2/0 welding cable?

[waell]

Putting the battery in the trunk. I want to use welding cable because it's more flexable. The only place that sells by the foot around here only has 2/0 gague. Anyone use this big of a cable? I think it's like .64" in diameter.

 

[chevyII]

I used 2/0 welding cable to move my batteries in my boat to the front. The first time I used jumper cables and it wouldnt even crank a 50hp outboard. AT that point I headed to farm and fleet to get bigger cable. Getting cable ends that big wasnt easy,and its not very flexible but the sheath was made from a hard plastic and was very thick

 

[PhilM]

I used 1/0 monster cable but a buddy of mine did the same thing with his 69 camaro and it works fine - just make sure terminations are good and you avoid any sharp metal corners - use grommets. You can prolly find big terminations at Audio providers ( well good ones anyway) Ive seen wire this big in those nutso SPL shows.

 

[S10xGN]

When I bought my light-weight battery (long gone now) from PTE, Joe Lubrant talked me into using #4 battery cable. It looks about 1/4" diameter or less, but I have a 15 foot run to the rear corner of the bed, and have never had a problem with it. It's MUCH lighter in weight than welding cable!

 

[PhilM]

Do the math and see if your starter will turn. There are many wire length/amperage/gauge charts online to figure out Vdrop. I would say a drop to 10VDC when starter is on is acceptable. Lower than that, you may see problems.

 

[n20junkie]

welding wire is much better in my mind for battery relocation than what comes with the kits, the individual wires are much smaller making a super flexible cable, the insuation is silicone not plastic to it can take alot of heat, if you solder the ends on you will need alot of solder to penetrate the wire, i recomend measureing and having the ends crimped on, crimping is better than soldering for high vibration areas like an engine, it doesn't concentrate the stress at the end of the connection or make the wire inflexible like solder does when it permiates up the wire, in case you wanted to know
grant

 

[waell]

thanks for the imput Grant. I went ahead and got the 2/0 welding cable cut to length and had solid copper ends crimped on like you said. I was worried I should of went with the solder, but I'm glad to hear your opinion.

I also thought it would be a good idea to use that plasti-coat stuff to seal up the connections. The same stuff used for dipping tool handles in. What do you think?

 

[n20junkie]

you can go to napa and ger battery cable sized shrink wrap, even tightly wrapped good 3m electrical tape is good, the handle dip thends to melt at much lower tempratures, i personally cover the last 3 feet of my cables near the engine with silicone emission hose ment to clamp directly to the converter, it can handle very extreme tempratures and it just laughs back at it.
grant

 

[Scott231]

Turbo Buick motors do not have high compression...and thus, you do not need the MONSTER gauge you see on the Chebby race cars in magazines. Our motors are realtively easy to turn over.