ring connectors and multiple wires

I'm laying out the wiring for my helm instruments. The old wiring just looked to me like a "birds nest". Wires going everywhere.

I noticed on the old helm that every single wire that connected to each gauge had it's own ring terminal. This caused many of the studs to have 2-4 ring terminals stacked.

I'm wondering weather it's proper wiring technique to combine 2 separate wires or even more into a single ring connector provided the ring connector is the proper size. For instance if we have 2 AWG#16 wires is it acceptable to place both wires into an AWG 10-12 sized ring terminal? It would seem that by doing this I could neaten up the panel wiring quite a bit. If I'm making up a grounding wiring "harness" for a gauge set running all the grounds in series this technique makes for a much neater installation.

Any thoughts?

MIA

 

Yes, that is the preferred way of doing a harness. You can make a jumper for all the power feeds and one for all the grounds.

 

There is an ABYC standard for how many connectors are acceptable per stud. I believe it may even be a different number per wire size.

The below standard is for battery studs, I believe there are other standards for buss bars, etc.


ABYC (E-11.16.4.1.11)
One additional related requirement limits the number of conductors that can be secured to a battery stud to four. Multiple connections can hinder good electrical contact and more than four connections could result in insufficient engagement area between the nut or lug and the stud. Again, excessive heat buildup could result.


Bonus: Here's the recommended color codes:

http://www.acbsphl.org/Tips_and_hints/ABYC_Wiring.htm

Steve

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I thought that this technique would be OK Gonzo.

I understand that there is a limit or four connectors on a battery stud, my question here though was limited to wiring around the helm with light gauge wires.

Regards,

MIA

 

The more connectors you stack, the worse it gets. At the battery, that means high temperatures and even melted battery posts. On gauges it is not as dangerous, but still bad practice.

 

On the gauges you can simplify the wiring by making a daisy chain for all ground terminals by crimping two wires in a connector. The ground terminals are for illumination only.

For the positive side there may be 2 terminals on a gauge, one for illumination and one for the gauge itself. These can also be bridged and daisy chained between gauges, greatly reducing the wire count. Only an ammeter must be wired separately.

 

Good to hear from you CDK. That's precisely what I ended up doing. I had a pleasant time making up some harnesses for the ground circuit and the lighting power circuit on my workbench. Having these harnesses pre-made will simplify the final installation when I install the gauge panels in the boat.

Hope all is going well for you,

MIA

 

It ended up like this.