quickest & cheapest place to get some 4ga?

[sumone 10+ year member]

Need some 4ga and ONLY the wire and not a whole nother kit -

just got my clarus 400 and now need to hook up the 4ga and do 2 8ga through the distro. I had got the scosche wiring kit from walmart, and never used the 4ga that came with it because it was too short to reach the battery and all the way to the trunk (and don't wanna risk trying to do some crimping/heat shrinking as I'm a horrible crimper and don't know how to do the heat shrinking stuff - then again I'd still need more wire anyway it goes).

Guess I'd need about 18-20ft to be safe? the kit from walmart was 14 feet, and don't really have exact measurements on how short that wire was. I just know that when I had it in the trunk, run under the sills, and to the foot pedals, I knew that the length I had would not be enough.

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[sumone 10+ year member]

also, Not willing to spend more than $20. already looked on ebay - nothing applied except this one auction who would sell $1.10 per foot (but still think that's too much)

 

[jtomsic 5,000+ posts]

try some local stereo shops, i got 30ft of 4ga power wire for like 6$

 

[sungwei 10+ year member]

Go to Home Depot. They'll have it cheaper than stereo shops. They sell by the foot. I had the Walmart kit too. Ran into the same problem of it being too short. Need at least 20 feet. What you can do (and what I did) was go from the 4 Guage into the distribution block it came with into an 8 guage then to amp. Then ground with the 8 guage. This is all in the kit and works fine so long as you're not pushing ridiculous amounts of power.

I did buy 6 ft of 4 Guage and a 4 to 4 fuse block as I plan to upgrade to 4 guage power and ground wire. I'm only doing it for safety reasons though I really don't need to. My shop had it for $1/foot which in my opinion is expensive cause the Walmart kit was $25 bucks and came with 14 ft of 4 Guage plus a lot of other good stuff.

 

[Gauntlet 5,000+ posts]

http://www.weldingsupply.com has 4AWG for either $0.50 or $0.75 per foot, I don't remember which...

 

[CWT 10+ year member]

High quality 4ga wire averages about $1.25 to $2.00 a foot, while 8ga is about .50 to .75 cents a foot (lower demand?) at http://www.sounddomain.com . But higher quality wire will cost more; stinger 4ga has about 1660 strands of high grade copper in it (and is in higher demand) where welding wire typically will not. If you go with welding wire, I'm sure it will work--ugly, but it will work, but I'm not sure that your system will perform at its optimum ability. Welding wire is not quite as flexable, and will have a higher resistance-per-foot rating so power won't get thru as well; but that's the trade off when you go cheaper.

It has often been my experiance that cheaper is not always better.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[jtomsic 5,000+ posts]

local shop is called livewire, owner was pretty cool, i told him what i needed and he gave me a bunch of connectors and stuff for free.

 

[Acidburn 5,000+ posts]

i'd say you should look into www.weldingsupply.com

 

[sumone 10+ year member]

just got some 4ga from home depot - 49 cent / foot. That weldingsupply.com wanted 50 and then I'd also have to pay for shipping. Good thing was I measured and cut it myself - 25 feet and then when I asked the guy how do I pay for it he was like he was supposed to cut it. But he was cool - I told him I had cut 25 feet, but he only wrote down 20 feetb - got a $2.45 discount...

but, yea this wire is some pretty stiff stuff...it's skinnier than the 14ft one from the walmart kit, and only has like 15-18 distinct copper strands compared to the kit's maybe hundred or so strands. I know cutting & crimping by hand will be a b*tch!

 

[ssj2xxgotenxx 10+ year member]

I say you should wait to get another purchase and get the wire for cheap. Alot of times I go to the shop and buy small stuff either for myself or other people, but they give you good prices if you make another purchase. Wire is cheap and owners dont normally look at for profits... it's the other stuff like amps and subs they make money off of.

 

[sumone 10+ year member]

^ I'm confused.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

But higher quality wire will cost more; stinger 4ga has about 1660 strands of high grade copper in it (and is in higher demand) where welding wire typically will not. If you go with welding wire, I'm sure it will work--ugly, but it will work, but I'm not sure that your system will perform at its optimum ability. Welding wire is not quite as flexable, and will have a higher resistance-per-foot rating so power won't get thru as well; but that's the trade off when you go cheaper.

It won't be as flexible, but it is made of the same quality of copper and the resistance per foot will be the same. Welders run a lot of current and if the resistance was high, you would have a ton of voltage drop in the wire and the wire would get really hot. Both are bad when welding. You can get most any color imaginable and the flexibility difference is not worth the 300% price difference IMHO. You only need it to be flexible once, during the install itself. After that, who cares if it's flexible or not. I have heard some installers complain that wire that is too flexible is a pain as well because it doesn't stay where you put it and it forces you to use more mounting clpis to get it to saty in place. It is easier to get around tight curves but if you don't need to wrap it around a tight corner, then that is irrelevant.

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

^for real!

wire=wire (RCA's may have an exception)

All of the welding wire I've seen is very flexible!

Cheap wire and other accessories, AIM= fRiToxTrEmE

 

[Gauntlet 5,000+ posts]

Umm.....the wire from weldingsupply.com is very flexible. The 0/1AWG wire I got from them was more flexible than some Stinger 0/1 I have....

 

[EarDrummin. 10+ year member]

Why is it that I can't navigate that site? Oh yeah, it's pathetically constructed. Anyone have a link to any 4, 2, 0/1 guage?