Quote Originally Posted by Killa From Manila View Post
use 6mm cable??r u sure thats huge.


edit jstu read the rest. so ur prob usin 2.5mm cross sectional area then. or auto wiring is totally diff to regular cable
The wire that's in the ARB and Piranha looms is 6mm diameter, including the insulation - it's not just the wire that is 6mm thick. This sort of wire - http://db.hella.com.au/cgi-bin/catal...ew&flmaint=441 and http://db.hella.com.au/cgi-bin/catal...ew&flmaint=442 . It's somwewhere between 10 and 11 AWG, I think, with Hella saying it's about 4.6mm˛ cross sectional area.

I prefer diameter, or wire gauge (SWG or AWG/GA) to cross sectional area. Somewhere between 8 and 12 AWG is ideal. DSE actually used to have some high quality red and black 5mm wire, which I think was about 12 AWG, that I used to use for wiring driving lights, but they've taken it off the market sometime in the past few years - I last bought some early this decade. None of the main electronic stores - DSE, Jaycar or Altronics, seem to have anything between about 4mm thick and the 8GA wire, which is 6.5mm thick, so I recommended that.

The Hella wire from above would be ideal, and may be available from some more specialised auto places, including auto electricians - whether Repco, SCA or Autobarn would have it, I don't know, but I suspect not. They may be able to order it, though, if they haven't got it, as it should be a standard line in the Hella catalogue. The trouble is, they may want you to buy 30 metres, if they have to order it!

Quote Originally Posted by vinnY View Post
8ga? pretty fat cables to have leading up to a h4 bulb connector i'll see what i can do

enquired about the relay rating and cable gauge size but they weren't able to tell me much other than 'it's rated to run a 55w xenon ballasts... so it should be okay'
not verbatim but pretty much what they meant
Chances are the relay contacts should be OK - it looked like a standard mini relay with 30 or 40A contacts. They are pretty cheap from most electronic and car accessory stores anyway - even places like Big W and KMart sell them.

Yeah, the 8GA wire is about 6.5mm thick - slightly thicker than the auto 6mm cable that ARB and Piranha use, which is probably the Hella cable, seeing that they supply a lot of the Australian car industry's electrical products, including headlights. If the HID people supply nice thick wire in their harnesses, then use that. It's hard to tell from the photo they supply, and saying it will supply 55W HID ballasts doesn't really say much - I'm sure Honda would tell you their wiring thickness is suitable for 55/60W headlights. IMO, it's not. It's almost certain that the HID harness uses thicker wire, but whether it's 12 GA (AWG) or thicker you may not be able to find out, unless you buy one. It looks as if the wire is all hidden inside split convoluted tubing and heatshrink, by the look of it, so asking them to measure it may not be helpful, even if they have a vernier caliper.

Rallylights do have a similar upgrade H4 harness using 12GA cable, here http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=1247 - select HL28200 with the menu (below "In stock"), which gets the harness for two H4 headlamps - US$79.64. I think that after postage, the Aussie ARB or Piranha looms will be better value, and of similar quality. I was also unable to find whether they export or not.