What thickness should buss bars be?

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

I'm thinking about ordering some copper and making my own bus bars. I have 3 batcap 2000's. I'm simply wondering what thickness and width they should be in order to work properly.

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[Bettr n' Revrse 5,000+ posts]

2x4 size! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/dont.gif.ed5870f9483b695f9745036963f41c24.gif

 

[Bettr n' Revrse 5,000+ posts]

Nahhhh probably not... Id say only like an 1.5 wid and .5" thick?

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

bump

 

[SoCalNoob 10+ year member]

2" width .5 thick worked very well for me

 

[SoCalNoob 10+ year member]

try cuttosizemetals.com you can make them any size u want

 

[outsideshot23 10+ year member]

I usually do about 1.5" wide and 1/4" thick is more then enough

 

[outsideshot23 10+ year member]

try cuttosizemetals.com you can make them any size u want

most websites make them whatever size you want.. google weather stripping and you should find some copper sites

 

[CoilBurner]

I used 3/4" X 1/2" thick for my 3 nsb90's on 6k, worked great.

Shits expensive in 3' lengths

 

[tommyk90 5,000+ posts]

I have 1/2" x 1" for my 5 batteries in the bed and they work great.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Common sense tells us you simply need the buss bar to have the same amount of material as your wire, or more, in terms of a cross sectional measurement. If a 1/4" x 1.5" bar has the same area (1/4" * 1.5") as the cross sectional area of your wire (Pi®^2), you should be fine. This is, of course, assuming you are comparing same-type materials. If your wire is copper and your buss bars are alum, my comments here are not completely accurate.

And yes, before anyone says it, this is not 100% true, because measuring simple cross sectional areas does not take the 'skin effect' of multi-stranded wire into account. But most of us do not size our wire so closely that this difference would be noticed when going to solid bar stock.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

I'll have 4 runs of 0 gauge (2 pos / 2 neg).

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

Common sense tells us you simply need the buss bar to have the same amount of material as your wire, or more, in terms of a cross sectional measurement. If a 1/4" x 1.5" bar has the same area (1/4" * 1.5") as the cross sectional area of your wire (Pi®^2), you should be fine. This is, of course, assuming you are comparing same-type materials. If your wire is copper and your buss bars are alum, my comments here are not completely accurate.
And yes, before anyone says it, this is not 100% true, because measuring simple cross sectional areas does not take the 'skin effect' of multi-stranded wire into account. But most of us do not size our wire so closely that this difference would be noticed when going to solid bar stock.

The skin effect only comes into play when your talking about high frequency signals. With 12V DC it should be negligible.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

The skin effect only comes into play when your talking about high frequency signals. With 12V DC it should be negligible.

Correct. But I knew someone would mention the surface area difference between bar stock and multi-stranded wire if I didnt say something.