Wiring 'journal' ### now with fire! Pg3

[eggsalad]

I wouldn't do that. I would go buy a 10/3 extension cord and hack off the ends. Or go to an electrical supply house and get some 10/2 SJO if they have it, or 10/3 if they don't.

Personally, I think 10 gauge is ridiculous overkill for any tear or TTT.

[kayakdlk]

Do you have a Home depot near by. The sell it by the foot and also in 25' rolls. I used red and black 10 gauge wire from them for the run from battery to fuse panel and terminals trips. I then ordered a 250' roll of 12 gauge speaker wire (ebay was the cheapest) for all of my internal wiring to DC outlets etc. I used a 12 gauge 50' extension cord wire cut up for my AC outlets. I stepped down to 16 gauge for some of the two way switches as that was as big a wire I could get onto the switch terminals. All of my lights are LED and even with my fan I run less than 5 amps.

Dan

[MtnDon]

Go to a home center or good hardware store. Tell them you want to but dome THNN stranded wire in 10 ga or whatever you want. It is not quite as fine as auto wire but will do the task. They sell it by the foot off big spools. THNN is almost always also wet rated THWN. That means the insulation will not absorb water. Can be used in conduit.

OR have a look here. It's marine wire, tinned so it will never corrode
http://www.genuinedealz.com/10-2-awg-ga ... -by-the-ft
Thanks to bdosborn

[bdosborn]

Oversizing wire can be important for voltage drop but you're throwing money away if you oversize more than necessary. There's no reason to guess at how much wire you need. Just add up your loads like you've done, add 25% for a safety margin and size the wire to limit voltage drop to 3% using an on-line VD calculator.

http://www.nooutage.com/vdrop.htm

Bruce

[H.A.]

What if I take the roll, and create two - two strand (maybe three?) cables? So two pair of 14gage wires in parallel? Essentially doubling the capacity of the 14gage wire. The description would like to tout the 14 as having 17a capacity, seems a touch optimistic. But if I tripled it that should give me a 30amp capacity easily, right?

This will work fine. Its just an excersise in extra work and a monument to wanker build practices.
But I know some folks even if they know better, they will still take the path of wanker. I expect they are proving something to themself...

Mind you, Not a saint myself, I have done these sort of things as expedient because an object HAD to be working with whatever I could cobble together at the time, Never mind how 'proper job' it might have been.

[working on it]

Wiring: On a trailer, your wire will be exposed to greater temperature and moisture ranges than wiring inside a house. Automotive wire is meant to be outdoors. If you are running wire exposed to the elements, use that (wiring to the trailer lighting is automotive/trailer grade, cable from battery to rear power center is under the trailer and also is exposed to the sun where it enters the tonguebox/battery box)- or outdoor extension cord wire-as eggsalad suggests. Wiring inside, if you convert to all LEDs, then use 18-2 or 16-2 lamp wire http://www.homedepot.com/p/Southwire-18-2-Lamp-Wire-Black-By-the-Foot-49910399/204724989?N=5yc1vZc575Z1z0ukz9. I used it for all my inside computer case fans, auto stereo (and speakers), and LED lights (12vdc). I used 14 gauge extension cords in my long runs for powering the main fan, and Ikea LED light systems(2), at 110vac, which are fed thru a GFCI. The A/C System (5k windowshaker, Aero-Flo axial duct fan, and 110vac chassis cooling fan) are fed thru a heavy-duty surge strip/switch. Circuit Protection: The 5k unit also has its' own circuit breaker). All the 12vdc runs from the battery thru 2 inline master switches, a 40 amp circuit breaker, then individual fuses. The 110vac uses the "park power" pedestal or my on-board generator as a supply (both have breakers), then thru the GFCI or protected surge strip. I've run many tests, maxxing out my circuits all at the same time, and again tested during camping...no problems. But again, just in case, all my wiring can be accessed readily, since I didn't use conduit nor bury my circuits in walls or insulation. Others may vary by design.

[rowerwet]

if you can't find the exact gauge wire you need or don't want to pay through the nose for it, run two smaller wires that add up to more than the gauge you need, they do this on airplanes all the time. I don't know if it is for redundancy, weight, or just to allow more flexibility, but almost every airplane I work on has it, especially in the battery and starting circuits.

[working on it]

if you can't find the exact gauge wire you need or don't want to pay through the nose for it, run two smaller wires that add up to more than the gauge you need, they do this on airplanes all the time. I don't know if it is for redundancy, weight, or just to allow more flexibility, but almost every airplane I work on has it, especially in the battery and starting circuits.

