Re-Wiring the brakes.
My 35' ~10,000 lb GVWR trailer brakes were wired with 14 gauge wire and very poor crimps. All the crimps on that I've seen so far are pretty bad... I'm going to redo it with a quality crimp tool ...
Forum Discussion
Here's a nice voltage drop calculator:
http://www.bulkwire.com/wireresistance.asp
Assumptions:
12.8 Volts at battery
4 Ohm per magnet
25 foot cable run
1 10G case:
If the 4 magnet are at the end of 1 10G wire run the the wire "sees" a 1 ohm resistance.
Wire Resistance: .04054.
Voltage at magnets : 12.3 Volts
4 16 G case:
In this case, since there are 4 wire runs, we use 4 ohms as the resistance at the end of the wire.
Wire Resistance: 0.10211
Voltage at magnet: 12.48
So, it appears that home running 16G wire would produce a somewhat better result than running 10G and then a star configuration from there.
I've simplified things and ignored the star at the end of the 10G wire. I'm hoping that simplification isn't skewing things too much...
[ EDIT ]
I redid the math and assumed a 20' run of 10G and then 4 5' runs of 10G. I got 12.52 volts to each magnet that way. So it still seems that, in theory, I would get the same results as as 10G wire.
I also looked for a 2nd way to check my math. The cross sectional area of the 10G wire is 5.26 mm and 16G is 1.31 mm. Well 5.26 / 4 = 1.315, so it appears that 4 16 gauge wires is electrically the same as one 10 gauge.
[ / EDIT ]
http://www.bulkwire.com/wireresistance.asp
Assumptions:
12.8 Volts at battery
4 Ohm per magnet
25 foot cable run
1 10G case:
If the 4 magnet are at the end of 1 10G wire run the the wire "sees" a 1 ohm resistance.
Wire Resistance: .04054.
Voltage at magnets : 12.3 Volts
4 16 G case:
In this case, since there are 4 wire runs, we use 4 ohms as the resistance at the end of the wire.
Wire Resistance: 0.10211
Voltage at magnet: 12.48
So, it appears that home running 16G wire would produce a somewhat better result than running 10G and then a star configuration from there.
I've simplified things and ignored the star at the end of the 10G wire. I'm hoping that simplification isn't skewing things too much...
[ EDIT ]
I redid the math and assumed a 20' run of 10G and then 4 5' runs of 10G. I got 12.52 volts to each magnet that way. So it still seems that, in theory, I would get the same results as as 10G wire.
I also looked for a 2nd way to check my math. The cross sectional area of the 10G wire is 5.26 mm and 16G is 1.31 mm. Well 5.26 / 4 = 1.315, so it appears that 4 16 gauge wires is electrically the same as one 10 gauge.
[ / EDIT ]
