Wire Gauge Info?

Wick3D · Aug 18, 2016

Sorry If I'm asking another age old question, but I looked over the forums and didn't find what I was looking for. Previous of today, I just googled "amp capacity of wire", and got charts showing how many amps a wire by gauge could handle. I had an epiphany today and thought "maybe these are numbers for 120v jobs". So I changed my search to 12volt, and got totally different charts that give a lot more credit to small gauges. I still don't seem to have a great idea on what sort of amperage a given gauge can handle... I was going to upgrade my current 4 to a 1/0, so that I could run other amps off one wire. However these 12v charts claim 4 gauge can do 200 amps at 15 foot..? ]

Does anyone have verified data on amp capacity of wire by gauge for car use?

Wick3D · Aug 18, 2016

Anybody?

macsdad · Aug 18, 2016

Most, if not all of us, use at least 0/1 gauge wire. You would rather run too big than too small, plus when decide to run a big amp, you already have the bigger wire.

Wick3D · Aug 18, 2016

Yea, i got the 4 gauge for free with a deal and I already have it ran to a sub amp. I was adding a 400wrms speaker amp to my 1000wrms sub amp, and was going to just run a 10 gauge I had laying around for it.. then thought why not upgrade to 1/0.. then my OP topic occurred.. I mean obviously I would want to upgrade at some point if I do much more.. But since the 4 gauge is already ran.. Do I even need to run the 10 or upgrade to 1/0?

This other chart I'm reading is little more conservative stating 150 amps at 15 foot for 4 gauge..? If that's accurate, my two amps should use like 110-120 amps? So do you think the 4 gauge is suitable for the time being/

hispls · Aug 18, 2016

Yea, i got the 4 gauge for free with a deal and I already have it ran to a sub amp. I was adding a 400wrms speaker amp to my 1000wrms sub amp, and was going to just run a 10 gauge I had laying around for it.. then thought why not upgrade to 1/0.. then my OP topic occurred.. I mean obviously I would want to upgrade at some point if I do much more.. But since the 4 gauge is already ran.. Do I even need to run the 10 or upgrade to 1/0?
This other chart I'm reading is little more conservative stating 150 amps at 15 foot for 4 gauge..? If that's accurate, my two amps should use like 110-120 amps? So do you think the 4 gauge is suitable for the time being/

4 Gauge should be fine. Bear in mind all the "safety" charts are figuring on you using far fewer strands than the sort of wire we're using, and anybody in the business of selling wire is trying to up-sell you by telling you you need something huge. For practical purposes if you're not competing you don't need to overkill on power wire.

That said, it's never a bad investment. I've been using the same 1/0 gauge for about 15 years now that has followed me through 4 or 5 vehicles.

ngsm13 · Aug 18, 2016

The important thing is to correctly fuse the wire. Keep in mind, with music, you won't be anywhere near 1400 watts sustained power. Music is dynamic.

At 85% efficiency, you'll be at ~140A @12VDC. Really, you should step up to 1/0 for your main feed, and distribute from there. But, if you insist, fuse your current wire correctly to protect the wire, I'd use a 100A fuse at most.

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Wire Gauge Info?

Wick3D

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Wire Gauge Info?

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macsdad 10+ year member

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Wick3D

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hispls 5,000+ posts

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