Hot Rods Welding Cable versus Battery Cable

Many years ago at my son's (flatoz) suggestion I bought 20 feet of heavy cable to use as battery cable at a swap meet.
When wiring my first 32-5W the auto-elec doing the job would not use the cable and supplied battery cable for the job.
Flatoz is wiring my new 32-5W and today he asked if I had the battery cable. I dragged out the old cable and he said that it was welding cable and "they" say you shouldn't use welding cable as battery cable but it was what he used when he wired his roadster over 20 years ago.

So - should I use the welding cable or go out and buy some battery cable to do the job?

 

If anything welding cable is more flexible and has a more durable insulation. If it’s the correct gauge, use it.

 

I've used welding cable on race cars with no problem. As mentioned it's more flexible and durable.

The stranding is different from battery cable. Someone will have to explain to me why that matters in a practical sense.

 

Maybe @Crazy Steve can shed some light on this?

 

Yup, I had my battery in the rear of my '35 Slantback. A good friend who helped me build it had me use welding cable.
Never an issue.

 

Think of it this way, each strand is a road, and the electrons travel following the road. Think of the back log at the border all those cars and trucks looking to travel. Now if the current flow is heavy, like 300 cars a second heavy, your going to need a lot of roads to handle the volume. But if the current is heavy as in 30 truck and trailers a second, you need better roads but less of them to handle the volume.

Cars being a welding current and the trucks being a starter draw of current. Something like that.

My thoughts, while it will work, most resistance is found at a connection. I'd suspect if you looked at the cable ends of most welding cables you'd see a knot, from just this issue. I'd suspect the heavy strand of a battery cable would prevent the resistance as it wouldn't break down and deterriate from the high current draw of a starter.

 

My wild guess would be that the insulation on welding cable is more flexible, probably rubber based, and not as durable as the harder plastic insulation on battery cable. In normal use the cable never really has to flex, so I don't see a real problem either way, as long as the cable is properly supported and routed so it won't have any abrasion on the insulation.

It's traditional to use welding cable for rear mounted batteries on hot rods. Of course, traditions are not usually based on sound engineering...they're usually based on what was expedient at the time

 

I have it in the frame rail on my 32 and no problems in the last 15 years.

 

I made up a couple of sets of extra long jumper cables out of welding cable that has been used for years.
Welding cable is usually more flexible because the strands are smaller, but a lot of time has silicone and rubber jackets for durability. Although there are probably some minor electrical differences, it was more about the cable gauge and lug attachment than the strand size.

 

I always soldered my ends. Clamped the lugs in a vise, filled them with solder, dunked the cable in the solder. Then heat shrinked. Should have mentioned that first time.

We had a battery lug crimper. Using it on welding cable didn't feel as solid of a connection vs. battery cable.

 

If you don't get the cable strands up to the melting temp of the solder, then you'll have a lousy connection...

 

Welding cable being so flexible needs a whole bunch of clamps along its length so that it doesn't get all
droopy on you. Other than that, why not use it?

 

Have seen it done this way...and the ends of the cable were filled with solder before inserting into the solder filled lug.
(well, partially filled lug, for obvious reasons)

 

This is how I do it. We always bought our cable bulk by the foot for each customer car we did at the shop. You can also buy an inexpensive crimper you hold in a vice and whack with a hammer.

 

I've always used welding cable. I have a bunch of it for one thing, and, I like BIG battery cables that would normally be expensive or hard to find. I take my cable to the local John Deere dealer, and have them crimp on nice heavy duty ends with a big + or - on there that even an old blind guy can see. I also used to go home and solder them, but dont bother any more as the hydraulic crimper gets em good enough

 

Welding cable doesn’t have a oil and grease resistant covering.
Welding cable doesn’t come stamped with a SAE certification number.

Automotive battery cable has both of those things and that along with the fact that it isn’t as flexible and floppy as welding cable is why I use it.

The proper material for the application is another good reason.
Since I’m a welder I save my welding cable for welding.

 

Does an electron really care which wire you use? I would venture to say that most long welding cables lead a tough life.........probably more so than a battery cable. Which ever cable someone uses needs to be supported properly and assembled to the ends correctly. If both products are new or in good shape, I don't see what difference it would make.

Though I hate to recommend anything from Hrbor Freight these days, I do have both a hammer type crimper and later bought one of the hydraulic crimpers they sell. The hydraulic one gives a very good crimp.......easily.

As far as the welding cables go, I have purchased heavy duty wire on pallets at auctions over the years. Its the kinda stuff that you have to pay a fortune for now. I used it for running cables between electric panels, wiring extra welding plugs around the shop, and even made some 50' "extension" cords for my welders. I don't care what it says on the outside of the cable as long as its flexible and large enough to carry the load. Haven't had a problem yet and have had it that way for many years...

