What determines battery cable size?
Hey all, I'm looking into replacing the factory battery cables in the spring to hopefully get more efficient (as in shorter) generator charging time. My question is, what do I "need to do" vs. what...
Forum Discussion
John,
You have done a lot of good stuff and it sounds like you did it right.
If your new Boondocker is at the power center (25' away), I kind of hate to tell you that you are still in the weeds. With 50' of loss between the converter and the house bank, you will play hell recovering the bank. There is just no way around this. Even if you used silver plated buss bar, the loss would be still be too much.
Move the converter. Put it as close to the house bank as you can without having it exposed to the fumes that come off the bank when it is charging. The AC cable that runs this can be 14AWG (12 would be better) and it is much easier to deal with than 00 copper - even as welding cable.
The run to the distribution panel is nothing. That can just make the light dim when the water pump runs..
Before the depression, I did a great deal of work on people's boats. I had this same problem with my coach that I used then and you bet that I fixed it as soon as I figured it out. Now my converter is about 3' from the house bank.
Matt
You have done a lot of good stuff and it sounds like you did it right.
If your new Boondocker is at the power center (25' away), I kind of hate to tell you that you are still in the weeds. With 50' of loss between the converter and the house bank, you will play hell recovering the bank. There is just no way around this. Even if you used silver plated buss bar, the loss would be still be too much.
Move the converter. Put it as close to the house bank as you can without having it exposed to the fumes that come off the bank when it is charging. The AC cable that runs this can be 14AWG (12 would be better) and it is much easier to deal with than 00 copper - even as welding cable.
The run to the distribution panel is nothing. That can just make the light dim when the water pump runs..
Before the depression, I did a great deal of work on people's boats. I had this same problem with my coach that I used then and you bet that I fixed it as soon as I figured it out. Now my converter is about 3' from the house bank.
Matt
