wire gauge

[MadMax5978]

Wiring up my crawler for 3s lipo and was wondering what would be the smallest gauge wire to use? Thinking 16 gauge but have read people using 12 and 14. Is 16 too small?
Thanks in advance for your help.

[Scottmisfits]

I match up the wire from my battery to the ESC. If the battery has 12g on it, I use 12g from the battery to the ESC. After that I typically use 16g.

[EeePee]

Good 16 gauge is fine.

Try www.TQracing.com

[sivad]

16g end to end 7.5 lbs rig 11.1v 1350 mah

[Big Bill]

Originally Posted by EeePee

Good 16 gauge is fine.

Try www.TQracing.com

EeePee is correct, the TQ wire is one of the best. I have used it with on-road cars that are drawing ALOT of amps and heat with no problems.

[JohnRobHolmes]

I typically use 13ga unless the rig is smaller and lighter than my 2.2 comp rig. 16ga does work fine on a standard crawler setup, but gets hot with amp hungry motors.

[EddieO]

I would use as big as you can fit within reason.....if you can fit 13, then do it....but don't make odd connections to your ESC if it can't take wire that big.


If you are having wire heat issues, much more and a few other japanese companies made wire heatsinks....they look kinda dumb, but all my testing showed they actually worked. Heat sucks in electronics in most cases.

Later EddieO

[EGRESSor]

i use 1.5mm² fromnessel

works great for my 2.2

1mm² for the 1.9s

2.5mm² for all the bash stuff

[EddieO]

You just confused all the americans who don't know what a mm is

Later EddieO

[MadMax5978]

Seems to be a lot of opinions (yeah I know what they are like).
Appreciate everyone's input looks like I'll be OK with the 16 gauge or was that 1.5mm.
Thanks again everyone

[bigflex]

An electrical system is only as good as the weakest link. That being said, if your batteries have 16 on them then 16 is all I would run. I use 16g deans in my berg with hh35t's and a 25c/35c 3s with no heat issues at all. My lipos have 16 on them. I know a couple of guys that run 20g and micro deans with 35t handwounds and see no performance issues.

[hardhead]

I like 12 gauge Wet Noodle P.N. 1410

[RealDeel]

If your going to use 16g wire, why bother to use high "C" rated packs?

Try pulling 45C or even 20C through a 16g wire and post back your burnt up results.

Doesn't make sense to me.

[kennyj]

I use 18 guage with 30c packs. Not 1 problem.

br-xl, holmes 45t, bec, jr9100t, punk dig.

[scatterbrains]

In most of my rigs i use 12-14ga wire, and deans plugs. 16ga wire should be fine in most rigs.
Just remember your wire is like a pipe it will carry more amps (water) efficiently if bigger.

make it a water tower and its simple
tank=volts (potential energy) pipe= resistance or ohms water flow=amps

the larger the pipe the less resistance= less heat and more efficient flow.
With that said, in a low draw situation, most crawling, a smaller wire should be ok, but in anything larger than a mini crawler i would like the ins. of at least 14ga wire.

My.02

[Ty]

Originally Posted by RealDeel

If your going to use 16g wire, why bother to use high "C" rated packs?

Try pulling 45C or even 20C through a 16g wire and post back your burnt up results.

Doesn't make sense to me.

I have been using 16g noodle wire with 45c packs and 35t motors for some time now. Nothing has burnt yet. I have even seen people you 20g with with the same batt and motors. Works great!

[kuatto]

Originally Posted by EeePee

Good 16 gauge is fine.

Try www.TQracing.com

Are their wire soft like the noodle wires or a bit stiffer because I really like the flexibility of the noodle wire.

[kuatto]

Originally Posted by EddieO

I would use as big as you can fit within reason.....if you can fit 13, then do it....but don't make odd connections to your ESC if it can't take wire that big.


If you are having wire heat issues, much more and a few other japanese companies made wire heatsinks....they look kinda dumb, but all my testing showed they actually worked. Heat sucks in electronics in most cases.

Later EddieO

I was able to find the wire heatsinks if this is what your referring too?But they dont say for what gauge of wire,be interesting to try out.Do you know of other maybe cheaper sources of these?
http://www.speedtechrc.com/store/ebp...nid=64&id=6274

[bigflex]

Originally Posted by scatterbrains

In most of my rigs i use 12-14ga wire, and deans plugs. 16ga wire should be fine in most rigs.
Just remember your wire is like a pipe it will carry more amps (water) efficiently if bigger.

make it a water tower and its simple
tank=volts (potential energy) pipe= resistance or ohms water flow=amps

the larger the pipe the less resistance= less heat and more efficient flow.
With that said, in a low draw situation, most crawling, a smaller wire should be ok, but in anything larger than a mini crawler i would like the ins. of at least 14ga wire.

My.02

You are correct to an extent. If your packs only have 16g on them the the rest will be fine with 16g. From most of the packs that I have seen owned and used, 16g is the norm. If you start with a 1 inch pipe then open it up to a 2 inch pipe your still only going to get 1 inch pipe flow. I used to run nothing but 12g wet noddle. I saw no difference at all dropping down to 16g using the exact same gear and batteries.

[EeePee]

Originally Posted by kuatto

Are their wire soft like the noodle wires or a bit stiffer because I really like the flexibility of the noodle wire.

Super flexible. Makes the Wet Noodle seem stiff.

They boast about how soft it is and mention no chassis tweak at all, because their target audience is 12th scale pan cars. And mod motors. Telling ya, 16 gauge good wire is fine.