I have a fishing boat, in Ecuador, with a pair of Yamaha 200HP outboards (circa 2007). Because of the open rear-deck, the battery cable are about 20' feet long (6m). It's getting harder to start the motors and the cables do appear to be corroded so I'm thinking its time to replace them. The old cables are 2/0 gauge but its impossible to find 2/0 gauge battery cable in Ecuador (I need about 80' of it). I can get 1/0 cable and I'm pretty sure that would be OK if not for the distance from the batteries to the motors. (It would be a major pain to move the batteries closer).
So here's the situation: I can get just enough 2/0 welder's cable in black for the negatives. But the only other cable I can find is red in 1/0 (a size down) - There's plenty of that. Now I'm thinking the best solution is to use the 2/0 black for the negatives and and 1/0 red for the positives. They don't match but I can't think of any reason why that would matter - It's just a simple circuit, no? The alternative would be to use red 1/0 everywhere and label the negative cable with black PVC.
Am I OK mixing the sizes or should I use the red 1/0 throughout?
Thanks...
So here's the situation: I can get just enough 2/0 welder's cable in black for the negatives. But the only other cable I can find is red in 1/0 (a size down) - There's plenty of that. Now I'm thinking the best solution is to use the 2/0 black for the negatives and and 1/0 red for the positives. They don't match but I can't think of any reason why that would matter - It's just a simple circuit, no? The alternative would be to use red 1/0 everywhere and label the negative cable with black PVC.
Am I OK mixing the sizes or should I use the red 1/0 throughout?
Thanks...