Need help with new battery install

Hey guys and gals! Need your advice/expertise. I purchased a yellow Optima battery recently. I have successfully lengthened the grounding wire to accomodate the terminal locations on the new battery, but now I'm finding I need to add length to another wire. It is the 6ga white wire leading from the positive terminal to the base of the factory fuse box. Does anyone know where I can find more of this wire? I've looked for a week with very little success. Your help is appreciated!

 

home depot and lowes sell wire by the foot. or you can just go to a best buy or a stereo shop and buy some. install bay in best buy will probably have scrap that they can throw you or sell. it will probably be 4 ga but that is thicker and better if its a power wire

 

Wirebarn.com
Amazon.com
Ebay.com

 

I've looked at Home Depot and other hardware places and they just scratch their heads. I'll give Best Buy and some local stereo shops a try. Thanks!

 

if you go to a home depot its back in the electrical dept. its on a huge conveyor belt and they shouldn't miss it. but yes best buy. they will have ofc wire in different gauges. maybe throw them a few dollars and you both win. don't go smaller than you have though

 

I took a look at wirebarn. Does it matter if the wire is not white in this situation? I was thinking of keeping it white for future ID purposes. Thoughts?

 

Doesn't matter what color, it's a positive wire so pick a color that is associated with it. Welding wire works good too

 

there is different kinds and grades of wire but as for color they come in all different sorts. yes the main reason for white would be for identification. if you want keep it "factory" then yes but if you or a mechanic are needing to work on it HOPEFULLY they can figure and trace the wire to what it is

 

The color does not change the wire. I like to keep things the same color if possible but in this case it's pretty simple to see where the wire is going.

 

you just need a multi strand power wire that is ofc and can handle the current load. typical amp power will work fine. just DONT go smaller

 

Exactly what I was thinking.

 

Doesn't have to be ofc (oxygen free copper) that's just marketing hype..

 

not entirely true sandman. 23 yrs in 12vt dc electrical and I assure you there is difference. you can put cca wire or some cheap wire in the system and choke your electrical system. OP don't do it

 

oh.... and don't use welding wire

 

OK you went from OFC copper to copper clad aluminum.. Isn't there anything in between?

 

Por que?

 

For the record OFC and CCA are terms typically used to reference 12v and speaker cabling for stereo system installations. You'd be hard pressed to find battery cables (battery to starter/alternator/fusebox) advertised as either.

http://custombatterycables.com/info_pages/wire_types.htm

http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=128266

http://www.knukonceptz.com/mobile-audio/power-wire/

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/wiri...n-help/518955-difference-between-ofc-cca.html

 

Just pick up fine strand copper of equal or greater gauge. Heavy/thick strand isn't very flexible. There is 0 reason to concern yourself with ofc unless you get a sense of pride in installing the only 18" of magic wire in your truck. Insulation color doesn't matter except in visual
id. However anyone who should be playing with wire will know that anything between your battery + and fuse box is hot. Generally red, yellow, white, and anything with a white stripe is suspect and treated as hot until tested otherwise.

If you go aluminum, quick rule of thumb is to go 1 size heavier. If you're doing really long runs do the actual math.