Large Gauge Wire

[Airborne]

I know the idea behind using the biggest gauge of power wire you can, but some of the reasons have been bothering me. Rule of thumb is higher strand count equals higher flow, but what about reducers, terminals and fuses. It looks like a choke point to me. Two runs of 1/0 going to a single terminal sounds counter productive. I think that if every (or as many as you can) strand touched point A and point B it would optimize the current, but to add a single piece of copper does not seem like the most efficient way to transfer all the power the expensive ass cable carries.

[Airborne]

By the way, electricity ONLY moves along the outside of the carrier. You could have a one inch thick chunk of copper and in theory it would move the same amount of power and relieve the same resistance as a smaller solid piece of copper.

[creyc]

By the way, electricity ONLY moves along the outside of the carrier. You could have a one inch thick chunk of copper and in theory it would move the same amount of power and relieve the same resistance as a smaller solid piece of copper.

Actually that's not true for DC current flow, and most scenarios of AC current as well. For a given material, how well electrons flow through is dependent on its cross-sectional area, not the outer surface. Otherwise we would somehow all be using hollow coper tubes or some funny business!

Secondly, yes, fuses and connectors and crimps and solder joints ALL add resistance. But some of these things are unavoidable, so we improve in the areas we can, like using large wire to try to limit the amount of power loss. Keep your number of connections to a minimum, avoid soldering where possible, (very bad conductor, compared to say a crimped ring terminal) and the use of bus bars will definitely help when you need to move massive amounts of current from many batteries/to several amps, etc..

Finally, strand count will make a cable more flexible, but not neccesarily carry more power. I work in the commercial electrical world where we deal with cables and currents MUCH larger than anything in the car audio world and some of the very large conductors we pull only have 49 "strands" in them. Now a 4000+ strand count 1/0 Knufleks or Kicker or whatever wire isn't going to carry 80 times more power because its got many more strands, it's just not happening.

[Airborne]

Actually that's not true for DC current flow, and most scenarios of AC current as well. For a given material, how well electrons flow through is dependent on its cross-sectional area, not the outer surface. Otherwise we would somehow all be using hollow coper tubes or some funny business!

Secondly, yes, fuses and connectors and crimps and solder joints ALL add resistance. But some of these things are unavoidable, so we improve in the areas we can, like using large wire to try to limit the amount of power loss. Keep your number of connections to a minimum, avoid soldering where possible, (very bad conductor, compared to say a crimped ring terminal) and the use of bus bars will definitely help when you need to move massive amounts of current from many batteries/to several amps, etc..

Finally, strand count will make a cable more flexible, but not neccesarily carry more power. I work in the commercial electrical world where we deal with cables and currents MUCH larger than anything in the car audio world and some of the very large conductors we pull only have 49 "strands" in them. Now a 4000+ strand count 1/0 Knufleks or Kicker or whatever wire isn't going to carry 80 times more power because its got many more strands, it's just not happening.

Wow, better answer than I ever imagined. I agree about the solder, I use a good old 5 pound sledge and a punch. I never had a problem with mu "crimps". Thanks for clearing some things up because I was going to make a buss bar out of copper. (was a time when I could have had a total of 50' predrilled and threaded every 2 inches).

On a different but same note, do you see any advantage to using a bolt as a terminal on a box? It looks cool, but copper to steel to copper seems like it would slow the current. Gives me an idea though...

[creyc]

Steel is a very poor conductor compared to copper, keep it out of the current path completely IMO.

You can find copper bolts however it's still not as good as bringing the wire out through a hole and straight to the amp. Voltage drop on the speaker side of the amp isn't as crucial as the 12v side because you're dealing with higher voltages and much less current but every little bit helps!

[chewie]

Also the voltage coming out of the speaker side is ac voltage

[creyc]

Yes it is AC, but all the same rules (ohms law) still apply, AC or DC.

(you also get the skin effect with AC, but not at our frequencies!)

[c0smo kram3r]

Secondly, yes, fuses and connectors and crimps and solder joints ALL add resistance. But some of these things are unavoidable, so we improve in the areas we can, like using large wire to try to limit the amount of power loss. Keep your number of connections to a minimum, avoid soldering where possible, (very bad conductor, compared to say a crimped ring terminal) and the use of bus bars will definitely help when you need to move massive amounts of current from many batteries/to several amps, etc..

MANY people suggest soldering the connections.

[99vic]

thats exactly what i thought. i have heard crimping is for pussy's and all kind of stuff..... now im lost

[Guest KyleCannon]

me too...