Wire

[Sailabel]

Don, in reading your 2 quick projects, do I understand that you want to run a second high voltage wire to your starter to reduce the voltage drop?? If so, I'm not sure that that's a good idea. You might be better served to purchase a properly sized wire with the proper connections.

We just purchased a couple of new starter wires, and was amazed at the asking prices of many vendors. My old wire supply standby (bestboatwire.com) has been purchased by a new company. I decided to give them a try, and was happy with both the price, free shipping, and service. They assembled the wires to my specs... fairly inexpensively. They also supply other boat wire: genuinedealz.com I have no association with them, except as a customer.

When redoing projects on our boat, I try to do them only once, and seek quality supplies at the best price/service.

A bilge pump is also an area where I wouldn't want to experiment with quality.

Best of luck on your projects...
Steve

[sailorboy1]

the starter project is from a question about it where the wire was identified as a problem source, I can not see where it could be a bad thing to have pently of wire as it is just like going oversize

[hellosailor]

"Cars get just as wet and don't have special car wire! "
No, they don't get as wet. And they don't cycle through the same temperature ranges (because they aren't parked in water) or the same salt air. And they usually have special sealers, jackets, sockets, and greases on the fittings. When those wires DO punk out, you can call the AAA and get towed to the dealer very easily. Rather different from a boat.
Finally, most cars are dumped by the original owner after 2-3 years, very few are kept beyond 5, and at 15 years most have been scrapped. As opposed to sail and power boats, often 20-30 and more years old.

No, Home Depot is not the place to buy boat wire. Unless you can find a Home Depot (the stock different things in each store) that sells tinned stranded wire with the correct number of strands. Battery cable, #3 Machine Wire, Welding Cable, Bell Wire, all different, and if I ever find the guy who used zip wire and electrical tape to run the wires to the compass in the binnacle, and spliced them above the engine, I'll personally aid karma.

[Fishman_Tx]

What have ya'll found to be the best sources, other than the one previously listed? (bestboatwire.com)

[Cheechako]

bestboatwire's prices look pretty good, although they are now genuinedealz.com I guess. they no longer show spools, just 100 ft lengths. I can buy it only 10% less than their price wholesale in those lengths, and they ship free it looks like. Copper is way up still I guess.

[forsailbyowner]

I bought tinned boat wire at Home Depot. Anchor I believe. The best deal on wire I've seen is Dons salvage in St Pete. He has spools of wire all for a $7 a lb generic price. Tinned and bare.

[Badsanta]

I have bought alot from this guy. Very fast, great quality and free shipping. Very happy. He is also on e-bay

GenuineDealz.com - Marine Electrical, Boat Wire & Cable, Custom Battery Cables

[FrankZ]

I used GenuineDealz and while I was happy enough with them there was two things that I would ding them on. First is the stock, it isn't consistent. It might be in stock, it might not. Sometimes you have to wait for things. The other is the product feels very close out at times. I received bus bars without nuts (they sent me some after I called) and some things arrived dirty, like it had been at the back of a warehouse under something for years.

Overall the prices and free shipping (US only) help one ignore such things.

[David M]

We never established whether or not you meant Romex, which is solid strand wire. If that is the case then Romex is a huge no no. The reason is that Romex terminations cannot handle vibration along with a few other other negative characteristics of that wire which makes it unsuitable for use on a boat.

I agree with using tinned wire. I think the additional cost is worth the additional resistance to corrosion.

[S&S]

Originally Posted by David M

We never established whether or not you meant Romex, which is solid strand wire. If that is the case then Romex is a huge no no. The reason is that Romex terminations cannot handle vibration along with a few other other negative characteristics of that wire which makes it unsuitable for use on a boat.

I agree with using tinned wire. I think the additional cost is worth the additional resistance to corrosion.

Romex? I wouldn't even use that in a house

For those with a business account, McMaster-Carr sells tinned MTW.

[Highlander40]

A few things missing in this discussion,
For a given size wire, marine grade has more finer strands of copper. This makes the wire more flexible. Not to ease the task of installation but to survive vibration.
This is also the reason that soldering is NOT recommended. The solder creates a hard spot and stress riser. Marine grade heat sealed crimp fittings and fully tinned marine wire go together. Why dare to be stupid?

[TritonSailor]

Originally Posted by Highlander40

A few things missing in this discussion,
For a given size wire, marine grade has more finer strands of copper. This makes the wire more flexible. Not to ease the task of installation but to survive vibration.
This is also the reason that soldering is NOT recommended. The solder creates a hard spot and stress riser. Marine grade heat sealed crimp fittings and fully tinned marine wire go together. Why dare to be stupid?

I can't agree more. Can you imagine how much of your time on a cruise would be spent hunting down intermittent problems caused by solder points coming apart and making contact again? I'd be pulling my hair out if I had any left.

Jeff