Welding Wire.. Thoughts?

[Bump4life]

just because the wire is rated for that much doesnt mean it will be optimal when pushing that current.

get 2 multimeters with a minimum hold function. put one multimeter measuring voltage at front battery or alternator. and put second multimeter at rear battery bank or better yet, put it at the amps. if you want to really get technical, get a clamp meter and put it around your pos runs back. burp a test tone. go look at your meters. repeat process for different frequencies.

both meters should read approx the same voltage. if not, the meter in the back will read a lower voltage, and the difference between the meters will tell you what your voltage drop through the wire under load is. If you have a clamp it will tell you at what current.

if the meters read a different voltage or have a greater difference than 4%, i would suggest adding more wire.

if you have 1 run of welding 1/0 my guess is under load you will drop between .5 and 1 volt. the voltage drop you were talking about could be alternator related, battery related or wire related. only one way to find out.

[dharris2488]

just because the wire is rated for that much doesnt mean it will be optimal when pushing that current.

get 2 multimeters with a minimum hold function. put one multimeter measuring voltage at front battery or alternator. and put second multimeter at rear battery bank or better yet, put it at the amps. if you want to really get technical, get a clamp meter and put it around your pos runs back. burp a test tone. go look at your meters. repeat process for different frequencies.

both meters should read approx the same voltage. if not, the meter in the back will read a lower voltage, and the difference between the meters will tell you what your voltage drop through the wire under load is. If you have a clamp it will tell you at what current.

if the meters read a different voltage or have a greater difference than 4%, i would suggest adding more wire.

if you have 1 run of welding 1/0 my guess is under load you will drop between .5 and 1 volt. the voltage drop you were talking about could be alternator related, battery related or wire related. only one way to find out.

Just bought a new clamp meter... May go test this out now before I yank my enclosure. I would like to know what's really going on... I'm putting a second run in regardless, but it will still be nice to know what's going on.

[Bump4life]

for most cases 2 runs is plenty. then to notice significan tgains after that you need to double runs. so then do 4 then 8 and so on.