Aircraft wiring typically features twice or triple redundancy.

At the voltages and ampacity needed here, use of the correct gauge or even slightly larger to satisfy the circuit requirements isn't critical (weight vs ampacity). Go small for LEDs, larger for 12v appliances or inverters, larger still for charging circuits. Protect everything with cut-off switches, circuit breakers, and fuses. Redundant wiring isn't needed, unless you plan to fly it! However, 110vac is a little more critical than 12vdc; try to match or oversize your wiring to the loads expected. Of course, breakers and/or fuses will be needed. Proper boxes and connectors to meet code as well, if you ever intend to sell "legally".

[eamarquardt]

if you can't find the exact gauge wire you need or don't want to pay through the nose for it, run two smaller wires that add up to more than the gauge you need, they do this on airplanes all the time. I don't know if it is for redundancy, weight, or just to allow more flexibility, but almost every airplane I work on has it, especially in the battery and starting circuits.

If you do this and one wire fails then the remaining wire my not be protected adequately by the fuse or circuit breaker installed in the circuit resulting in potential overheating and a fire. I'm guessing that in aircraft the wires are fully redundant and each one of them is capable of carrying the full load and the breaker is sized to protect a single wire.

Better safe than sorry. I have seen corroded connectors under my old VWs dash that melted the plastic connector and could have started a fire. The fuse never blew because the amps were "safe" for the wire but not for the corroded connector.

Cheers,

Gus

[bdosborn]

Its just an excersise in extra work and a monument to wanker build practices.

X2. With an emphasis on wanker.
Bruce

[Shadow Catcher]

I will inject, "What you want now may not be what you want in the future". Plan for more!
When you find that you actually can take it all (or a whole lot more) with you it is amazing how you add. All of the 12 circuits and fuses in out PD power center are in use.

[RogHodge]

So I vacillate from aeronautical genius to 'the path of the wanker' this is exactly the range of execution I need. I have comfortably embraced the thin tapered edge of the bell curve, it's fun out here, but I digress.

I decided to go with the 10/3 cord for the box to back. 25' $25 out the door from HF, and a free flashlight!

So I spent time at my local crazy crap store. This place is like crack for the pack rat in me. I came away with a bag of switches and cable hanger ? Things? For $7, and these switches are made in... No not china, japan! Seemed good to me.

Then I did some structural work...

[RogHodge]

But before I show you that... I would like to absolve all the hoarders out there. After a trip to my shed, which I like to call a garage, but it's not even a proper shed. I found stuff I never know I had. Piles of rusty crap I didn't have any idea how it came into my possession. The cylinder hone I was looking for six months ago, an old graphic equalizer I probably ran obnoxious amounts of hair metal through, a dent puller, still in the package (why/how/when did I ever need a dent puller?) a huge bag of plastic fishing worms there are still things I don't recognize. Several boxes I re-lidded and backed away from, slowly. who saves this magnitude of flotsam ? I do!

But... I also found copper. Loads. Sizes that have fallen out of favor decades ago. Lamp cord, vacuum cleaner chord, primary wire, conduit, NM cable, thhn, espn, all kinds of wire of every color of the rainbow. Glorious.

Now I will only use 4.63% of what I found, and I have probably moved this stuff thousands of miles and stored it decades upon decades, easily worth multiple times the actual value but... I will use a tiny fraction of what I have been hoarding, and therefore, I justify the entire operation.

[RogHodge]

Ok, this is not the actual intent of this thread since it's not the actual electrical, but indulge me ok?

Did some experiments with foam and ply to create a space for switches,
Made a couple of switch plates, walnut ply from a humidor project I did years ago.
And Cut some wire channels, a bit scary to hack into the side of a persons pristine ply.

And for the concerned among us, the wires are 'stunt wires' no actual wires were harmed in the recording of this journal.

[citylights]

I did not cut wire channels in the plywood. That seems like a lot of work... If you had sandwich construction for the walls, with foam core, then maybe.

I have wires running in the ceiling. Sandwich construction, 1/8th inch ply, 1 inch foam, 1/8th inch ply. The wires run in channels in the foam. Anyway for any ceiling lights, I drop in from there.

Other wires run under the tear and pop up into cabinets inside the tear. Then the wire runs inside the cabinet to a plug or switch. Let's see if I can find a few pics...

Wire in the ceiling running to fantastic fan and two ceiling puck lights.



Wire in ceiling after foam install.



These wires pop up in cabinet and run hidden to switches or plugs.