Wiring Source Option

[Tommy2tone_1999]

A friend of mine told me that when he wired his living room for a home theater system, he used an inexpensive heavy-duty extension chord with the plugs cut off for speaker wire instead of the expensive speaker wire sold at most electronics stores. That got me thinking, could this same concept be used to wire a TD? What do you think? Can it be done for both ac and dc?

[Rigsby]

If you are thinking of using household wire for a 12v system it will have too greater resistance for low amperage consumers, ie lighting and ventilation fans. Unless you are thinking of a custom sound system with big amps. On the other hand it would be ideal for AC electrics
steve

[Arne]

I bought a 14 gauge extension cord and used to wire parts of my tear. Resistance is usually caused by a wire being too small, not too big (to a point).

If you look at good speaker wire, it is heavier gauge, not lighter.

If I was wiring my t/d now, I would fore go the romex and use extension cords. Nothing wrong with romex the way I used it, but extension cord with its stranded wire is much easier to pull.

If you look here (the chart part way down), you will see the ohms (resistance) decreases as the wire diameter increases.

http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

If you go to pg 14 of the link below, second pic, you will see some of my wiring. The power strip has had the plug cut off and goes to the shore power outlet on the side of the t/d. That means the circuit breaker in the power strip protects all the 115v wiring in the trailer (it is not gfi). The red cord plugged into it is the end of an extension cord the provides the beginning of the run to the galley power, then goes to the front of the tear... the battery charger is hard wired into the power strip by virtue of the wire across the unit to keep it from falling out due to road vibration.

The black wire in the power strip was a power tool I was using to build the galley. Since I had power, I used shore power and the t/d power strip to power tools during the build.

[tinksdad]

If I was wiring my t/d now, I would fore go the romex and use extension cords. Nothing wrong with romex the way I used it, but extension cord with its stranded wire is much easier to pull.

Not only that.... but the cost of an extension cord as opposed to an equivalent amount of wire is usually cheaper!!

[Sonetpro]

I used it on my tear. I didn't pull it through the wall's but all of my trailer running lights are ran with extension cord. Even the feed to the front of my cabin interior is ran underneath the trailer with it. I just bought some extension cords and lopped the ends off and cut it to the lengths I needed. It sure was cheaper than buying seperate wires. Lowes also sell's it by the foot.
Great stuff. It is armored, insulated and watertight.
12ga is 12ga no matter what it is run in.

[Lucky489]

You need to buy light cord much cheaper than speaker wire.