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Old 13-02-2021, 09:53   #1
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Butt Splice ????

Hi Friends,
What is the best way to splice wires of different gauges together?
16 to 14
18 to 14
Are heat shrink solder the best way to go?
Aviation type?
As noted in a previous thread
We have replaced the panel and brought everything out to
fused terminal strips and negative and ground bus bars.
The existing wiring at the panel is a total mess left by the former owner.
On the positive side there are many many splices at the back of the panel.
It seems they used whatever bits of wire where laying about.
Red, Black, Green, White, Beige, are all connected to the positive side
of the breakers. Total Sh-t Show.
The plan is to cut back all wires and splice in new
Ancor 12 gauge Yellow, and bring the new Yellow wire up to the terminal
block. Care will be taken to note the smallest sized wire in any circuit
so fusing will be appropriate.
If problems are discovered with individual circuits we will rewire them
in total,
Cheers
Neil
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Old 13-02-2021, 10:00   #2
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Re: Butt Splice ????

Ancor has step down butt connectors.

https://www.ancorproducts.com/en/pro...tors/step-down

West Marine should have them in stock.
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Old 13-02-2021, 10:03   #3
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Re: Butt Splice ????

OOPS
Yellow will be for Negative
Red for Positive
Larry thanks for the info, did not know they existed
Neil
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Old 13-02-2021, 10:11   #4
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Re: Butt Splice ????

Blue butt splices are sized for #16 to #14 AWG.
Red butt splices are sized for #22 to #18 AWG.
Blue & Red Step Down Butt Connectors are sized 16-14 (Bl) to 22-18 (R) AWG.



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Old 13-02-2021, 10:28   #5
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Re: Butt Splice ????

Quote:
Originally Posted by GordMay View Post
Blue butt splices are sized for #16 to #14 AWG.
Red butt splices are sized for #22 to #18 AWG.
Blue & Red Step Down Butt Connectors are sized 16-14 (Bl) to 22-18 (R) AWG.



Then, am I correct in thinking that if I use Blue butt splices
I can simply use one side for 16 and the other for 14?
Neil
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Old 13-02-2021, 10:31   #6
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Re: Butt Splice ????

Quote:
Originally Posted by Time2Go View Post
Then, am I correct in thinking that if I use Blue butt splices
I can simply use one side for 16 and the other for 14?
Neil
Yes, you can.
And, use the blue-red step down for connecting #14 to #18.
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Old 13-02-2021, 10:44   #7
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Re: Butt Splice ????

Quote:
Originally Posted by Time2Go View Post
What is the best way to splice wires of different gauges together?
...
The existing wiring at the panel is a total mess left by the former owner.
On the positive side there are many many splices at the back of the panel.
It seems they used whatever bits of wire where laying about.
Red, Black, Green, White, Beige, are all connected to the positive side
of the breakers. Total Sh-t Show.
The plan is to cut back all wires and splice in new
Ancor 12 gauge, and bring the new wire up to the terminal
block. Care will be taken to note the smallest sized wire in any circuit
so fusing will be appropriate.
If problems are discovered with individual circuits we will rewire them
in total.
I'm not a fan of having a ton of inline splices behind a panel. I'm more in favour of putting in terminal strips or small buss bars on the bulkhead behind the panel, running most boat wiring to the strips (with proper crimped-on ring connectors) then jumpers from the terminal strips to the DC panel.

I would definitely use a large enough buss bar for all the negative lines.

With this method, you can join up to 4 wires of any gauge per terminal set. It's neater and more mechanically secure than a mess of inline splices, and is easier to troubleshoot or to rewire later.

Others have recently mentioned the use of multi-position spring terminals like these. They can accomodate a range of wire sizes, and are easy to rewire or add to.


I haven't yet tried them but they're interesting.
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Old 13-02-2021, 10:48   #8
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Re: Butt Splice ????

I have used those step-down crimps to put new LED light fixtures in the old RV.
https://www.waytekwire.com/ is a good source for stuff, wire is about 1/3 of retail when ordered as a full spool, which made sense for my whole boat and mast rewire. I got the step-downs from them too.
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Old 14-02-2021, 13:13   #9
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Re: Butt Splice ????

you can also just fold the smaller wire in half if you don't have step down connectors.
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Old 14-02-2021, 13:23   #10
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Re: Butt Splice ????

Quote:
Originally Posted by smac999 View Post
you can also just fold the smaller wire in half if you don't have step down connectors.

^+1

Here is a rule if thumb for wire gages. Any time you change 3 gage numbers you double or halve the circular AREA and the resistance per unit of length.

10AWG is 2x 13AWG area
16AWG is 1/2 13AWG area

10AWG is 1/2 13AWG resistance/100’
16AWG is 2x 13AWG resistance/100’

When you double over a 14AWG wire it will have the same circular area as a 11AWG wire and will then crimp properly in a 10-12AWG crimp.

Personally I use non-heat shrink crimps but seal them with liquid electrical tape.

I had a royal wiring mess. And my panel was running out of breakers. I used a couple of 6 circuit ATO fuse distribution panels. So, for example, I have a main run across the boat from the main panel (stb) to the galley (port) where I mounted an 6 circuit ATO fuse holder. Then the circuits branch off from there.

This left me with a “spare” 12AWG run, which I extended to my reefer, doubling the existing 12AWG wire feed and halving the in line voltage drop.
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Old 14-02-2021, 13:28   #11
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Re: Butt Splice ????

Two other options, in red:



When I was shopping online for the new boat stereo head-end unit, I stumbled over the Posi-Product 16 piece wiring connector kit. It consists of two clear plastic tubes with male and female threads for each wire. You twist the two wires together, slide the male piece over them and simply screw the female onto it. It saved me having to make up 11 butt wire splices with the small wires on the stereo harness. I removed the harness from the back of the radio, removed the insulation, and made the splices with the Posi-Product pieces. I was able to do all of the splices while comfortably seated at the saloon table because the old stereo wiring harness came with two additional plastic disconnects for the power/ground/memory and the eight speaker wires downstream of the basic back-of-unit harness plug. Like the BT-139 Gell Filled telephone wire connectors I used for our fridge module replacement in August 2016, both of these little connector tools are true “must haves” for your electrical tool kit for splicing small wires easily.
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Old 14-02-2021, 15:31   #12
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Re: Butt Splice ????

Those telephone connectors are made for solid wire, not stranded.

My (decades old) experience is they were subject to vibration failure.

There were some others we used that were similar (3M) which seemed to do better.
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Old 14-02-2021, 15:46   #13
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Re: Butt Splice ????

I hate butt connectors, especially with different size wires. Where ever possible I use a terminal block with ring terminals on the wires. If I need to connect several wires to one wire I add terminal jumpers.

A screw launcher type screw driver makes it very easy to start or remove the screws in the terminal block. Klein and Vaco make them.
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