Quote:
Originally Posted by Goudurix
Hi ,
I'm about to install a QUICK 1500 W electrical windlass on a 37 ft Jeanneau.
The specs state 150A current draw but advise to install a 100 Amp magnetic jumper.
I have a 330 Ah gel battery park, and need 9,2 metres of cable run from battery switch and battery monitor shunt (one way so 18,4 m total both ways).
The supplier says for that length I will need minimum 50 mm2 cable (1/0 AWG).
Would this be OK for that length? 70mm2/ 2/0 AWG would become very unpractical and expensive.
Thanks for your advice,
Jan
ON3ZTT
SY Goudurix
|
Run that through the BlueSea wire sizing wizard
Circuit Wizard - Blue Sea Systems
and it will tell you out of range because you need larger than 4/0. So your 1/0 is going to lead to
motor burn out and so will 2/0. Even 3/0 is not enough. You could move
batteries up closer and then have large cable supplying them. These would need to be large batteries because if they can not supply the
power your just going to burn out the
motor anyway.
I have a 1500 watt windlass and my battery bank is 10 ft from the bow total wire run is 30 ft. Wizard says 2/0 but I went 3/0. A burned out windlass motor in
parts remote is really bad because how you going to get it fixed and how are you going to get 150 ft of 3/8 chain off the bottom and into the locker so you can get the windlass fixed.
Welcome to
boat wiring 101. You can spend a lot of
money once and do it right, or you can spend a fair bit of
money and do it the first time cutting corners. Then you can replace the burned out motors and
electronics at great expense once they die due to the undersized wire, and then pay to wire it right the second time.
Unfortunately there is no free lunch here.
Pro tip on the wire.
Yes it is a pain working with 4/0 wire. To make this easier, run the 4/0 within a foot of the motor and then use smaller wire for the last bit. This is accepted practice. Make sure you use proper terminals on all the wires and proper terminal blocks when you down size to get on to the windlass.
Make sure you use a proper blue seas 285 breaker ( or similar) on the positive supply to the windlass and make sure it is turned off when not in use.
You have 3 choices on the wire.
1) You can get untinned wire. I see no problem with it and all of the wire that was on my 25 yr old
blue water boat when I got it was untinned and it was not an issue and had no
corrosion. What is really important is that it is high strand count so that it can withstand any vibration. You get this from a wire wholesaler if you can because why pay the store markup
2) You can go with tinned wire with all black casing from the same wire wholesaler. Just use colored tape to make sure you can identify them. This is what I did for all new heavy wire.
3) You can get tinned wire from the
Chandlery with red and black coloring for 2.5 times the
price of option 2.
If option 2 was not available to me I would have no concern about going with option 1. Just make sure these joints are sealed with shrink wrap .