best ground wire placement?

[AK FJR]

Hello! I purchased my '09 FJR 2 weeks ago.

I purchased and installing a dual powerlet outlet (surrounds the seat release lock). My prob is the ground wire is too short to reach the battery location (neg terminal on battery). Is there a suitable existing ground location that anyone is already aware of, or will I need to a) splice another piece of wire to make it longer to reach neg battery terminal.... or B) drill a hole in frame (NOOOO!) Thank you for your input and help as I know a good ground is essential (I don't want to screw it up!)

 

[DrFaulken]

I don't know if you are going to install any other electrical accessories, but I put in a Blue Sea fuse block as my first major farkle. The fuse block is ground to the battery, all my goodies ground to the Blue Sea box.

 

[scubatech]

Personally, I would go to the battery. It seems there is a lot of grounding issues lately with frame mounted ground points.

 

[exskibum]

I put dual Powerlets on my '05 (by seat lock) and ran the ground to the battery via a barrier strip. (At the same time, I put in the Powerlets, I installed a Fuzeblock for switched electric apps and an unswitched barrier strip.) If you have other electrical farkles in your future, you might want to run your positive and negative from the battery to the back of the bike now (e.g., to a cheap barrier strip from Radio Shack). Otherwise, I'd at least run a ground from the negative battery terminal for your application. Here's what I did, though:

I used 2 lengths of red insulated 10 gauge wire from the battery pos terminal (both with an inline fuse) . . . . one to the Fuzeblock positive terminal and one to half my unswitched barrier strip. I used one length of black insulated 10 gauge wire from the battery neg terminal to the other half of my unswitched barrier strip. Probably unnecessary, but I put all three in an asphalt loom to run through the engine compartment and frame (by the steering head) to get to the battery.

I then grounded my Fuzeblock to the neg half of the barrier strip, where any unswitched applications also ground, including my DUAL POWERLET. I hooked the positive side of the Diual Powerlet into the positive side of the unswitched barrier strip after shortening the fused positive wire from the Powerlet to leave a clean install. My Battery Tender and portable air pump (for emergency tire repair) plug into the bike at either of the dual Powerlets (because the Powerlet in the interior right panel of my fairing powers my Garmin GPS and only has a 2 amp fuse in it, while the Dual Powerlets are fused at 15 amps).

 

[AK FJR]

Thanks for the quick replies and suggestions. I have ordered a fuzeblock. That seems to be a good option especially since more farkles on the way. Again, thank you all for your input. I wasn't even aware of fuzeblocks, blue sea, etc. until reading these forums. Very helpful! Education is good.