Wire Gauge Recommendations

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Wire Gauge Recommendations

Postby Capebuild » Fri Jun 18, 2021 8:36 am

I'm going to get wire in preparation to wire up my junction box.
There's a bunch of various information on the inter-web about what gauge wire to use so I'd like to get member's recommendations regarding wire sizes.

This is what I was planning but if I should reconsider a certain wire gauge for the 7 pin connector, please let me know your thoughts.
Thanks very much.

1- WHITE for ground-- 12 gauge
2- BLUE for brakes - 12 gauge
3- Brown for tail lights, marker lights and license plate light --14 gauge
4- Black -Aux battery power (probably won't use but maybe I'll put a pigtail)- 10 gauge
5- Yellow- Stop and Left Turn Signal--14 gauge
6- Green- Stop and Right Turn Signal-14 gauge
7- Red-- plug to plug center contact in plugs

Please let know if this all looks AOK.....

thanks

John
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Re: Wire Gauge Recommendations

Postby Tom&Shelly » Fri Jun 18, 2021 9:10 am

Capebuild wrote:I'm going to get wire in preparation to wire up my junction box.
There's a bunch of various information on the inter-web about what gauge wire to use so I'd like to get member's recommendations regarding wire sizes.

This is what I was planning but if I should reconsider a certain wire gauge for the 7 pin connector, please let me know your thoughts.
Thanks very much.

1- WHITE for ground-- 12 gauge
2- BLUE for brakes - 12 gauge
3- Brown for tail lights, marker lights and license plate light --14 gauge
4- Black -Aux battery power (probably won't use but maybe I'll put a pigtail)- 10 gauge
5- Yellow- Stop and Left Turn Signal--14 gauge
6- Green- Stop and Right Turn Signal-14 gauge
7- Red-- plug to plug center contact in plugs

Please let know if this all looks AOK.....

thanks

John


If you use the aux battery power, will the return be through ground? If so, the ground wire should also be 10 gauge. Remember, the ground takes the sum of the currents of all the circuits it returns.

If you are using LED stop and signal lights, you can even use smaller than 14 gauge for those circuits (I used a 16 gauge cable, for example), but 14 is fine.

I bought a bunch of heat shrink, and used those color coded to the circuit where the wires terminated.

Tom
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Re: Wire Gauge Recommendations

Postby Capebuild » Fri Jun 18, 2021 9:24 am

Thanks a lot, Tom, for the feedback.

Good tip on the ground. Not a big deal to change it to be 10 gauge. For right now, the hook up from the junction box is just going to be to the chassis.... but making it 10 gauge sounds good.
Most of the lighting, I'm envisioning will be LED, but think I'll keep the wiring for those circuits at 14 just in case an incandescent bulb sneaks in there somewhere (probably 16 would be okay for that, as well).

thanks again for confirming all.

John
"Success can be defined as moving from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm".... Churchill

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Re: Wire Gauge Recommendations

Postby TimC » Fri Jun 18, 2021 9:41 am

Like Tom, I color coded the ends of each wire to keep them straight. Saved a bit of cash that way by buying just black in a couple gauges. There are electric color coding kits available that have five or six colors of electrical tape for this purpose.

Unfortunately this kit doesn't have brown. I would just use two colors on the ends to designate "brown".
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-1-2-in-x-20-ft-Electric-Tape-Multi-Color-6-Pack-30005336/206874157
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Re: Wire Gauge Recommendations

Postby Capebuild » Fri Jun 18, 2021 5:19 pm

thanks for the help with this.
I've been reading up about the wiring hook ups and it seems quite confusing. There's the RV wiring set up and the "SAE" wiring setup, both using different color coding.Then I went and looked at the wiring harness included with the junction box I bought and that seems to have some different color coding. The constant seems to be white being ground the black for 12 V. I think I'll just run some pigtails off from the junction box up into the cabin area (until I'm actually ready to start hooking stuff up). I'll also wait to get the brake controller installed on my TV with the included 4 pin to 7 pin conversion set up. That way I can test each contact coming from the TV and see its function to complete the connection to the junction box.
:cry:

Not really crying.... it would be nice for there to be some continuity amongst manufacturers to have a "standard" set up.

John
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