Wiring batteries in Parallel?

[ZSK]

I just bought a 6x12 Enclosed trailer and I'm working on the inside of it. I installed a couple of lights and a 12 volt plug to plug my power inverter into. I have four batteries that were given to me and I want to wire in parrallel and just put a charger on them once in a while. They are all the same age, 12 volt, and rated 37 AH and about 4" x 6" x 12" in size. My question is what size wire will be adequate for wiring the batteries together? I was thinking 8 ga. would be plenty but I'm second guessing my self.

 

[MAKG]

The batteries are irrelevant for wire sizing.

It's the LOAD.

 

[CopyKat]

Just use 1 Ga or 0 Ga welding wire.

 

[ZSK]

1 or 0 ga. is overkill don't you think? The most load on the batteries would be two lights, two small fans, radio/laptop, and phone charger all on at the same time.

 

[Will]

You won't need anything that large. With 8-gauge wire you could run 45 amps continously on a 15' run. That would be suitable for a 400watt inverter and a couple of lights.

USE THIS if you need to figure other currents. An inverter is about 85% efficient I think, so if you have a 175watt, it would draw about 200watts, or 17 amps.

 

[Destroyer000]

we have 3 deep cycles batteries at work an their hooked up with 6 guage wire..

 

[Will]

we have 3 deep cycles batteries at work an their hooked up with 6 guage wire..

So--what are they hooked up to? You could run your wrist watch off of three deep cyce batteries until Gabriel blows his horn and you would need a wire the thickness of the veins in a drunk gerbils eyes to do it. Or you could hook them so a starter motor for a Cummins diesel and kill the batteries in a minute and that would take a 00 wire maybe.

His batteries are pretty small and he said he has an inverter and a couple lights.

 

[DRanger024]

Just run 4ga. and be happy with it. If you ever decide you need more batteries, which probably means a bigger load, you wont have to waste your time replacing 8ga. with 4ga.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

8 gauge should be enough.

I'm fond of overengineering to a degree, so if it was me, I'd be running 4 gauge unless I expected to be running something serious off 'em.

 

[Capt Jay]

Bigger is better. It's not a significant cost differance. Build it right the first time. 00 is overkill, 4 is fine.

 

[4x4junkie]

Ugh...

He wants to run a couple lights & crap off some small 37 AH batteries.

#10 wire would be perfectly suitable for this.

Hook them up like below to help equalize the power sharing between all 4 batts (connect the main power wires at the "O" posts)

o-o-o-O
O-o-o-o

(hopefully that makes sense)

 

[LearjetMinako]

Run the 4ga across the batteries, and then run the leads to a fuse box. From there, you can go smaller, like a 8ga.

 

[ZSK]

Ugh...

He wants to run a couple lights & crap off some small 37 AH batteries.

#10 wire would be perfectly suitable for this.

Hook them up like below to help equalize the power sharing between all 4 batts (connect the main power wires at the "O" posts)

o-o-o-O
O-o-o-o

(hopefully that makes sense)

That's how I ran it. I used #8 wire. I figured that's more than enough considering the wires on my power inverter are only #12.