Thread: Wire size

I would think that the automotive type cable would be a larger gauge than the wire from your TM to your breaker.

Just so that we are clear, Your TM has two wires positive and negative. We will call them P and N.
P should run to one side of your breaker. N should run to a negative post on one of your batteries.

From the other end of your breaker, a wire should run to the positive side of one of your batteries. I would want this wire to be the same as the P wire in terms of gauge.
Others that are far more experienced than me might chime in here. I would look at all the connections and clean them if possible. That breaker shouldn't pop from heat. It should pop because the circuit is overloaded.

Might, and I say might, be a bad breaker too. Many a times we look over the simplist of things. Has it always done this with this setup or has it just started? If it has recently started, I would lean towards coroaded wires or a bad breaker! Hope that helps.

Go with 6 gauge regardless of how far You got to stretch them. 8 gauge is not enough. 8 will get hot and could cause a fire if You are running that motor hard. 6 gauge will do the job just fine.CF

Originally Posted by crappiefarmer

Go with 6 gauge regardless of how far You got to stretch them. 8 gauge is not enough. 8 will get hot and could cause a fire if You are running that motor hard. 6 gauge will do the job just fine.CF

That is what the circuit breaker is for, to protect anything from getting to hot

Originally Posted by clfarms1

That is what the circuit breaker is for, to protect anything from getting to hot

A circuit breaker does not keep a wire of getting hot it only protects if the amperage drawn is higher then the circuit breaker can handle.

Originally Posted by Bricks

A circuit breaker does not keep a wire of getting hot it only protects if the amperage drawn is higher then the circuit breaker can handle.

That's what I said just different from the way you said it. If the breaker kicks out it keeps the wires from getting hot, and you notice I said to hot

This wire calculator may help someone also.

Voltage Drop Calculator

Originally Posted by clfarms1

That's what I said just different from the way you said it. If the breaker kicks out it keeps the wires from getting hot, and you notice I said to hot

Perfect we agree I missed the TO HOT

Originally Posted by scrat

This wire calculator may help someone also.

Voltage Drop Calculator

You have to be careful when using voltage drop calculators. Most are for single core wire. Multi-stranded wire has much less a rating given an AWG size. I use the Engineering Toolbox for multiple calculations, here is the current ratings for multicore wire:

Wire Gauges - Current Ratings