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Why do you need the BIG 3 on stock electrical?
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<blockquote data-quote="The_Quiet_One" data-source="post: 8469444" data-attributes="member: 614562"><p>Well this turned into a crapper of a thread since I last looked at it. If anyone reads this in the future, wades through 7 pages, and wants science here's some quick and dirty physics for ya just to prove bigger wires = mo betta. In practice the entire situation is more complicated, but it's not difficult to show some advantages of bigger wire.</p><p></p><p>In DC the voltage drop will be roughly your current * your resistance. Assuming the same material a larger wire will have less congested "pathways" to carry the current. Even though the resistivity (the measure of a materials ability to impede the flow of electrons think of it as type of "friction" for electrons) of two wires of the same material will be the same, assuming constant temps the total resistance is inversely proportional to the the cross sectional area leading to less overall resistance. The underlying physics behind lower voltage drops is the surprising fact the current is carried by electrons which typically move on orders of millimeters per second (It depends heavily on current and cross section of wire, but it is substantially slower than one would think.) So smaller wires result in higher electron drift velocities which translates to more heat dissipation/resistance and subsequent voltage drop. Not to mention the added heat further increases resistance in a wire which can lead to melted wires somewhere in the system. In summary yes stock wires do handle the current from a stock alt, but at higher demand loads you sacrifice overall voltage which makes the rest your 12 volt system work harder and can lead to situations where equipment is not performing optimally or in some cases equipment can be damaged. Unless you have a modest system it's generally worth it to upgrade the Big 3 for a myriad of reasons some of which I only hinted at.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The_Quiet_One, post: 8469444, member: 614562"] Well this turned into a crapper of a thread since I last looked at it. If anyone reads this in the future, wades through 7 pages, and wants science here's some quick and dirty physics for ya just to prove bigger wires = mo betta. In practice the entire situation is more complicated, but it's not difficult to show some advantages of bigger wire. In DC the voltage drop will be roughly your current * your resistance. Assuming the same material a larger wire will have less congested "pathways" to carry the current. Even though the resistivity (the measure of a materials ability to impede the flow of electrons think of it as type of "friction" for electrons) of two wires of the same material will be the same, assuming constant temps the total resistance is inversely proportional to the the cross sectional area leading to less overall resistance. The underlying physics behind lower voltage drops is the surprising fact the current is carried by electrons which typically move on orders of millimeters per second (It depends heavily on current and cross section of wire, but it is substantially slower than one would think.) So smaller wires result in higher electron drift velocities which translates to more heat dissipation/resistance and subsequent voltage drop. Not to mention the added heat further increases resistance in a wire which can lead to melted wires somewhere in the system. In summary yes stock wires do handle the current from a stock alt, but at higher demand loads you sacrifice overall voltage which makes the rest your 12 volt system work harder and can lead to situations where equipment is not performing optimally or in some cases equipment can be damaged. Unless you have a modest system it's generally worth it to upgrade the Big 3 for a myriad of reasons some of which I only hinted at. [/QUOTE]
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Why do you need the BIG 3 on stock electrical?
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