solid copper for battery cables?

Rics68

I was thinking today and that can be dangerous sometimes. lol. I was thinking of converting my battery cables to solid 3/8s copper lines. I have a machine at work that can flatten the copper ends to make them look like a connector. Drill a 5/16 hole, bend the copper rods to make them fit real nice and insulate the rods. Is there any real advantage to a solid copper battery cable?

BGW

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speedgolfer

strands of wire will carry allot more voltage then solid remember its alternating current

scottginfla

No advantage, stranded wire has more surface area than solid.

shaffer88

Large cables can work but the electrons travel only on the surface area of wire so the more strands more surface the current it can handle. Plus when they are stiff cables the batteries do move if not held down. . And you would not want to break a post. . .

Rics68

Ok I can see your point. A welding cable would be better? I know a welding cable has many more thin strands than a car battery cable. I always thought DC stands for direct current and AC stands for alternating current. These carts are DC right?

scottginfla

almost all of them are DC

lance_214

Yes golf carts are DC current, unless someone did the AC conversion, or its gas of course..you're correct on the AC/DC acronym.

greg-g

it is DC at the batterys whether it's in AC system or not. Dc travels through the wire unlike AC which travels on the outside of the wire. this is done all the time large battery banks its called the bus bar.

doodles bug

I’ve been hanging around lurking in the shadows since some insulting posts to a particular thread appeared. I haven’t posted since but, now that this has come up a second time in another thread within a few days. I feel compelled to comment about some misinformation posted here.

Electricity does NOT travel on the surface of a conductor, it travels through the conductor. Seems some people are very confused about a phenomena called “skin effect”, you can read about it here. Seems 35-40 years ago, in my college days, we also referred to it as shell thickness. The skin effect is characteristic of AC, caused by magnetic fields, and only need to be considered for high frequency applications or really huge conductors.

Solid or stranded makes little difference unless the strands are insulated from one another (see Litz wire).

Wire (conductor) is NOT rated by voltage. That 600V you may see printed on the insulation is an insulation rating.

Conductors have several different current ratings. The NEC tables give 3 different ratings, grouping different insulations into one of the three groups. These ratings are for enclosed insulated conductors. There is another “free air” current rating and another rating for uninsulated wire such as might be used as a jumper on a circuit board.

scottginfla

Is bus bar copper diferent from other solid type ?