Thread: wiring question

There are a couple of considerations; physically making a connection, and protection.

Presumably your 8 gauge wire has a fuse or ckt breaker on the source end sized to blow or trip before that 8ga wire would be carrying so much current it gets hot, melts the insulation and causes a fire or sundry other problems. If you go to 18ga wire that can't carry the same current before it would get hot and cause similar problems, you want the appropriate fuse or ckt breaker at the transition (i.e. between the 8ga and 18ga wire) to limit the current in the 18ga wire to a safe value.

There are lots of options for physically doing it, from individual fuses to distribution blocks with fuses and breakers in them.

where can i find an inline fuse holder that goes can hold a 14 gauge wire? ive been finding lots but all of them are for amp installs and so are around 4-10 gauge.

thanks for the response by the way

where can i find an inline fuse holder that goes can hold a 14 gauge wire? ive been finding lots but all of them are for amp installs and so are around 4-10 gauge.

I think I know what type of holders you're talking about. You will probably find a smaller one that will work in your local auto parts store. Places like Home Depot or Lowes or even your local hardware store probably have them too. Some have wire pigtails so you'll need to splice your 18ga wire to one of them, but as long as the wire on the holder is 18ga or larger (lower #), you'll be fine. Just get the right size fuse.

You can take a look here http://waytekwire.com/ to get an idea of some of the choices you have and what you may need to search for. (Select "Products" and then Fuse Products under "Select Category".) You shouldn't need to go there for a single fuse and holder, but the site just came to mind as a place to give you some idea of the options.

I should have asked before. How much wire between your power supply and the 8ga wire? I might change my advise slightly if the supply has a fuse and you've got a short wire (few inches) and you can protect that wire really well (multiple "layers" of protection) from possible short circuits.

I'm saying that because if you add a fuse with a pigtail that has 6" of smaller wire ahead of the fuse and you've only got 8" of wire to start with, you may not have gained a whole lot. You'll still want that pigtail protected well.

something like this? http://order.waytekwire.com/CGI-BIN/...2D2012+M37+ENG

Originally Posted by Alanh

I should have asked before. How much wire between your power supply and the 8ga wire? I might change my advise slightly if the supply has a fuse and you've got a short wire (few inches) and you can protect that wire really well (multiple "layers" of protection) from possible short circuits.

I'm saying that because if you add a fuse with a pigtail that has 6" of smaller wire ahead of the fuse and you've only got 8" of wire to start with, you may not have gained a whole lot. You'll still want that pigtail protected well.

the psu has about 8". The computer will be triple fused including this one. A fuse at the battery, a fuse at the dist. block and this pigtail fuse.

bump

I couldn't get the Waytek link to work.

There are a number of different types of single fuse holders with wire pigtails. I'd probably go with one that uses the same type of fuses you have in your car just to be consistent. I also personally like the blade types better than the glass fuses, but I don't know of a real problem either way. The blade fuses have ratings a bit easier to read and don't have the exposed fuse terminals like the glass ones do which is an advantage.

They have some fuse blocks with 4 or more fuse positions that would be handy if you ever add something to the same circuit. Those work well because you can just put a crimp terminal on the end of your existing wires and connect directly to the block which makes the transition from larger to smaller a bit neater than having to splice wires together.

You've got battery - fuse - wire - distribution block - fuse - 8ga wire - possibly another fuse - 18 ga wire. Just curious what else is on the 8ga wire besides the power supply you're connecting now? If nothing else is, you could just size the fuse at your distribution block for the current the computer needs and be done with it. Of course, if you've got other things hooked to it then I just wasted your time.

Like I said in the earlier e-mail, if you've got really good protection on your short 18ga wire, you might get away without another fuse, but to do that you'd want to make darn sure you're not going to accidentally cause a short circuit.