[AT] Tractor wiring

Robert L. Holtzer rholtzer at earthlink.net
Wed Nov 17 13:20:11 PST 2004


Residential stranded wire appears to have courser strands than 
automotive.  Anyone comment on this?  Also, the insulation may differ.

Bob Holtzer

Mike Sloane wrote:

> One other thing: house wiring is solid copper, but for vehicles of any 
> kind, you should use "stranded" copper. Also, it is my understanding 
> that stranded wire will carry more current than solid wire of the same 
> gage (something called "skin effect"). The reason for using stranded 
> wire is that it is better able to handle the vibrations and doesn't 
> "work harden". OK, two things: resistance losses for direct current 
> are higher than for alternating current, so for longer runs you need 
> relatively thicker wire. Fortunately, most tractor wiring is very 
> short, that that isn't usually an issue.
>
> Mike
>
> Spencer Yost wrote:
>
>> Mattias is right, the formula holds true for any type of electrical
>> circuit.   Be sure to realize resistance, an important additional 
>> load on
>> the circuit that may change your decision on wire size, increases 
>> with the
>> length of the wire.
>>
>> As for wire sizes, 10 ga. is used for charging circuits on virtually all
>> vehicles with regular duty alternators and alternators are usually the
>> highest wattage circuits (400-800 watts) on a vehicle.  So I use 10 
>> ga for
>> any type of charging circuit, I use 10 ga (and a relay!) for modern
>> high-intensity lamps and I use 12 ga. for for lower output lights if 
>> there
>> is more than 2 on the circuit.  I use 14 ga. for everything else.  If 
>> I am
>> unsure, I use 10 ga and a separate switching circuit with a relay.  
>> Heavy
>> duty alternators, if I had ever wired for any, would probably get 6-8 ga
>> wire.
>>
>> I have no engineering calculations to back this up but this is what I 
>> have
>> learned to use over the years and seems to match pretty well with 
>> what is
>> used in practice by manufacturers and hold up to a few offhand 
>> resistance
>> and wattage calculations I have done on the back of a tool package 
>> label.
>> I am sure others have some better ideas that maybe are tested or 
>> calculated
>> that may give you a better degree of comfort than "This is Spencer's 
>> system
>> and it works for him because nothing has burned down"  (-;
>>
>> Spencer Yost
>> Owner, ATIS
>> Plow the Net!
>> http://www.atis.net
>>
>> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>>
>> On 11/16/2004 at 10:18 PM Greg Hass wrote:
>>
>>
>>> After several years of procrastinating I am going to completely 
>>> rewire my Farmall 856 with a year-a-round cab.  I can rewire a 
>>> house, a barn or a shop.  However, when it comes to tractor wiring I 
>>> can't figure the size of
>>
>>
>>
>>> wire to use when it comes to wiring the various components.  For 
>>> instance,
>>
>>
>>
>>> I want to add some halogen lights, some hooked together and some 
>>> wired singly.  Also, I want to add a heater and possibly get the 
>>> circulating fan
>>
>>
>>
>>> running, which has never worked since I've owned the tractor.
>>>
>>> I want to use adequate sized wire, but on the other hand no bigger 
>>> than needed as the heavier wire is harder to work with.  Does anyone 
>>> know of a chart, or source, or rule of thumb on how to figure such 
>>> things?  For instance, with house wiring "amps x volts = watts", but 
>>> I'm not sure the same formula would apply to a 12-volt system.
>>>
>>> Greg Hass
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> AT mailing list
>>> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>




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