Cable guage

[Helirich]

Originally Posted by Volt_Ampere

If you are going to upgrade, go to 2g!

Cable and ends are on order. Next question, how important is silversolder? I have cable crimper and plan to make my own. I also have silver solder I use for refrigerant work. So I could solder them, but in the past I made cables with the crimper and called it good.

[rottie]

The silver solder would probably be the best for soldering connection after a good hydraulic crimp.


But for over kill, there is nothing like buss bar, ...... but that is quite inflexible.

As for flexible cable, I found some 4/0 copper cable for the marine industry that was very flexible (>1000 count, fine wire), I think it was labeled welding wire. Actually more flexible than 14 awg solid for wiring in you house. I was quite surprised at how flexible it was.

[JohnnieB]

Attached are both pages of a White Paper on battery cables that Trojan published in 2012. (I also attached in in the original PDF format.)

There are IR images on Pg-2 that show the difference between a crimped cable end and crimp+solder. Please note the temper scales are different on the two images. The crimp only connection is about 236°F while the crimp+solder connection is about 167°F, or about 70°F cooler.

Silver solder is a better electrical conductor the Lead-Tin solder, so it might run even cooler. However, be sure to use a non-acid flux.

The Ampacity vs Wire Gauge chart on Pg-1 is a bit misleading. Continuous amps are listed and with golf carts we are dealing with peak amps for short periods of time. Unless you are towing/hauling a heavy load at slow speed up a steep hill, your motor will probably be drawing from about 50A to around 75A and even with tall tires and a high-torque motor, it will be less than 100A most of the time. The yardstick I use is how much the cables warm up during hard usage. I suggest using a cable gauge that doesn't warm more than 10°F above the ambient air temperature as a minimum.

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A thick, solid copper bus is good for Li batteries that are rigidly mounted to each other and don't move, the batteries in a typical Lead-Acid battery pack move around a bit since they are heavy and the hold downs as well as the battery box and cart frame flex a bit, so the cables connecting them together needs to be springy and have some slack, or the battery terminals can be damaged.

[Helirich]

I drove the cart yesterday with the mix of 4 and 6 Guage cables. It wasn't really hard run, but it was long with a few hills. (At least what we call hills in FL) I stopped a couple times to feel the cables. They weren't hot. But the fan came on on the controller. The only issue with the silver solder is you have to get the terminal/cable really hot. Kind of afraid to ruin the looks of my new cables/ends.

[rottie]

JonnieB:
I love the IR article, that makes everything easily explained w/o lots of wording.

The cable covering should be cut back 1/4"-1/2" from the connector when installed and hydraulic crimped.
To solder these connections, you heat the connector, then add the solder. I would use a rosin flux, never acid flux. Let it cool, air naturally, not force cooled with water.

Then after it has cooled, then I would add heat shrink to cover the connector and at least 1/2" of the cable cover. I found a heat shrink with what seems like hot glue to nicely seal everything. The connectors I use are closed type (wire end is not visible) copper connector.
The real trick is not to add too much solder as it wicks up the cable and makes it real stiff.

[Volt_Ampere]

The only down side to soldering the ends is that it makes the wires brittle right where the solder ends. You want to solder the connection but not the wires above the connection. Crimping only makes a partial connection - which is why it runs much hotter.

[Cgainer]

Don't want to thread jack but what about using car audio wire? I have a good bit of 0ga wire that has a thread count of 5100. Is this type of wire frowned upon in carts being their meant for a 12v application?

[Volt_Ampere]

Wire is wire. I am sure it would work fine.

[Helirich]

I just wanted add for anyone that searches and finds this thread, alltrax recommends 2 Guage for standard duty and 1/0 for heavy duty. Of course they don't define what heavy duty is. I guess if you burn up the 2 Guage, yours is heavy duty. LOL

To late to change mine. All my cables and terminals are at home waiting for me. Ha-ha. Can't wait to get home. (Two weeks)

[270Handiman]

The Alltrax drawing I downloaded for my new controller has recommended wire sizes for all the different amp controllers listed right there on the page. Below is mine, your's may be different.

http://www.alltraxinc.com/files/DOC1...T-WIRE-DIA.pdf