Wire gauge

[BabyBlue383]

I am in the process of changing wire power wire and ground wire. The guestion is I had 12 gauge wire but a friend told me to make it out of 8 gauge. Is that better and what the difference?

[NYrr496]

8 guage is considerably larger than 12. It will run cooler and carry load with less resistance. But, without getting carried away, see how much amperage you are actually passing through that wire and go one size larger. It wouldn't hurt to upsize the ground, though.

[thebankerstoy]

The smaller the number that the gauge size is, the thicker the size of the wire is. The main difference between 12 gauge and 8 gauge, is the amount of resistance, or current flow reduction you will have in your electrical system. The more resistance that you have, the harder the current has to work to provide power to everything, which intern, will cause dimmer lights, less power for your electronic ignition system and less current to run other electrical accessories. I rewired the main power feed in my sons Dart with 10 gauge wire and also bypassed the weak factory bulkhead connector and amp gauge. I also used 10 gauge wire to make a new power feed line from the alternator to the starter relay, which was much shorter that the facory line. The less wire that current has to travel through, the less current bleed off you will have. In my opinion, 8 gauge wire for most automobile applications is over kill. I think you would be better off using 10 gauge for your main power feeds and 12 or 14 gauge for most everything else.

Richard

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