69427
The Artist formerly known as Turbo84
Right now I'm just doing some brain exercises, but I'm also looking for opinions on wiring material (copper and aluminum). I'm running out of ideas on weight reduction for the car, and an (admittedly odd) idea popped into my head. I was just wondering what the pros and cons are of running some large aluminum wire in place of the copper in the battery cables.
According to what I could find on the web, aluminum has 61% of the conductivity of copper, but only 30% of the weight. So, doing the math, I would need 1/.61 = 1.64 times (cross sectional area) as much aluminum to preserve the same electrical conductivity, and then multiplying by the weight ratio: 1.64 x .30 = .49, or about half the weight of the copper cable.
Now I know (or at least I'm assuming) that the stock cables don't weigh all that much, but in the (future) event that I actually got caught up with stuff on the '69 and was looking for something to do, what would be the reasons for not doing something like this?
Wire flexibility, crimping/soldering issues, oxidation, terminal sizing avalability, cost, etc??
thanks,
Mike
According to what I could find on the web, aluminum has 61% of the conductivity of copper, but only 30% of the weight. So, doing the math, I would need 1/.61 = 1.64 times (cross sectional area) as much aluminum to preserve the same electrical conductivity, and then multiplying by the weight ratio: 1.64 x .30 = .49, or about half the weight of the copper cable.
Now I know (or at least I'm assuming) that the stock cables don't weigh all that much, but in the (future) event that I actually got caught up with stuff on the '69 and was looking for something to do, what would be the reasons for not doing something like this?
Wire flexibility, crimping/soldering issues, oxidation, terminal sizing avalability, cost, etc??
thanks,
Mike