Gummie

Does anyone have anything against using welder’s cable for power/ground? I’m thinking about picking up 20 feet of 0 gauge because the stuff is dirt cheap (about a dollar a foot). It's extremely flexible, etc. The only downside that I can see is that it's not as pretty as what most of you are running in your cars.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

As long as it's flexible it should be fine. The big drawback to welder's cable used to be that it was very stiff, but with the popularity of car audio, it wouldn't surprise me if the manufacturers are providing the same stuff to welders rather than make 2 different styles.

Gummie

The stuff is pretty flexible. I got the idea from playing around with my friend's mig welder - it has a 2 gauge grounding cable. I could bend it in a roughly 6" diameter circle without much effort, so it should be more than flexible enough for routing inside a car.

My main concern is how weatherproof (or not) the stuff is. After all, it will have a 6 foot run under the hood.

blyth18md

I was running 1/0 gauge welding cable for a good while, worked great .

ScrapMaker

Welders cabling is the ONLY way to go... you can get 20ft of 1/0 for like $20... people that buy "car audio cable" are friggin' chumps if you ask me.

it is slightly stiffer, but I've found that it works wonders for our cars, since there is a plastic conduit, of sorts, that runs down the driver's-side door well. There is enough room in there, even with all my power options, for my 1AWG wire to fit.

And remember, they are used for welding, which is one of the most extreme electrical usage scenarios out there! The insulation is nice and thick, and the wires are rated for up to 300v many times.

NEEDAZ

I can think of more extreme, and they also use 'welding cable'.

ScrapMaker

So it's all good, as long as you don't pay for some over-priced crap.

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

couldn't agree with ya more scrap maker. I bought 1AWG welders cable, on sale for like $.80/ft. Awesome stuff.
The wire is really fine too, kinda surprised me, so it's very bendable. Plus yea, since it's welding wire, the insulation is meant to be dragged around and stepped on a lot, so it's TOUGH.
Hide the wiring under carpet, and no one will ever know.

ScrapMaker

It's designed to be stepped on, run over, snagged, tugged on, flexible, and to survive hot metal contact.

So yeah, I think Welding leads work amazingly well... this should be a sticky.

Gummie

It would be my first ever

Seriously though, it is pretty sad that anyone would use something else when there is such a cheap alternative. Even if you're building a show car, odds are you're not going to have the main wire(s) that run from your battery(batteries) to your distrubition block(s) visible.

ScrapMaker

hell, just PAINT the wires close to your amp... Make them match your paintjob or something... that's even better

Gummie

You would need some super crazy flex agent to do that and have the paint not crack. Besides, flat black isn't that unattractive; it's not like it's coated with asphalt or something.

ScrapMaker

The paint on our bumper covers seems like it would work... you can bend the heck out of those and the paint stays put.

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

vinyl paint/dye.

ScrapMaker

Sharpie!

NEEDAZ

Gummie

Wait, it's already black

Unless they make a high gloss sharpie or something

ScrapMaker

they make different colored Sharpies... I guess they probably wouldn't work... damn...

guess maybe spraypaint with a nice flex agent.

or whiteout