 

Anybody have a spec on the full load capacity of a welding cable? And for the record, we are talking stick weld, no? Low battery volts/amps cause more strain than full load/charge. We know that right? Who's ever burned up a starter with a full supply? Maybe 1 or 2 guys reading this? Coating, ok. Floppy, I guess but that can be a win depending upon how or where you run it. Able? Either cable is able. I frankly hate the latest crop of battery cable unless you go $pecialty...

 

you mean the ones with the skimpy lead free terminals? yeah...they suck...

 

The previous and future answers to the question are similar to the reason why there is more than one church on a street.
Everyone seems to have their own preference. Mine is battery cable with crimped terminals. Will I go to hell???

 

Too late for that question.

 

I used welding cable, but I also run the cable through hydraulic hose spiral wrap for a little extra protection. Cable goes over the wheelhouse, inside the rocker, up the kick panel and exits out the firewall to the inner fender relay.

 

Welding cable is made with finer individual strands so it will be more flexible, but for a given gauge it has the same amp capacity as battery cable so there's no advantage or disadvantage from that standpoint.

It is great to use for jumper cables, especially if you live in a cold climate. I have a set of battery cables my dad made out of welding cable 50 years ago, and they're nice and flexible even when it's -20F.

 

I used "hardware store cable" for a trunk-mounted battery back in the 60s. It was stiff with just a few big strands. It worked to start my Olds with 11:1 pistons in it. I didn't solder. I just packed it with dielectric grease before I put on the bolt-on terminals.
But I've been told that more, finer strands, can carry more juice for the size and weight. From the replies posted here, it doesn't seem like it's a big, critical deal, though.

 

When I built my '38 Chevy coupe, I used welding cable as it was harder to find battery cable as long as I needed. It worked great when supported properly. The car has been on the road for 30 plus years. No problems

 

Either or will do the job. Use what you have!

 

Since I worked as an electrician most of my life I had plenty of access to welding cable through distributors. I could also buy it reasonably with our shop's discount, and occasionally even find some for free. So all I've ever used was welding cable. It's not only more flexible, but the insulation is heavier, and more durable. I'm not sure why anyone would not want to use it? The only drawback is it being so flexible it requires more supports so it doesn't droop between supports. But I've got no problem adding more insulated straps and having a well supported cable.
It's also finer strand than most battery cable, so it's got a higher amperage rating than battery cable in equal gauge sizes. A 1/0 battery cable wont come close to the amperage rating of a 1/0 welding cable.

 

It really doesn't matter for our purposes. For welding, it simply allows better control by the guy welding, you don't have to fight the stiffness of the wire. One 'practical' application where you sometimes see this used is in lightning rod conductors. Believe it or not, wire can act just like a water hose, when you apply a large current/voltage to wire it can 'whip' just like a hose does. Under extremely high transients it can thrash like snake. The finer strands 'divide' these forces into smaller individual amounts reducing this substantially. You can actually see this sometime with conventional cables; watch for a 'twitch' in the cables when you engage the starter. Continuous current-carrying capability is limited by it's cross-sectional area, the same as coarser-stranded wire at lower voltages, as well as the same voltage drop which is more important to us. 'Skin effect' comes into play at KV voltages, not something we have to deal with here.

Well, I wouldn't say that welding cable is less durable per se, but Squirrel is right in that it's not rated for the same types of environmental conditions as most other cable types. Its got very good abrasion resistance but mediocre chemical resistance but generally as long as it's not immersed or continually bathed in harmful chemicals it'll hold up. If you're leaking that much bad stuff onto it, you have other issues. If this is something that worries you, slip some larger shrink-tube over it in the affected areas. One place where is it superior for us is in bend radius. All cables have minimum recommended bend radius for each size. Plastic-based insulation is more prone to splitting if bent too tight, particularly as it ages. Welding cable can tolerate much tighter bends but doesn't like sharp-edged impacts. Proper support is more important though. Installing it in a raceway of some sort in exposed areas can eliminate many of these issues.

 

The main difference in weld cable and automotive battery cable of the same gauge lead is wire strands. Automotive batter cable is normally course and weld lead is fine. IE More strands in the weld lead. Now if you want to get technical the weld lead will actually pass more amps easier at least that is what you would learn from an electrical engineering book. The theory is that electricity passes over the surface of the wire and not through it. More strands more surface area.

I like heavy gauge weld cable for battery cables. Some guys don't like them. If you get an automotive wiring tech he/she will normally got with the course wire as opposed the the fine. That is what they know and it works too.

Use what makes you happy. Same gauge lead either will work fine and you will probably never notice any difference.

 

When I need a longer than normal cable I use welding cable, never had a problem. HRP