Hot Rods 1 ga.Auto battery cable opposed to using welding cable

Not sure I remember this right .This question came up some time ago :which is better to use when relocating a battery when there is distance involved ,( voltage drop) ?? Thought it was agreed that auto battery cable was better due to auto wire is stranded w .finer wire resulting in more strands, resulting in better amps & voltage flow Is this true ??There is quite a cost factor difference between the 2 I,m not knowledgeable when it come to anything electrical .... Gene in Mn

 

I think you have it backwards, welding cable has finer strands for flexibility.

edit: and I think you want “1 ought , 2 ought “ etc, like 0 or 00 not 1 gauge. I’ve never seen a reference to 1 gauge, I’ll have to Google it.

Edit: I see now, just never heard it referred as 1 gauge but it’s 1/0, 2/0, etc.

 

Which stay’s in continuous draw longer? A welder or a car’s starter.

 

In a real world relocate the battery to the trunk of a hot rod application, it won't make any difference. Use the correct size for the application and you will be fine.

-Abone.

 

Its always 50/50 around here on the subject of welding cable vs battery cable It seems both have been used w good results. Just fyi I just ordered 50ft 0g battery cable shipped for 69$ off amazon this week.

 

I'm thinking for some it is who you have available locally to buy it from. There is usually a welding supply within a reasonable distance of most folks but finding a place that has bulk heavy gauge battery cable might be a challenge. Right now bulk 1-0 battery cable at O'Reilly's here is 9.09 a foot. If you have Amazon prime that 50 ft that Lonestar Mopar mentioned comes half red and half black in one listing Amazon.com: InstallGear 1/0 Gauge AWG CCA Power Ground Wire Cable (50ft Black & Red) Welding Wire, Battery Cable, Automotive RV Wiring, Car Audio Speaker Stereo : Electronics

404.50 vs 69 is a lot of difference if you buy 50 ft.

After fighting starting problems on my 454 in my flatbed I went to 1.0 cables all the way plus the Ford solenoid and no more problems. I was still having hot start problems with the 4-0 "12 volt" cable that I had on it before. This is an engine that if the wheels are turning at all you can clutch start it even when it is hot.

 

Always use the largest size, for trunk mount batteries! I recommend 2/0, it cost a little more, but it will be worth it. Also crimp the terminals properly! Even tho I also solder the terminals, I will not recommend it to some one else. To crimp properly you need a tool similar to this.







Bones

 

Another thing to consider is whether the jacket around the cable is compatible (resistant) to all the fluids present in an auto application. You might find that the welding cable's jacket isn't resistant to fuel, oil, trans/brake fluids, etc which could be problematic. Something to consider.

 

I use welding cable with crimped terminals. Another detail to keep in mind is the ground circuit, for a trunk mounted battery I run a ground cable to lug on front of the frame in addition to a ground lug near the battery. I do not rely on the body or frame for a ground. The engine has a ground strap to the front ground lug.

 

Reading the description of the wire set that Lone Star Mopar ordered describes it as 'copper clad aluminum'. I don't know if this would be an issue, but I personally would prefer copper over 'copper clad aluminum'.

 

Youre right on the CCA deal, I missed that part in the description. Hopefully it'll still be better than the 4guage its replacing. I would also prefer the solid copper.

 

No wonder it's so cheap if it's aluminum wire.

 

..Same here.

 

X3

 

Welding cables have to withstand exposure to all kinds of elements and conditions, oils, coolants, grease, dirt, mud, etc. The jacket is durable under all kinds of abuse.

 

I personally like handling and fitting the welding wire over battery cable. My best jumper cables are very Similar to welding cable, at 20 foot long they outperform 8 foot battery cable jumpers at 20 below zero….

 

You're probably right, but I would make sure whatever I was going to use was spec'd as such and not ***ume anything. There are all kinds of jacketing being used on all kinds of cords, etc. and they're not all rated for what we need them to be rated for.

 

I've relocated my batt to the trunk and did a 20' run of 1/0 premium batt cable. Check these guys out. Their products are top notch, made in USA and the shipping is ridiculously cheap! Very happy with 'em!
https://www.batterycablesusa.com/1-0-gauge-battery-cables-0-awg

 

Battery mounted in bed of 65 F100
Used the largest welding cable I could find, cant remember the size
Got the lugs professionaly crimped
Ran the ground to one of the started bolts, the hot to the solenoid on the fenderwell

Spins the mill over better than when the battery was mounted in the stock location with stock cables

Ricky.

