Wondering what kind of wire you guys use to wire up electic fans, ingnition, lights, etc I dont want to use somthing that will burn my buggy to the ground. Also where did you get it. Thanx.
First you need to know what the amp draw is of what you are wiring. Then you choose a wire that your amp rating does not exceed 80% of it's load capacity.
Running load and start up is different
Example: A Taurus fan is in the neighborhood of 30 amp load, but I have read that start up can be up wards of 90 amps. You don't have to have wire to handle 90 amps, because it is a short burst and should not damage your wire. You can put a fuse inline or better a breaker. If you exceed the breaker limit, it, well breaks and stops the flow of power, but will come back on.
Put the breaker inline from Battery and relay, and then a fuse between the relay and fan.
Short start up power burst should be OK with your fuse.
I am not a wiring expert, but this is how I have always done it for the bigger draw stuff.
Thanx for that bit of info, that will be helpful. I guess I was really wanting to know where to get some good quality wire, I can get multiple spools from harbor freight for like $50, but I'm worried that it is some made in China crap and my rig will end up going down in a flaming ball of glory, and I would not want that.
I don't know if I'd use harbor freight wire for something as high amp draw as a fan. It's probably OK for lower amp draw stuff but like you said, you'd hate for it to go up in a big ball of fire. I wired in a BMW fan using wire from Auto zone that was the same size as the input for the fan. I'm thinking 10 gauge but it's been a while. Now my fan came with a 50 amp fuse so I used that. My only problem so far is finding a relay that will handle the initial startup draw. It's well over 70 amps (that's what my current relay is and it doesn't always work) Initially the fans came with a controller box on them to regulate speed but they would catch on fire. (Think new Beamer in the garage and it burns your house down kind of fire,) So I just run it full speed sans controller box. Thinking I'm going to need a golf cart relay or the like to handle it. As for wiring though, better too big than too small.
^^Thanks. I'm not too sure that will be big enough. If a Taurus fan pulls 90 on startup, that still isn't big enough. My guess is this fan pulls more than 90 at startup too.
Go by a stereo shop. You can buy there scrap to do what you need. Go see jimmy at sounds good in kernersville, they hae a nice scrap pile. Tell him snappy sent ya
Go by a stereo shop. You can buy there scrap to do what you need. Go see jimmy at sounds good in kernersville, they hae a nice scrap pile. Tell him snappy sent ya
