Solid or Stranded?

[Backwoods Guy]

Hi All,

I was wondering what the general view was on 120V AC wiring is. Is it better to use a solid wire like house romex or a stranded wire like extension cords? It seems that stranded would better handle the vibrations of road travel.

I was planning to use stranded in my trailer, with soldered on spade lugs at all connections. But thought I'd ask before I got started.

Any thoughts?

Thanks, Guy

[dh]

You are on the right track

[satch]

Like dh said.
Stranded wire has better flex/movement to handle the stress's and bounces of towing. The connectors have less chances of "fraying" loose and causing a short

[asianflava]

I wouldn't bother with solid, routing is a lot tighter than in a house. The flexibility of stranded wire helps a lot in this department.

[starleen2]

#3 vote for stranded! I used solid in my first two builds and it worked just fine - I towed those little campers everywhere and vibration wasn't really an issue. But then a very helpful person infomed me that I could get a heavy duty extension cord (stranded) cheaper that I could get the solid in the same gauge - so I switched to stranded

[planovet]

+4 for stranded

[Pyrofish]

I'm using solid on my 120v because I have half a roll of 12 ga romex left over from another project, but everything else is stranded. The extension cord, BTW, is WAY cheaper than romex. I bought a 10 GA 100' extension cord on eBay for $60 delivered. That's less than the 50' price of the equivalent romex.

I've also got 10/2 speaker wire from eBay to run my lights. My trailer and light runs are a little long, so 10/2 was necessary. I don't recall how much that was, but it was alot cheaper. The shielding isn't good for 120v, os so I've been told. Should be fine to run 3-9 amps worth of lights though

[absolutsnwbrdr]

Stranded here! I just hacked up an extension cord!

[asianflava]

Stranded here! I just hacked up an extension cord!

Yep same here.

[bobhenry]

There wasn't a junk vacuum cleaner setting at the curb waiting for the trash man safe from me when I was on the prowl. The 14 / 2 insulated cord on these vacuums were great for the 12 volt DC runs and I have used 10 / 3 for my 120 volt AC as well as 12/2 with ground romax on my builds. It all works !

[Shadow Catcher]

The space between the 30A inlet and the converter was short, less than two feet in ours, and 10/3 solid was used. I did not see a point in changing it.

[Backwoods Guy]

Thanks everyone,

My plan was to buy a 100' 12GA extension cord, cut off the male end and cut hunks off to wire up the trailer with. Then take whatever was left over, put a new male plug on it and use that to plug-in at the campground. I guess I'll carry on with that plan.

Thanks again, take care, Guy

[egjacks]

Free is best, but you could look at thrift and second hand stores for cheap appliances like vacuum, etc. Then use the cords from those. might find some at the dump as well.