6 ga. wire

[tav]

can you use your typical 6 ga. home depot wire for marine purpose ?

 

[Grandad]

There's a lot of talk about marine wire vs other wire, most often about using tinned wire for marine use. This is important where wire terminations are exposed to moisture regularly. It's the only wire to use for saltwater atmospheres. In reality, if you boat only in fresh water, tinning may be overkill and you can save a bit of money using un-tinned copper that's more commonly available. #6 AWG is commonly used for battery cables in boats with relatively small engine starting requirements as long as they are not overly long. It's typically rated for about 60 amps continuous load depending upon insulation type and whether grouped in a bundle with other wires, but can carry more for short periods such as starting engines. - Grandad

 

[fishrdan]

Will it work, yeah. But why purchase the Home Depot stuff when you can get real tinned marine grade wire within 2-3 days from genuinedealz.com for the same price. Marine wire/cable is far superior to Home Depot wire as it's finer stranded, tinned, has better insulation and is more flexible.

Tinned wire is best as it won't corrode like bare copper wire, but my 01 Crestliner was built with a lot of copper wire, with tinned wire used in a few places, so it's not like all freshwater boat manufacturers exclusively use tinned wire.... I've had to clean up some corrode copper wiring in my boat, and probably 90% of the wiring I've added has been tinned marine. If using copper wire, just be sure to seal the terminations well with liquid electrical tape and then heatshrink tubing, or just adhesive lined heatshrink tubing.

 

[tav]

i.m really in no hurry i was just weighing the odds from one to the other since H/D or LOWES is right
down the road. i did look at a few marine wire sites and some have good prices by the foot , they can even put the battery lugs on
professionally .

 

[Grandad]

i.m really in no hurry i was just weighing the odds from one to the other since H/D or LOWES is right
down the road. i did look at a few marine wire sites and some have good prices by the foot , they can even put the battery lugs on
professionally .

If the price is reasonable, I'd go for the tinned wire and professional crimps. Going cheap isn't always the best route. - Grandad

 

[JoLin]

There's more to marine wire than the tinning.

- Marine wire has more and thinner individual strands in the sheath than home wire or automotive wire of the same gauge. Wiring in a boat is subject to constant vibration/movement that the wiring in your home doesn't have to contend with. Thin wire strands cope better.

- The wire sheath is resistant to abrasion, water and chemicals. The sheathing on home wire is made to resist abrasion, but in a static environment- home wiring doesn't move around and rub against stuff once it's been pulled into place.

Given the high humidity, high vibration environment my boat wiring lives in, I wouldn't (and don't) use anything but marine-rated wire, connectors and terminals. Any connection below the waterline, or that comes into contact with water, also gets heat-shrinked.

My .02

 

[tav]

i went with the tin wire site and bought the right 6 ga marine wire. this is for a trolling motor and
the wire is way under the gunnal and pretty much hidden. this will be ready in a week. thanks for the tips.