RXV Battery Wire Size Question

[jneubig]

I've always used a heavier 2 ga. wires when putting DC carts together. Does the AC drive system of the RXV get any benefit from larger than stock wires?

[Volt_Ampere]

Sure. No difference.

[JohnnieB]

I'm not all that familiar with RXV carts, but the attached spec sheet for the 2015 model year indicates they have a 230A controller, so the max current draw from the battery pack will be about 230A.

From what I can tell, the motor is connected to the controller via a cable assembly rather than individual cables, so changing the wire gauge between controller and motor may be difficult.

On the other hand, individual cables are used to connect the batteries in series and connecting the resulting 48V battery pack to the controller, so changing their AWG size would be relatively simple.

I'm not sure what gauge the stock battery pack cables are, or the combined length of those cables, but installing thicker ones would reduce the power losses in the Amp delivery system.

With 100A of current flow:
6Ga cables loss 4.0W per foot of cable.
4Ga cables loss 2.5W per foot of cable.
2Ga cables loss 1.6W per foot of cable.

Power loss is the square of the amps times the resistance (W=I²R), so if the total cable length was 15' and the controller was maxed out at 230A:
6Ga cables will lose 314W.
4Ga cables will lose 197W.
2Ga cables will lose 124W.

Hope this helps.

[BobBoyce]

Originally Posted by jneubig

I've always used a heavier 2 ga. wires when putting DC carts together. Does the AC drive system of the RXV get any benefit from larger than stock wires?

The RXV absolutely benefits from 2 guage wires. In fact, once you switch to 2 guage wires, the performance differences between the stock 235 Amp Curtis controller and the upgrade 350 Amp controller are reduced. I monitored current draw from the batteries and despite the higher current capacity of the upgrade controller, current draw did not even exceed the factory controller capabilities until the wiring is upgraded to 2 guage and additional programming is done to increase the accelleration rate. The 4 guage cables that come with the upgrade controller are not even capable of passing the 350 Amps that the controller is capable of, without excessive loss. Voltage drop in the battery wires limits performance. The additional cost of going to 2 guage wire is well worth it.

I chose to go back to my stock controller because it is more than capable of really good performance by just upgrading the wires. The accelleration rates are easy to change in the profile settings of the profile you are using.

Bob

[jneubig]

Thanks a bunch for the info guys. I'll look into getting some made up and installed.

[Ezgomaui]

Where can I buy a set of 2 gauge battery cables for my rxv?

[OttyFields]

Originally Posted by Ezgomaui

Where can I buy a set of 2 gauge battery cables for my rxv?

I got mine off Ebay.....

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[Ezgomaui]

Thank you! Just ordered a set!

[wingnut2000]

are you replacing just the cables from battery to battery? or solenoid to battery as well?

I am wanting to get 2 ga for my RXV just got to find a set that will work for the 8v battery conversion set up

[Ezgomaui]

Solenoid to battery as well. The ones i got are for 4 12v battery setup.