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On Rob Frankham's site, he has directions for making a ground enhancing wiring loom. I want to do that, have read it and am ready, but don't know what a "30amp wire and a 15amp wire" is. I am aware of wires being marked with their guage, not amps. I'm sure it is a simple translation, and I'm hoping someone here can help.

Chuey

In general, 15 amp wire=14 gauge and 30 amp wire = 10 gauge. This varies A LOT with insulation types, conductor types and environmental conditions. The numbers I just threw out are for basic house wiring in conduit.

The roll in my tool box says in Oztralian - size 3mm(1.13mm2) 10 amp.

3mm appears to be the size including insulation, which suggests 30 amp would be 5/6 mm

Hope this helps.

Chuey - here is a chart of gauge to amps...
http://wiki.xtronics.com/index.php/Wire ... Ampacities

Chuey wrote:On Rob Frankham's site, he has directions for making a ground enhancing wiring loom. I want to do that, have read it and am ready, but don't know what a "30amp wire and a 15amp wire" is. I am aware of wires being marked with their guage, not amps. I'm sure it is a simple translation, and I'm hoping someone here can help.

Chuey

I think DaveBBR is right.

DaveBBR wrote:In general, 15 amp wire=14 gauge and 30 amp wire = 10 gauge.

But I have found very few melted wires over the years that were not caused by some sort of fault. I reciently rewired the factory pannel on my boat and found that EVERYTHING on the pannel (couple bildge pumps, lights, bait wells, GPS, marine radio, music radio, depth finder, fuel guage) all grounded through a six inch long skinny (lot less than 14 gauge) little wire that was intended to ground only the lights on the Yamaha guages. There was no sign of heat damage. I doubt if there is anything on my old Airheads except the starter that would melt 15amp wire or suffer from excessive voltage drop. Modern insolation is very heat resistant.

DaveBBR wrote:The numbers I just threw out are for basic house wiring in conduit.

In a house, the wireing gets buried in the wall and covered with thermal insolation so heat can't get out and then pulled through dry wooden studs. The ratings are extreemly conservative.

dougie wrote:Chuey - here is a chart of gauge to amps...
http://wiki.xtronics.com/index.php/Wire ... Ampacities

Good link, Dougie ! (bookmarked that one for future reference)

bbelk wrote:But I have found very few melted wires over the years that were not caused by some sort of fault. I reciently rewired the factory pannel on my boat and found that EVERYTHING on the pannel (couple bildge pumps, lights, bait wells, GPS, marine radio, music radio, depth finder, fuel guage) all grounded through a six inch long skinny (lot less than 14 gauge) little wire that was intended to ground only the lights on the Yamaha guages. There was no sign of heat damage. I doubt if there is anything on my old Airheads except the starter that would melt 15amp wire or suffer from excessive voltage drop. Modern insolation is very heat resistant.

BUT, the aim of Rob's design is not to avoid a fire, but to avoid voltage drop. That occurs WAY before fire or melted insulation.

bbelk wrote:In a house, the wiring gets buried in the wall and covered with thermal insolation so heat can't get out and then pulled through dry wooden studs. The ratings are extremely conservative.

Again, house wiring gauge requirements are rated not for fire resistance, but for voltage drop. Only a 2% voltage drop at maximum load is allowed by the NEC. If rated merely for fire resistance they might allow smaller wiring. Household wiring has to travel one hell of a lot further than your motorcycle wiring. Industrial uses often require the next gauge up simply because the runs are even longer.

Motorcycles can easily get away with at least one gauge smaller wire than the NEC standards for normal household wiring (12G = 20A, 14G = 15A, etc.) because the length of the runs are off the low end of the NEC chart for voltage drop. That said, there's only two reasons to use the smallest wire possible: cost and fit. The extremely short runs on a motorcycle also mean that cost is virtually a non-factor, so, if there's room, there's no reason not to err on the side of greater conductivity, and that seems to be the goal of Rob's design.

I stopped at a car stereo place on the way to work. They have some 4guage wire with thick insulation. They didn't know how much to sell it for. I went away empty handed. I'll try another place soon. Thanks for the answers.

Chuey

Chuey wrote:I stopped at a car stereo place on the way to work. They have some 4guage wire with thick insulation. They didn't know how much to sell it for. I went away empty handed. I'll try another place soon. Thanks for the answers.

Chuey

As you know, that was an epic retail fail on their part. Something that they give away as part of their installation rate, and some guy wants to PAY for some? Sold!--anywhere I've worked.

Yeah, I was thinking that I'd make up a price where I knew I wouldn't be losing money and then, after the sale had been made, I'd look it up and mark it so next time that wouldn't happen.

Chuey