Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 14:13:55 -0400
Reply-To: Derek Drew <drew@INTERPORT.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Derek Drew <drew@INTERPORT.NET>
Subject: Heavy duty wiring for fusebox
In-Reply-To: <2.2.32.19980518175513.00fa3098@mail.halcyon.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Well, now that I think of it, I am the last person who should be
discouraging you from using 8 gage wire for this purpose as I have actually
already done exactly as you are thinking of doing. That is, I ran 8 gague
wire from the battery to an auxiliary power distribution center I installed
in front of my glovebox.
If you want to go off the deep end, you will find that the wire to your
existing fuse box is actually inadequate too. You can easily test this by
turning on a bunch of accessories and observing an excessive voltage drop
at the fuse box, a voltage drop you can eliminate by clipping a new
additional wire between your alternator and the fuse box during these
tests. So one way to fix this is to run a new wire from your new power
distribution center under the dashboard to your fuse box so that if the
fuxbox needs more power than the factory wire is able to supply to it, it
can drink from your new wire. This causes the fusebox to be supplied from
two separate wires, which is ineligant from a design point of view, as some
mechanic some day may disconnect one wire and think that they have
disconnected power to the fuse box and not understand how it still is
getting power, but it is a lot easier than trying to replace the facotry
fuse box feed.
Dennis Haynes undertook a similar project, but simply ran two additional
#10 wires between the fuse box and the alternator with the same resulting
inelegance as that described above.
But you really have to know your stuff when working with this heavy wire. I
suggest using quality terminals, a real good crimping tool, heat shrink,
and solder every connection. Also, use fuselinks, and wire sheathing to
proect the wires.
I know a list member who lost their van to an electrical fire after doing a
wiring job for his stereo (though I don't think he assigns a cause and
effect relationship to this trauma).
At 10:55 AM 5/18/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Let me clarify a bit. The wire I'm talking about here will supply power for
>ALL of my headlights, fog lights, and driving lights. The wire will run from
>the battery to several relays mounted near the headlights that will control
>the power to the various lights. 12 gauge wire will run from the relays to
>the lights.
>
>It seems easier to run a single heavy wire to power everything than to run
>separate wires to the battery for each light.
>
>Is there a better way to do this?
>
>Mark McCulley
>
>At 08:37 AM 5/18/98 -0700, Mark McCulley wrote:
>>OK, I've decided to run a dedicated, relay-switched +12V line to power my
>>headlights and fog lights. My questions is what gauge wire should I use?
>>I've got some 8 gauge--that should handle it right? I believe it's rated at
>>40 amps--that would handle up to 480 watts of lighting. Comments?
>>
>>Mark McCulley
>>
>
_____________________________________________________
Derek Drew New York, NY & Washington DC
ConsumerSearch
drew@interport.net
212-580-6486 (W)
212-580-4459 (H)
| 
