Re: Good Place to Purchase Automotive Wiring Accessories
 

I use the rockford 4 guage ground wires for my big three. (and I add a few extra in also, at LEAST the fuel rail) I, and everyone I know, has done this since 1998. Obviously with gold plated, or titanium ring terminals as well.

The power wire is usually aluminium, and the grounds copper. 4 Guage is like tripple the size and twice the sheilding as the oem grounds.

Re: Good Place to Purchase Automotive Wiring Accessories
 

I'm going to call complete BS on the aluminum power wire. I'll need some concrete proof on that. Aluminum is lower ductility, higher resistance, and would have no place in an automotive environment because of power loss and cyclic fatigue problems. Plus, any type of aluminum wiring that was small enough in strand size to be flexible would have severe corrosion problems and turn into powder in any kind of corrosive or salt environment. Aluminum is over 50% HIGHER resistance than copper, which is a HUGE step in the wrong direction for electrical performance, especially in low voltage DC systems like a car.

The reason that copper wire is tin plated (which is what makes it silver) is for corrosion resistance. The purer the copper, the faster it will corrode. So both reasons for tin plating are based on corrosion: to keep it pretty and to keep electrical performance from degrading.


Hold up, what are you saying about shielding your power and ground cables? Are you talking about the wire insulation or about actually (electrically) shielding the cable?

Edit: I just looked at Rockford's site.. All of their power wiring is OFC (oxygen free copper). No aluminum in sight, but again, why would there be?

As a side note, it's funny that everyone says their wire is OFC, because that's what you have to do to draw copper into a wire that won't be brittle. Basically, pretty much all copper wire is OFC. Again, marketing!

Re: Good Place to Purchase Automotive Wiring Accessories
 

There is nothing wrong with using audio cable, copper is copper and any wire of the right size and enough flexibility will work fine. Like I said before, the big difference between audio cable and automotive battery cable is the quality and durability of the insulation. If you're using it for power or ground away from high heat or corrosive fluids, it will work fine. Electrically, there won't be a single bit of difference. Audio wire is sometimes a little higher purity copper, which is completely unnecessary (and mostly a marketing ploy) but works perfectly fine. There is a lot in the audio world that is designed to make people spend more money for no reason. Back in the day when I was doing pro level SPL competition work (on my friend's car), we used welding cable because it was much cheaper and higher quality than car audio-marketed cable.