kingrukus

iTrader: (41)

Which of you guys use welding cable as power wire? I am seriously considering this an alternative to conventional power wire, because it seems just as good, if not better (according to many online reviews), at a fraction of the price. I really want to go with 2 or even 0 awg wiring, but for conventional car audio power wire, it is just too much (as much as 10 dollars a ft @ cdn retail). Are there any particular cons you have faced with using welding cable?
Phil

jmax

I haven't used it yet but plan to in the very near future. 4/0 welding cable is cheaper than 1/0 car audio cable. And looks to have no lack of strands or thickness. Only problem I am faceing is how to fuse it. I was hoping to be able to fuse it for 400 - 500 amps current. There are no waterproof fuse holders that can handle the 4/0, and no waterproof double wafer fuse holder. So I have to build something which makes it one additional custom part for my install.

Chitwista

I was ZERO guage welding cable in my 3rd Gen http://members.sounddomain.com/chitwista and was very happy, the only Con to using it was the fact that it is hard to hide/run through the car.. Other then that I would highly recommend it.. Sam

jmax

Why is it any more difficult to hide than any other 1/0 cable?

loudmaxima

1/0 welding cables used for over 2 years now...ran under the car ..i think the insulations a little better than monster/tsunami which ever brand you want ot go with

TL@altimas.net

it's not as flexable..

I'm using welding 2 guage right now no problems at all.. Plan on going to a car audio brand (when I upgrade to 1/0), but mainly doing that for for looks

jmax

I guess it still depends on the brand. The stuff I looked at a few weeks ago was flexible. Even the 4/0. But I forgot to take a short length of my stinger or pg 1/0 to compare directly with the welding 1/0. I am more concerned about performance than looks. After performance my second goal is and always will be to keep the cost of materials down.

TL@altimas.net

happy day, oh happy day..

I happened to scan a few x-sections a while back.. (I knew it would come in handy someday )



too bad I didn't get 1/0 welding in there.. oh, and "stock" is my stock battery ground (94 Altima).

you can definately see the differences in strand count.. <shrug>

jmax

Unfortunately you can also see that stinger labels two different gauges the same. 0 and 1/0 should be the same, but don't look the same in the pic.

nismo240sx

one thing ive found is that the automotive/welding wire is 1 size smaller than the corresponding size of audio wire. i have a negative battery terminal that accepts 4 gauge car audio wire, but the 2 gauge ground i bought fits in it perfectly. also, i have 2/0 welding wire (50 feet), and it is the same size as the 1/0 audio wire that my friend has (its monster or stinger).

eric

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

are you talking about the actual cross sectional area of copper, or the insulation thickness? there's a BIG difference between the two.
In order for a company to call their wire a particular size or another, it must meet certain standardsby federal regulations. you can't just stamp "4awg" on a piece of zip-wire and expect to get away with it.

most of the connectors and terminals you're talking about will accept one size larger than their listed size. for years I've crammed 2awg wires (car audio and welding cable) into 4awg distribution blocks.

I've got 1/0 welding cable in my 2awg distro blocks right now. on the other side of it, I've got a short run of 1/0 audio cable (for looks) to my cap, and the copper inside is the same size as the welding cable.

TL@altimas.net

I know.. suxors.. 1/0 = 0, 2/0 = 00 , etc..

I did get a chance to compare the stinger "0" guage to a peice of welding 1/0 and the stinger was quite a bit bigger (yes, copper, not insulation)