Crow Horse

Aluminum conductor isn't a good choice.....

Crow Horse

I think marine grade battery cable might be a better choice. Fine, tinned stranding, very flexible and as previously posted has a very good insulating jacket. I think I paid $1.67 per foot of 4 awg cable. Not pricey at all even when you factor in the cost of the lugs....

aj2494

I don't understand the aversion to 1/0 welding cable. 2 ga battery cable goes for about $1.25 a foot online, and frequently the smallest length you can buy is around 100 ft. You can get 1/0 welding cable for $1.80 a foot. So for essentially $0.50 per foot extra or no more than $10 total (if you buy way more than necessary), you can build bulletproof cables that will handle everything you throw at them. I consider that more than worthwhile. Don't have the $10 to spare? Get 2 awg welding cable. I don't understand why this is viewed as such a bad idea.

Crow Horse

It's not a bad idea. If you feel that it will suit your needs, have at it. For me, I'll increase the size to 4 awg and call it good. I have no doubt it will serve me well.

It might be similar to building a motor to drop into an XJ that would be used solely as a daily commuter. Yep, you can build a motor with all the neat bells and whistles as well as all the performance goodies or just build a strong stock motor. Both will do the job well and there's nothing wrong with building a top shelf motor but it wouldn't be cost effective. I'm sure it would be fun! It's all about choice (and budget).....

aj2494

I definitely agree with you there. It's just such a minimal cost increase with no extra work that I have a hard time resisting the urge to overkill. Must be the engineer in me coming out again...

Orlo

That's a pic of overhead transmission line power cable..... Unfortunately, too subtle of a joke.....

aj2494

Unfortunately, you occasionally see people suggest things like THHN on forums. Can't be too cautious about what can actually be said. It's better to not acknowledge a joke than make a remark thinking you're being funny, but actually being rude .

Crow Horse

And today I might not be the sharpest tack in the box. LOL, I didn't get it....

Crow Horse

Unfortunately, you occasionally see people suggest things like THHN on forums. Can't be too cautious about what can actually be said. It's better to not acknowledge a joke than make a remark thinking you're being funny, but actually being rude .

Good point....

Crow Horse

I do the same with many things. Overbuild to be on the safe side, Look ahead to all possible scenarios and adjust accordingly. When in doubt, overbuild. I'm not an engineer so I proceed with caution.....

CCKen

Crow,


Caution to me is keeping it as the creator (Jeep) made it.

Crow Horse

Caution to me is keeping it as the creator (Jeep) made it.

That's another good point but I believe there's always a little bit of wiggle room.....

BrawnyDog

5-90 lives! I got an email from him today. Everything sounds very cryptic but as long as he breathes I have hope of one day having an overkill battery cable installed.

BlueRidgeMark

The bad idea is in thinking you are going to get some real-world benefit from it. That somehow it is better than, say, 4 gauge in any meaningful way.

You aren't, and it's not.


But if you are one of the few, the proud, the welders who have a pile of it laying around, go for it. It won't hurt anything, other than being a pain to work with.

Or if you are a kid who likes to brag about having the biggest... whatever, go for it.

That's really all it's good for. If someone wants to do it for those reasons, I'm not going to argue with him. If someone is claiming it's actually necessary, I'm still not going to argue with him. I'll just call him an idiot.

LAF1269

I've got 1 AWG cable to replace mine with when I install my winch this spring. I certain I'm an idiot, but I've yet to determine if that also applies to my choice in battery cables. I'll keep you posted if I confirm my idiocy in that area also.