Brake Wire
Thinking about running new wire for my Trailer Brakes , just not sure what size wire I should use.? The wire the manufacturer used is very thin.
Forum Discussion
Sjm9911 wrote:
I will be the on the oposote side. Etrailor recomended 10/2 wire. Way to big and cumbersome to attache to the way smaller wires in the electric brakes. If i had to do it over 16 guage would be enough. I think my original stuff was that big or smaller.
That would be OK if you don't mind having as much as 30% less breaking capacity available.
The smaller size of wire, the higher the resistance, that resistance eats up valuable voltage, less voltage equals less current running through the magnets, less current running though the magnets equals less strength of the magnets which means the brake shoes have less gripping power on the drum..
Moving to 10 ga wire from factory 14 ga wire can gain about 20% more braking power available.
As far as dealing with thicker wire, yeah, can be a pain, but once again, there are ways around that issue. You can use what is called extra flex wire, it uses very fine strands of wire which makes for a much easier to flex wire.
Myself, I used two pairs of 10 ga wire from front of trailer to the axles.. More brakes than I need and do not have to set my controller above 5.5 out of 10 on the output.