 

I ran aluminum wire for the + lead in one stock car, the wire came real cheap and I got 30' of it. The gauge was huge, I had to scour up terminals for it, but it worked great. My local speed shop makes up custom cables while-u-wait, from welding cable. Think it ran me $40 for my car, but they had shrink wrap on the ends too.

 

I would never use aluminum wire.

 

I had a thread awhile ago on this same subject @blazedogs . Ended up with 3 pages.

I did use the welding cable which I had on my 32-5 window and it appears to be OK but haven't put real miles on the car yet.

Here's the link to my earlier post
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/welding-cable-versus-battery-cable.1262864/

 

Those are really good prices for fully ***embled cables. That's where I'm going next time.

 

One of my jumper leads is a piece of welding lead, going to change the other one out soon. Heavy as hell, but work great. With my old cables it took a while to jump off my semi truck with 4 batteries in cold weather, with just one of the welding leads it took only minutes. They carry amperage so much better, I can see where they make good battery cables. Good and flexible, too.

 

Copper coated aluminum ?

 

Aluminum wiring has a lower ampacity rating, so you have to go at least one size larger when using aluminum. The other problem is aluminum wire is never found as fine strand like copper is, so it has less flexibility, and more apt to break over time when used on a car that's going to see lots of vibration.

I always use copper, always use 2/0 regardless of the length, and always use fine strand wire. Fine strand wire is not just more flexible, but 2/0 fine strand is rated double the amperage of most 2/0 insulated cable used for commercial or residential wiring.

 

Yessir, I didnt realize until after the purchase as its listed as CCA. Although in my case it should work fine, im replacing original cables with O guage and not adding any extra length over stock on our 64 Elco.

 

This won't help very many folks on here, but a local parts house had a roll of bulldozer starter cable. They used it and made up the cables for Clarence when the battery was located in the rear. I ran those for about 25 years until the battery got relocated closer to the engine. Never had any problems. Worked well. I have no idea what the gauge was, but the cables were pretty big.

 

There's no reason aluminum wire couldn't be used, but it does need special handling/installation compared to copper. As noted above, it doesn't like vibration (particularly at terminations) so proper support is needed and unless it's copper-clad it also needs special terminations to prevent corrosion from unlike metal contact. You can use raw aluminum crimps with non-clad wire, but those won't do well in an automotive environment; they really need to be plated. You also have to be careful not to nick the strands when stripping as those nicks can be failure points. That's a serious issue in AC installs, probably less so in DC but best practices are still recommended.

The copper-cladding isn't done to enhance conductivity, but is merely to reduce corrosion and allow 'standard' crimps to be used. Don't even try to solder this stuff, you'll end up with a mess. Interesting that this has returned to the marketplace. Any blather you see about 'skin effect' or 'oxygen-free copper' is snake oil that has leaked over from the audio industry into the general marketing to unaware consumers. Unless you're building a multi-kilovolt transmission line or can clearly hear dog whistles, this has zero bearing on cable performance.

Much has been made of the higher current rating of the fine-strand wire. Yes, it does have a higher rating, but not for the reasons you think. These higher ratings are for very short duration high current events, NOT continuous ratings. The continuous rating is the same as same-size 'standard' wire with fewer strands. While that seems ideal for a starter circuit, what is not mentioned is the voltage drop is the same as 'standard' wire also. Put more current through it at the higher rating, get a larger drop, enough more to negatively impact performance. Add aluminum into the mix and it gets worse. A 1/0 aluminum cable will have 40% higher voltage drop compared to a same-size copper line under the same load. Put another way, a 1/0 aluminum cable will have about the same drop as a #2 copper wire. Voltage drop is determined by the conductor metal used, the total cross-sectional area of the conductor(s) (the number of individual conductors is immaterial), the load on the conductors, and the length of the cable. At the low voltage we're using, length is a critical factor, don't ***ume adding a few feet to a run won't increase voltage drop excessively. Do a voltage drop calculation if there's any doubt, here's the one I like... Voltage Drop Calculator It's when ac***ulated drops get over 5% that problems start showing up.

Welding cable is fine-stranded and flexible for the simple reason is that allows it to lay flat when laid out, and is much easier to roll up/unroll. You could use conventional building wire in its place with some special care used, but forming it to fit will be a PITA. The insulation used on the better-quality cable is every bit as tough as anything 'automotive' rated and I wouldn't worry about chemical compatibility unless it's going to be fully immersed long-term.

 

Welding cable, good lugs from McMaster Carr