I am wiring my car with a Painless wiring harness. It is going really well and not too big of a deal to adapt it to the car. My concern is that some of the wiring in the Painless Wiring harness is slightly smaller in gage. I contacted them and they stated that their wire has more strands and that electricity flows on the outside of each strand so more strands equal more current flow. Also that the insulation is of a better quality and does not need to be as thick so the overall thickness of their wire is smaller but with just as much copper wire. And also that for whatever given wire gage you compare from their wire to the OEM wire their wire will carry more amperage.
Can anyone back this up?

 

Yes it's true but really only useful in high frequency AC current.
On low voltage short run DC the difference is virtually useless.
Their wire is probably fine for most apps.

Biggest reason is the more strands the more flexible, needed for auto use.
If in doubt for voltage drop/length, go bigger gauge, bigger is almost always better.

Here is a basic chart.

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/am...uge-d_730.html

 

Painless has good wiring. Wire insulation has come a long way and the same gauge wiring can sometimes look smaller in a modern wire. I would (and have) install with confidence.

 

If you ordered/they sent you the correct harness....it should be O.K.

If you are still concerned, after all the connections are made/before the dash is reassembled....charge the battery---then turn on the ignition----turn on/feel the light switch wires to see if they're "heating up"/turn them off after a few minutes.

Then test the heater blower wiring for warmth a few minutes...etc.

(ALWAYS keep the original wiring no matter what condition it is in.....or mail it to me!)

 

I would trust their stuff over some larger gauge wire made in China- that just looks like copper...yet it's just coated w/ copper ...then it breaks...

Richard

 

Thank you all for the responses. Last night I did more research on the web and found out that the wire that they use is made from PEX just like the stuff used for plumbing and that it can be much thinner than the PVC insulation and holds up much better to heat, abrasions and to oils. It still seems a bit thin on some of the wires. On most of it I am not too worried because they have split up some of the circuits using 18 fuses so there is not as much load on the wiring like with the original wiring. Also as an example the original system used one wire to power the tail lights and parking lights but this system uses two wires off the switch, one for tail lights and one for the parking lights. But with the blower motor and resister the gauge wire is much smaller to the original wires. Anyone know the amps the blower motor draws?
I think that I may have to just trust that being that Painless wiring is such a big company they have it correct.
Also just for the record I am really happy with the harness. It has been really easy to wire up and everything seems to be going really well. I did have to order some extra terminals and connectors to be able to assemble this harness to all the Corvettes electrical components. I found a place called The Electrical Depot and they have all the GM 56 series terminals that I needed for an affordable price.