Pre wiring for compressor - dual ARB

[Chorky]

so I have a mobile twin arb that I am pre-wiring the jeep for it to be hard mounted behind the passenger seat.

According to ARB - the max amp draw is 50 amps. However, it appears ARB is using 12 or maybe 10 ga wire in in their wiring to the compressors
ARB-On-Board-Twin-Air-Compressor-Kit-Installation-Instructions.pdf (quadratec.com) - last page gives specs

I am currently installing and planning to use (for a variety of things) the trail rocker from painless
Trail Rocker Relay Center - Customizable | Painless Performance - this thing is pretty sweet actually.

The plan was to utilize two circuits in the trail rocker - one circuit for each compressor. much what ARB seemingly already does - see below for a snippit


Each circuit of the trail rocker is rated at 30 amps. It looks like they are using 14 ga wire for their 'accessory' links. ARB seems to use 12 ga and a large 40a fuse for each circuit (80a total) despite their rating of a maximum draw of 50a. So, in theory the two 30a circuits with 14 ga wire should work.

However, the fact that arb is apparently using 12 ga wires has me wondering, even though the wires going to each compressor individually only appears to be 14 ga. Any ideas as to what's going on there? Maybe their use of 12 ga wires is to also factor in using a relay on board, so although each motor only gets 25a of power they have to account for an extra amp or two to activate and close the integrated relay?


Just pulled wire today, so I really dont want to remove and re-pull 12 ga wire if i can make it work with 14ga.

 

[IdaSHO]

FYI,

With 10GA and 36" leads on my setup, the wiring gets pretty warm during re-fills from 40PSI to 60+ on 35" tires

This is with the small, but 100% duty cycle Viair380C.
Its on a 30A fuse that hasn't popped (yet) but I know its pushing it.
I sure wouldn't trust it with 14GA, that's for certain.

14 or 12GA might work for very short leads, but I wouldn't test either beyond a few feet.

 

[Chorky]

FYI,

With 10GA and 36" leads on my setup, the wiring gets pretty warm during re-fills from 40PSI to 60+ on 35" tires

This is with the small, but 100% duty cycle Viair380C.
Its on a 30A fuse that hasn't popped (yet) but I know its pushing it.
I sure wouldn't trust it with 14GA, that's for certain.

14 or 12GA might work for very short leads, but I wouldn't test either beyond a few feet.

hmm..... I think the wiring they include with the kits are like 12 feet of 12 ga.

 

[Chorky]

I just dont want to totally open up the trail rocker to rewire it for 2 circuits of 10 ga wire. that would be tough and i'm not sure it would even fit to be honest.

 

[IdaSHO]

hmm..... I think the wiring they include with the kits are like 12 feet of 12 ga.

12 feet @ 50 amps on 12 gauge?? ?

I dont think so.... You wont find a wire chart that jives with that. No way, no how.

 

[Chorky]

12 feet @ 50 amps on 12 gauge?? ?

I dont think so.... You wont find a wire chart that jives with that. No way, no how.

no no . haha. that is recipe for immediate disaster lol. so this is the dual arb kit. Well the one i have is the mobile version but i am going to take it out of the box (if i can figure how) and perm mount it in the jeep. each compressor has its own power/ground wires. so 4 wires in total. the wires going to the compressors themselves. The max pull spec is 50a. however that is for both I think. so it should actually only be 25a each. So each wire would only be serving 25 amps worth of power. Well, maybe 28 to account for additional ohms in the wire themselves.

 

[Chorky]

According to painless the wiries are 12ga. They provide 21’ of it on a 30a circuit. However it looks more to be a 14 ga wire set. Hmm....

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

The ARB wiring loom for their fridges is 10ga, maybe due to the length of the run. I can’t imagine they’d use anything less for their compressors.

 

[terrymo]

The ARB instructions you attached from Quadratec states each of the 2 red (+) wires is 10awg and the main black (-) wire is 8awg. ARB says if a splice is made the wire should be the same gauge or larger.

 

[Chorky]

12 feet @ 50 amps on 12 gauge?? ?

I dont think so.... You wont find a wire chart that jives with that. No way, no how.

So I ended up picking up 10 ga wire. Ugh was not excited nor happy to re run that wire. what a pita. But I have 10 ga power and ground for each compressor. 4 wires each. came up to about 11' from battery to compressor (not mounted yet). Really hoping this works and wires don't get too warm because I dont think 8ga will fit where I have the current wires wired.

The ARB instructions you attached from Quadratec states each of the 2 red (+) wires is 10awg and the main black (-) wire is 8awg. ARB says if a splice is made the wire should be the same gauge or larger.

good catch I totally missed that being in a rush.

 

[El Solis]

I always refer to this chart for my wiring choices.

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