Battery cable size

[timmyjane]

Found a guy on eBay selling 2g welding cable for $1.35/ft with free ship. It is yellow but so is my cart. Bought cable, ends and a crimper for about half to 3/4 of the cost of a "full set" which doesnt include the 4 from the FR switch to the motor on my series cart.

[Helirich]

Yellow welding cable? I also didn't realize they made welding cable that small. (Unless you mean 2 ott.)

In any case, I've heard that welding cable has more fine strands of wire than the same size battery cable. The fine strands are more flexible and will carry more current. The reason they don't use it for battery cable is the flex is not needed and the fine wires are more susceptible to corrision from battery acid.

Other than that, they will be fine to use. As far as cost, it's usually cheaper to buy the matieral, tools and do it your self. That is not to say the kits are overpriced. A company is in business to make money.

[Volt_Ampere]

You can certainly save $$ by making cables yourself. Any business is doing this to make a profit - and they have to account for labor costs. Your and my labor is free. I am not surprised that you can get the parts and crimping tool for less than it costs to buy a complete set from a vendor. Then you have the crimper for future use too. That being said, I bought my cable set from Scottyb and it worked out perfectly. I needed custom lengths because I don't have stock batteries in my cart. I figured out the lengths and emailed the details to Scotty and a nicely made set showed up in a few days.

[Clemsoncartguy]

Originally Posted by Helirich

Yellow welding cable? I also didn't realize they made welding cable that small. (Unless you mean 2 ott.)

In any case, I've heard that welding cable has more fine strands of wire than the same size battery cable. The fine strands are more flexible and will carry more current. The reason they don't use it for battery cable is the flex is not needed and the fine wires are more susceptible to corrision from battery acid.

Other than that, they will be fine to use. As far as cost, it's usually cheaper to buy the matieral, tools and do it your self. That is not to say the kits are overpriced. A company is in business to make money.

Scottyb uses welding cable according to his site

[Volt_Ampere]

Welding cable is perfect for this application. Very flexible.

[timmyjane]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/191668069327...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Yellow Welding Cable

[Clemsoncartguy]

I know no one would do it but he would loose money if someone just ordered a foot of it...even just 2 feet!

[Luke Duke]

There are several hydraulic crimpers on Amazon for less than $50.

[Helirich]

Originally Posted by Volt_Ampere

Welding cable is perfect for this application. Very flexible.

Why would you need flex on a cart? None of the cables has to move except the motor cables. Those are so long that flex is not an issue.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by Helirich

Why would you need flex on a cart? None of the cables has to move except the motor cables. Those are so long that flex is not an issue.

The cables between the batteries need to be flexible. The cart frame and battery frame flex while the cart is moving so the batteries try to move a round some and stiff interconnecting cables will apply considerable lateral force to the battery terminals, having an effect akin to over-torquing the nuts on the battery studs.

Due to the cart frame flexing, the relative positions of the battery pack, solenoid, controller and F/r switch (on series carts) move around some while cart is in motion, especially on rough terrain.

The rear springs snake quite a bit during hard acceleration and hard deceleration, so the axle rotates several degrees and the motor moves closer to the front or back of the cart. With a motor that produces a lot of torque like mine does and with the amount of regen braking I use, my motor moves several inches to and fro.

The heavier (stiffer) the cable used, the more slack needed to provide the springlike qualities needed in all high current cables in the cart.