Choosing Quality Wire

Over the last few years I've been slowly adding accessories to my truck. I've been adding them one a time and I think I'm fairly close to having everything I'm going to have. While I've been adding them it's become a bit of a rat's nest of wires.

When I started I barely knew how to use a crimper. Now I have a much better understanding of how electrical systems work, I can crimp like you wouldn't believe and I can solder very well.

Now that I'm pretty much done adding things I'd like to tear all the wiring apart and start over.

One thing I can't decide on is what kind of wire to use.

I've been looking at mil spec Tefzel wire. It's super nice, it's light, the wire itself it good, it has high heat resistance and it can be bought in all kinds of guages and colors in multiple places on the internet. The downside is it's fairly expensive. I'm okay with spending a good chunk of cash on this but not if it's unnecessary.

What are some other good types of wire? Where are places to get it?

 

Assuming that you originally used properly rated wire and crimps for your accessories I'd concentrate the effort on cleaning that up using the existing wiring. Personally I don't think it would be worth the extra money to use high-cost wiring for this application. If you kludged it together then you can probably justify a tear-down and replacement with the appropriate wiring and components.

I use connectors which are rated for the application (wet vs. dry) and make sure the wires and connectors can handle the current draw (plus minimum 50% margin), adhesive based heat shrink to seal up any exposed conductors, and wire loom to protect the wiring from getting scraped up. Honestly I haven't used marine or higher grade wire for exterior wiring since all that wiring gets put in loom and the conductors get sealed.

 

That makes sense. I used wire that was significantly thicker than what I needed. Same with connectors etc. Everything is shrink wrapped. Most stuff is in loom, but not all.

The main thing is I only used 3 wire colors. If I have any issues it's a pain in the butt to sort out what is what. Any issues are loose connections which is another reason I want to go through and redo everything. I'd like to have everything run in different colors for easy identification.

I have 18 wires going in an out of my switch panel including wires for the switche's lights themselves. I'm going to run all those into a plug connector so when/if I want to remove my switch panel to change anything I can simply unplug the whole thing. Being that everything is/will be on relays the wires to and from the switch panels can be pretty thin stuff.

 

I buy wire at NAPA, etc, use butt connectors or solder with shrink tubing, depending on the environment - good craftsmanship will suffice, regardless of where you buy your wire, it's a truck, not an F-16.

 

Unless you used Romex wire nuts I would not mess with spending lots of time and money.

Unless your other half is driving you bonkers and you need to be in a quiet space.

I am lucky I buy most of my Primary wire from East Penn Manufacturing they have a plant not far away

 

Good advice, thanks guys.

I'm planning on keeping the truck until 2034 (or longer) so I'd like everything to last a long time and not have to redo anything again.

I did a little more reading...you guys are correct, that wire is way overkill. I'd rather sink money into going on trips with my truck than useless wire.

 

https://www.waytekwire.com/products/1454/Automotive-Cross-Link-Wire/&SAE-Type=SAE-J1128-GXL

This stuff is great. You really want GXL when running wire under the hood. It has exceptional temperature resistance and abrasion resistance.