Speaker wire in electrical system

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Speaker wire in electrical system

Postby Al Swope » Fri Dec 18, 2015 11:53 pm

I need to run 12gauge wire from my fuse panel to my vent fan. I found 2 strand red/black speaker wire in 12 gauge. Could thi be used for power?
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Re: Speaker wire in electrical system

Postby GuitarPhotog » Sat Dec 19, 2015 12:08 am

Yep!
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Re: Speaker wire in electrical system

Postby H.A. » Sat Dec 19, 2015 12:48 am

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Last edited by H.A. on Sun Jan 31, 2016 11:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Speaker wire in electrical system

Postby Vedette » Sat Dec 19, 2015 1:02 am

14 ga. is enough :thinking:
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Re: Speaker wire in electrical system

Postby dales133 » Sat Dec 19, 2015 1:07 am

My fantastjc fan only has a 1.5amp fuse so based on that it should be fine.
Mines wired up with 15amp cable because i had it there
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Re: Speaker wire in electrical system

Postby Al Swope » Mon Dec 21, 2015 1:59 pm

Thanks all. I'll have to look at the box. The fan was given to me by a fellow tear dropper. I was basing my wiring gauge from info I saw in another thread.

toypusher wrote:Image
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Re: Speaker wire in electrical system

Postby kayakdlk » Mon Dec 21, 2015 8:07 pm

I wanted 12 gauge for my DC power outlets so I just used 12 gauge speaker wire for all my DC power. I had to to splice smaller wire (16 or 18 gauge) for my switches, but otherwise it was cheapest and easiest for me to buy a 200ft roll of 12 gauge speaker wire off ebay.

I saw the same diagram when I was doing my teardrop and just standardized on 12 gauge for everything except from battery to fuse panel and for that I used 10 gauge wire.


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Re: Speaker wire in electrical system

Postby Toytaco2 » Mon Dec 21, 2015 10:41 pm

Hope this does not hi-jack the thread, but, in looking at the diagram, why does the battery have to be grounded to the trailer frame? Why can't the negative leads go directly to the negative battery terminal (electrical is about my worst thing)?
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Re: Speaker wire in electrical system

Postby DrewsBrews » Tue Dec 22, 2015 12:01 am

Toytaco2 wrote:Hope this does not hi-jack the thread, but, in looking at the diagram, why does the battery have to be grounded to the trailer frame? Why can't the negative leads go directly to the negative battery terminal (electrical is about my worst thing)?


If you look more at the diagram you will see the negative load leads are in fact directly connected to the negative battery terminal via a ground block (basically a bus bar). It looks like in this case the main reason for tying battery negative to the chassis is to provide a ground for charging the battery via the tow vehicle (through the ball coupler to the car's chassis ground).

I doubt the negative tie to chassis is 100% required with 12v, especially if a trailer is built with minimal metal framing. Though, it is usually best practice because of the above mentioned tie to the car chassis ground via the ball coupler and current can do some strange and unintended things when you have multiple potential grounds.
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Re: Speaker wire in electrical system

Postby Vedette » Tue Dec 22, 2015 5:23 am

Toytaco2 wrote:Hope this does not hi-jack the thread, but, in looking at the diagram, why does the battery have to be grounded to the trailer frame? Why can't the negative leads go directly to the negative battery terminal (electrical is about my worst thing)?

Just a very good practice to have your frame grounded to the Battery.
My teardrops are "All Steel" construction so every thing grounds to the body/frame. ;)
By the way, that diagram is one of the simplest and best for those first time builders, :thumbsup:
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