wire gauge?

[boatman37]

Already have a thread started about my windlass install but having trouble tracing my wires. The 2 wires I found measured .17" thick including insulation. Can't see any writing on the wire so far. They are orange/white and the other is yellow, same color as the wires running to my horn. Seems like an awfully heavy wire for a horn? Any idea what gauge a .17" thick wire might be? I was guessing they were 8GA but now not sure if they are the correct wires or not. Can't find the other end to test for continuity

 

[boatman37]

After more research it seems like that might be 10GA wire? So that likely isn't for the windlass. I had the breaker out tonight but forgot to check that diameter. Buddy was helping me said it was for sure 8GA. Gonna get my camera down in there tomorrow to get a better look

 

[markrsimon]

Unless you can get a cross section cut of that wire, or find the markings, trying to determine gauge is a crap shoot. The issue is not knowing how much insulation there is on that wire. Can you measure the copper size at the end, where it crimps into a connector?

https://www.engineersedge.com/copper_wire.htm

 

[Carpediem44DB]

Already have a thread started about my windlass install but having trouble tracing my wires. The 2 wires I found measured .17" thick including insulation. Can't see any writing on the wire so far. They are orange/white and the other is yellow, same color as the wires running to my horn. Seems like an awfully heavy wire for a horn? Any idea what gauge a .17" thick wire might be? I was guessing they were 8GA but now not sure if they are the correct wires or not. Can't find the other end to test for continuity

The horn wire is pretty big actually, on my Rinker I kept going thru horns and found that they cheeped out on wire size and the voltage drop as a result burned out the horns.
The wires you are looking at may be the control wires to the solenoids for the windlass, the power for the windless will be much larger, more like 4 or larger.

 

[boatman37]

Figured it out today. The windlass wires are 8GA (only a 25' boat so not that long of a run). The horn wires seem to be 10GA but the ones I found were for the horn. My 8GA wires were about .218 thick with insulation (measured with my digital calipers).