I'm rewiring my 16' Cape Horn because it was a mess when I got it and my original cleanup of that awful job from the previous owner still isn't up to what I would like. Time to clean out all that automotive wire!
I just bought a Hella brand fused 6 switch panel that I want to run all of my accessories to. The wires that came on it are 14g and I've been trying to use 18g for most things, although this has been somewhat arbitrary but it seems fine to power what I'm running?
Here are my accessories and some ideas on their power draw:
Sony head pushing 2x 6.5inch Infinity speakers
500gph livewell pump
55 watt halogen flood light
LED flood light .5 amps
2x tiny LED deck lights
fish finder
vhf radio
gps
All of these are a mix of 18g and 16g right now, running off of a small marine deep cycle connected to the starter battery by a single switch BEP VSR.
So, am I ok to stick with ripping out everything for these accessories and putting in 18g or is this too small? Should I choose a larger 16g? I would like to use one size for simplicity's sake but that's another question, is there really that much of a difference in my resistance etc. for these kind of accessories that it would make a difference going up or down one gauge that would justify putting different sizes on different accessories?
Lastly I have a 16g wire connecting my starter battery at the back to the VSR and tiny deep cycle at the front, figuring that's about all I'm going to need to allow a charge to pass through and trickle into the small one when i'm running at charging RPMs. Thoughts on the charge gauge for the house (ha sort of) battery as well?
Thanks all
I just bought a Hella brand fused 6 switch panel that I want to run all of my accessories to. The wires that came on it are 14g and I've been trying to use 18g for most things, although this has been somewhat arbitrary but it seems fine to power what I'm running?
Here are my accessories and some ideas on their power draw:
Sony head pushing 2x 6.5inch Infinity speakers
500gph livewell pump
55 watt halogen flood light
LED flood light .5 amps
2x tiny LED deck lights
fish finder
vhf radio
gps
All of these are a mix of 18g and 16g right now, running off of a small marine deep cycle connected to the starter battery by a single switch BEP VSR.
So, am I ok to stick with ripping out everything for these accessories and putting in 18g or is this too small? Should I choose a larger 16g? I would like to use one size for simplicity's sake but that's another question, is there really that much of a difference in my resistance etc. for these kind of accessories that it would make a difference going up or down one gauge that would justify putting different sizes on different accessories?
Lastly I have a 16g wire connecting my starter battery at the back to the VSR and tiny deep cycle at the front, figuring that's about all I'm going to need to allow a charge to pass through and trickle into the small one when i'm running at charging RPMs. Thoughts on the charge gauge for the house (ha sort of) battery as well?
Thanks all
