What are your thoughts on 16 AWG tinned copper marine Grade wire is it to small for Heavy cruiser 6V 12ah system?
Smaller the number, heavier/more strands wire. 24 is very small, 8 is honking big! I personally run 14 in mine with no issues. Only difference is I use tinned wires (commonly boat trailer wire) so I don't get rust spots in the wire from a cut in the jacket.
Okay so lets say I had a friend and he already bought 16 I should I mean he should return it and get 14 [:I]
16 should be good enough, its max load is like 25 A. Only you know your stall current & average current. Check out: Visit this site
My pump is a small with 1/2outlet from BC as well as my twin 550 motors no not evinrude any one got a guess from that tidbit of minuet info as to my average current might be and that stall thingy[]
Oh, yes.For two 550-size, quite a bit more. Some people use fuses on their drive motor wires. I run the pump wires low in the ship if possible on the theory that if the pump overheats, the ships is full of water anyway
I have a UEi DM 383 Digital multimeter like I said I'm no electrician but I understand the basics and haven killed my self just yet. I only have a few burn marks and a exotic twitch but could you walk me thru how to test it so I know exactly what I'm drawing mind you the motors are in a box not in the bilge yet probably easier I'm guessing so if you have the time I have the toys []
Monk, the easy way is: Measure the resistance of the positive lead wire* (from the throttle output to the positive terminal of the battery. Record this (hopefully very small) resistance. Now set the voltmeter to volts. With the ship in the water and the engines running ahead full, measure the voltage on that same wire (should be less than a volt, but a greater value than your resistance). Turn off the motors and get out your calculator. Divide the voltage over the resistance and you get the current draw of the motors at full throttle. *You are basically using the lead wire as a shunt to measure current flow. Tips: Don't drop the DMM in the water! This method can also be used for measuring pump running current. If the resistance is too tiny tiny, you can solder in a low resistance high wattage (typically called a "sandbar") resistor, in series with the drive motors, and use that as a shunt. It's more accurate to use the wires, but some DMMs don't measure low resistance accurately (i.e. the free promo ones). A good modern DMM should have no problems.
I was assuming he didn't want to solder/unsolder his leads. If you want to put an ammeter in the circuit, then go for it My way just had no disruption of the ship's systems and he didn't have to buy an ammeter (most DMMs will COOK if you ask them to handle heavy amps).
