I am hoping that someone can help me. I am installing a winch on my truck. The kit came with 8 gauge wire, but only 10 feet each of red and black. In order to reach my battery from the location I have chosen I need at least 20 feet. For some reason, I am having trouble finding 8 gauge wires. Can I safely substitute either 10 or 12 without any problems? The 8-gauge is used for a 50 amp circuit breaker.

Thanks

 

IMO, I would use 8, if the run were 10 feet, 10 or 12 would be fine, but I think with a 20 foot run you better use 8.

Where are you mounthing this thing, that you need 20 feet? In the rear somewhere apparently...


And as for getting the 8-gauge, I would try Home Depot, Lowes, Autozone, some place like that.

Good luck.

I am sure somebody who knows more than I do will chime in...

 

Actually for that distance I would go to a much heavier wire possably a 4 at low voltage and high amperage and that is what you have in a 12 volt system you will have a large voltage drop over that length of wire, and that is what burns out motors quickly. you need the full voltage at the motor for long life.
I see no reason to run the ground all the way to the battery all you have to do is clean a spot on the frame and attach youre ground lug to it and to be safe I would also make up a short wire for groun from the battery to the frame in the front. The battery is already grounded from the engine to the frame but I am not shure how heavy this wire is in you're truck, so to be safe just add a ground jumper. This way you can buy one length of good wire to do the job.

 

Both Lowes and Home Depot will have the heavy copper THHN wire in 8 ga, perhaps also in 6 ga. If you can locate wire that is intended for underground service entrance use, you will have a wire that has a more durable insulation jacket.

For a 20 ft run, the 8 ga will not drop a noticable amount of voltage even at 50 amps compared to either the 6 or 4 ga (0.74V vs. 0.47 V vs . 0.29 V). If you do feel like going to the heavier 6 ga, you will have a more durable installation.

FWIW, the 50 A value is the circuit protection device rating, not the expected amperage draw. When in use, the winch motor is unlikely to draw more than 20 amps except under extreme load conditions.

Use only copper, do not use aluminum cable as it would bring its own set of problems to your winch installation.


Steve

 

Thank you for those responses, I thought I would share with your the location of the winch. Go to the URL below

www.loadmyboat.com

I have purchased a one man boat loader. The rear of the rack has a T1500 superwinch with the wire cable removed, and in the place of the wire drum, there is a solid metal drum with a 1/4" by 6 inch rubber covering. This acts as a roller for the gunnal of the boat. There is an identical one on the other side of the roller bar between the winch on the opposite side of the roller. The wire hook up is for the remote controller to the battery. The wire from the winch motor to the remote looks like 14 gauge. The wire provided for the run from the remote to the battery is the 8 gauge with the attached 50 amp circuit breaker. The breaker is to prevent the winch motor from overheating and blowing out any of the electrical systems on the truck.

The remote controller must be installed as close to the rear of my truck as possible, because when the rack is installed on the roof of my truck, the winch will be at the rear of the truck. And it must be either attached to the metal of the pickup box or have a wire off it for a ground, and must be out for the weather. I am installing it on the rear bulkhead of the inside passenger side of the pickup box. The wire run will be from that point to the battery, hence the 20 foot requirement. I have a plastic bed liner installed in the rear, so I will be running a ground wire

For those of you who are interested in this unit, there is another builder in Washington state called EIDE who also has these boatloaders. The one I have gone to is in Canada.