4 gauge good enough for battery relocation?

[tehdrizzle]

I'm making more progress on my engine bay and am in the middle of relocating my battery to the spare tire well and have 17ft. of 4 gauge power cable that I've had for a while and am wondering if this would be sufficient to use as the main power cable from the front of the car to the battery in the hatch area? I already have the battery box, negative cable, distribution block, power cutoff switch, and the alternator wire extended to the back of the car as well.

I'm running a Deka ETX14 mini battery that is a sealed/leakproof type battery as well.

[tryingbe]

You'd want 0 gauge.


http://www.timskelton.com/lightning/race_prep/weight/battery_relocate.htm

[Vigo]

all 4gauge is not created equal, some cheap stuff has like 8 gauge wire and thick insulation makes it look like 4ga! The 4ga in my 93 dynasty amp power wire id feel comfortable starting a car through. And remember, if you have enough you can just double up the 4ga to make one better wire.

[shackwrrr]

mine has 4 gauge but it is high strand, premium audio wire. A higher strand will carry more since the electrons flow on the surface of the copper wire.

[Mopar318]

Use welding cable.

[tehdrizzle]

It's basically power cable from a leftover amp install that I did in a friends car. It's Rockford Fosgate power cable from the amp kit. I'm going to look into a larger gauge wire though.

[hondahunter]

I use 4 gauge welding cable in my turbo z, and haven't had any problems.

[neongary]

It seems that a lot of newer cars are using #4, but that's for a engine compt mounted battery. Personally I'd use at least #2 because of the relocation distance. Typically bigger is better when it comes to battery cables. At the hot rod shop I used to work at we used 2/0 all the time. Worked for all applications and battery locations.
Make sure you use a proper battery crimp for your terminals as a poor crimp makes for a bad electrical connection. Lastly, a good adhesive-lined heat shrink for the cable/terminal ends.