[Mike Peters]

Any feedback? Anyone use them?

 

[Procrew]

I have some in a car I am just finishing up right now. We should fire it later this afternoon. So far they seem like nice cables.

 

[Ohiomafia]

I have no personal experience with the cable, but a good friend installed some in his T/D and had to re-cable the car at Z-Max (first race out)....would start fine once or twice and then dead! Not sure if the cable was heating up, but he re-cabled it with welding cable and everything was fine! Good luck using it...let us know your experience.

 

[Mike Peters]

I have some in a car I am just finishing up right now. We should fire it later this afternoon. So far they seem like nice cables.

Yes Joe, please give us some feedback after a period of usage.

 

[RRRAAAYYY2]

I would suggest using a larger size than if it is straight copper. Still save weight though. I think if you undersize the cable, you will notice it more with the aluminum base.

 

[Mike Peters]

I would suggest using a larger size than if it is straight copper. Still save weight though. I think if you undersize the cable, you will notice it more with the aluminum base.

Ray, it seems the concensus opinion from the resident experts is to use 1/0 gauge copper battery cable. So, if you're recommending 1/0 gauge in copper and the largest size Accel offers in their aluminum cables is 1/0 then, the largest Accel cable would be inadequate, correct?

 

[RRRAAAYYY2]

Ray, it seems the concensus opinion from the resident experts is to use 1/0 gauge copper battery cable. So, if you're recommending 1/0 gauge in copper and the largest size Accel offers in their aluminum cables is 1/0 then, the largest Accel cable would be inadequate, correct?

No, it would be all right. The reason that 1/0 copper is recommended the most as it is about the same price as 1 gauge, which is what most cars need. But going to fine strand you should up size, add that 1/0 is more readily available, better variety of ends, etc, so most just go with the 1/0.

I am looking forward to some real world results. It is not the first time aluminum has been used in a car. GM did it in starters for a while. Worked great in the southern US, but they had issues in northern climates. But this wire is different, being it is not meant to create a magnetic field, and it is copper plated. Pretty trick.

 

[Procrew]

So far the car has dealt with repeated starts just fine. We used 2 ga in the car due to weight and also it uses very minimal accessories. He plans to test tonight so we shall see if there is any issues.

 

[Craig Smith]

But this wire is different, being it is not meant to create a magnetic field, and it is copper plated. Pretty trick.

If you cause current to flow through a conductor, it will produce a magnetic field. The field intensity is proportional to the amount of current flowing through the conductor. This is basic physics and the very foundation of electromagnetic principles. It cannot be undone.

 

[YFU Racing]

what he means is by having multiple strand you have multiple electric fields that partially cancel each other out leaving a resultant magnetic field much smaller than the sum of the individuals

 

[Craig Smith]

what he means is by having multiple strand you have multiple electric fields that partially cancel each other out leaving a resultant magnetic field much smaller than the sum of the individuals

I'm not sure if that's what he means or not, but this phenomenon of individual strands and their magnetic fields canceling each other out is BS. Electricity and magnetism just don't work that way.

 

[YFU Racing]

im in college studying to be a mechanical engineer
one of the classes i took last semester was phys 152 "Electricity and magnetism"
they dont cancel but they "minimize" the resultant field

 

[RRRAAAYYY2]

What I meant was that using aluminum in the fields of a GM starter was a fail as the aluminum did not produce enough of a magnetic field to operate the starter motor in very cold climatic conditions. It worked in warm weather, just not in really cold weather. But the Accel wire is not being used to produce a magnetic field, but rather just conduct electricity. So though GM failed, Accel probably wont. Hope that makes more sense, and sorry for the confusion.

 

[Craig Smith]

im in college studying to be a mechanical engineer
one of the classes i took last semester was phys 152 "Electricity and magnetism"
they dont cancel but they "minimize" the resultant field

Well... I guess that in all the Automotive Electrical Theory classes I've been teaching in our local college, and in the 18 years I've been working in the automotive and/or electronic engineering field, I never learned that. I must have been asleep that day. :smt102

 

[YFU Racing]

i guess u must have glad i could catch you up

 

[RRRAAAYYY2]

Why does a starter have such a strong magnetic field in it, but the copper wire that brought the electricity there, virtually none?

The cross strand wire and braided ground straps are around to help eliminate noise and electrostatic discharges.

 

[ojh]

While you guys argue physics and whatnot i would like to point out that accell has one of the worst reputations for quality in the industry and thier products are aimed more for entry level racers and color co-ordinated street wanna-be's than people who are on this forum. The folks' requirements on here are more than a little above and beyond what accell can provide. Anybody that has to advertise as much as they feel that they need to worries me.
And as far as physics goes, the electrical currant is carried only on the outer 20% of the conductor (as far as electricity is concerned a solid copper wire looks like a cross-section of a piece of spagetti). So the greater number of strands will carry a higher current, if you need #1 battery cable then a #2 welders' cable with a greater amount of strands will carry the same load. And thats the truth. And the only way the magnetic fields will cancel each other is if the opposite polarity is present - you need both a north and south to cancell each other - they cannot be present in the same conductor (if so that is also called a 'dead short'). And thats the truth.
Later, oj

 

[RRRAAAYYY2]

Actually that is not the truth. Accell has been around a long time, and by most standards has a great reputation. They may not be popular onm top fuels, but then hardly anyone is.

As for you knowledge of electrical current. Take a piece of copper foil, about .001 thick, 12" x 12" so you have huge surface area. Now run 1000amps of DC through it. What happens. Now take a 3/8" dia copper rod and do the same thing. Still think electricity just travels on the outside of the conductor?

As for the battery cable vs the welding cable. I am sorry but after 30 years in business, I can say without a shadow of a doubt, you have it backwards. When you have high loads, such as starters, you need to increase one cable size when using fine stranded wire over large strand wire. As the higher amperage has a tendancy to melt the strands when passing through it. That is not opinion, that is fact from 100's of individual case studies.

As for N/S in the same conductor, I maybe misinterrupting what you are saying, but isnt that how an alternaotr creates power?

 

[ojh]

You might want to think about your analagy of exactly how much the area 20% of a .001 thick 12X12 foil compared to that rod. I see what you mean about the fine strand welders cable, that is a good point and i hadn't considered it. And the N/S thing in an alternator is not the same time, they are 180 deg apart, you must have misunderstood me.

 

[RRRAAAYYY2]

20% of 12 sq inches (1" length) is 2.4 sqin of area. 20% of the area of 1" of 3/8 rod is .2357. So 20% of 1" of the rods surface area is approximately 10 times smaller than 20% of the foil's surface area. Think about buss bar as well, you have huge amounts of amperage going through realitively small surface areas. It has to go through it as well.