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Wire size ignorance

psycho

psycho

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Aug 25, 2006
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I went to look at a Davemade 400 4 pill that was listed on craigslist.
Some idiot removed the 10 gauge stock power hookup wire and replaced it with 2 gauge.
For an 18" run didn't this guy know that there will be NO voltage drop????? Did he ever look at the tiny Teflon wire that comes off the power strip to the output transformers??????? Did he ever look at the 100 amp FRN fuse and how small the current carrying link was????
The inside of the amp looked horrible with this "upgrade" wire.
Why in the world do people think this will accomplish anything?
2 gauge wire to the battery is what I run but replacing the #10 or #8 hookup wires to #2 is just completely unnecessary.
Needless to say I passed on the amp for $250. None of the pills had the same batch numbers so this 3 year old amp has been beaten to death. If pictures were posted on the ad I would never have wasted that 1 hour of my life.
The last new Davemade 5 pill I owned came with #10 hookup wires and it worked great....for the record.
 

I'm pretty sure he said the original wire size was adequate and some moron installed some mondo power cables. Nothing was said about the builder using small cheap wire. Most of the "lets upgrade it with bigger parts" guys with YouTube videos don't have a clue.
 
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I agreed with what he said. What I was discussing was that some amp makers use under sized wire for the power feed to save cost. The use of 2 ga. wire is nuts for a short 18" run.
I won't mention the particular makers are but they are from foriegn countries.
 
543_Dallas said:
I'm pretty sure he said the original wire size was adequate and some moron installed some mondo power cables. Nothing was said about the builder using small cheap wire. Most of the "lets upgrade it with bigger parts" guys with YouTube videos don't have a clue.
Click to expand...


You should have seen the black marks where strands of the #2 were shorting to the board due to poor soldering!
 
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Good soldering is rare in the CB/HAM community. I recently sat back and watched a guy melt the center pin out of a so239 on an antenna. I offered to do it with the micro torch I use for pl259s but he insisted I would ruin it. After dragging an extension cord up the roof, bending the tip on the soldering gun and ruining the connector he finally got it to stick once he installed a new connector and spent another 15 minutes. Good times.
 
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.i once had a guy come by my house complaining that a radio i sold him wasnt working,, he said he could only get people to hear him about a mile away,,, i knowed it couldnt be the magnet mount firestick i sold with the radio so i got him to come by and i would look at it,,,, short story he had wired the radio up with what i call dynamite wire ...just a single strand small wire some call it hookup wire,,,ran it from inside his cab to the battery,,, radio was coming on but dimming when keyed and was only putting out 1/2 watt,,,, i draged out some of my wire that i save from installations and replaced that mess,,, radio then was doing wattage it was supposed to do and i even talked with him while he was going home for about 5 miles,,, he was happy about with it then,,,,, strange thing here is this boy works as a electrican in a manufacturing plant...... 73s midnight special
 
I've had similar problems with more than one "sparky" the attitude tends to be it's only low voltage dc it doesn't matter.!!!!Had one guy come into the work shop convinced the radio was faulty and argued the point with me when I told him the wire gauge in his install was to small to handle the current.His argument was he was a electrician and he deals with 240 volts all day and he knew what he was doing. In the end I offered to repair it for free if I was wrong.I wasn't. Many of the amps I see have wire sizes that small that the voltage drop inside the amp upsets the regulation
 
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Lol, I remember 1 guy, he was using like 6 gauge for hot on a 2x4. Lol. Anyways for ground he used a piece of solder wic like you get from radio shack for ground. Yup it happens. Lol.
 

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