuse the negative lead from a battery?

Posted by M0XDF on Apr 03, 2011; 9:18am
URL: http://elecraft.85.s1.nabble.com/K3-Why-fuse-the-negative-lead-from-a-battery-tp6233377p6235751.html

Hmmm, interesting thread, this from a radio colleague who is also into 4x4, off-roading and response, some of this has already been said here, but note the last paragraph:

The logic is that if the main chassis bonding strap fails, and the radio is connected to the battery, then the path from the radio mounting bolts through the negative lead becomes the earth path for the entire vehicle.

I have heard stories of other, higher resistance paths becoming overloaded including one of a red-hot glowing throttle return spring.  

The current UK recommendation is to NOT fuse the negative lead but to bond it to the chassis close to the battery so that it can't become part of that failure circuit, rather than to the battery directly.  

73 de M0XDF, K3 #174, P3 #108
--
Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832)

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