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Sizing Wiring For Electronic Devices

The following is a Wire Sizing Chart to follow when wiring your vehicle. Contributed

By: Enginebasics.com

To many times I have heard or read horror stories of cars catching on fire, because to small a gauge of wire was used to wire in a set of custom gauges, or lights, or a set of speakers. For the reason of saving weight, or saving money, many of us have made the careless mistake of running wire before checking the amp rating of that wire. While most vehicles run a 12 volt system, and some older cars run a 6 volt system, what we are interested in is the current that will be running in that wire.

Current is measured in the unit of Amps (A). If you were to open your fuse box you would see the numbers that are written on the different fuses. This number is the amp/current rating of that fuse. The worst mistake you can make is to run a wire rated for 7 amps, and then put a 10 amp fuse on that wire. The fuse will never blow if the wire pulls to many amps, and instead the current in the wire will cause heat. This heat will eventually get hot enough to melt the insulation around the wire, and the next thing you know, you have a fire on your hands.

So two things to check:

1. Run a wire that has a high enough amp rating for whatever it is that you are installing.

2. Put a safety fuse on the power supply to that item. When deciding on a fuse, make sure that you choose a fuse with a amp rating lower than the amp rating of the wire you used, but great enough to flow the amount of amps needed to run the item you just installed. Amp Rating Chart:( click for larger image)

Wiring can be found online for great pricing in all needed sizes: