What size wire would you use

So I’m getting ready to do my rear speaker install and was mocking up the power outlet install for the rear doors while I had it all apart. My question for the experts is what size wire would you pull to feed these outlet(s)?


So with some googling, it looks a dual outlet phone charge can pull up to 4.8 amps if both slots are in use. I like to overkill my stuff like we do on powerlines. So I figure 4.8x3 = 14.4 amps which puts me at the high end of 14awg. I don’t think these outlets will see that much load but idk. Or am I way off here, overthinking it or what ? Then again I could pull each an outlet a dedicated run instead of daisy chaining? Plan is to pull off a spare circuit in the interior fuse panel, like the sun roof or heated seats fuse slot (my truck has neither). I figured I’ll be in the doors for the speaker install might as well do this while I’m at it

* on a side note, how come nobody does component speakers in the rear of these trucks? Is it because nobody wants to custom mount tweeters?

@shifty` @assassin10000 @bmf4069

thanks in advance fellas

 

I'd be comfortable with 14awg. 12awg is a hell of a lot to stuff thru the door. I wouldn't be surprised to see OEM was using 18awg for the power ports.

 

Depends. How much are you really gonna pull through that lighter adapter?

I'm leaning towards 12ga.

 

Oh - that actually brings up a good point. Are you running a separate wire for each power port, which is what I interpreted? Or are you talking about pulling one in, then forking it?

 

14 is actually good for 20A. It's limited to 15 for the NEC. You're not supposed to go above 80% for wire ampacity, so that's 16A. I vote 14AWG.

 

Just make sure you are fused properly, which a larger wire (like 14 ga) should be fine with. You want your fuse to fail before burning a wire up.

 

i figure cigarette lighter plug will rarely if ever get used. At the most it might see a small plug in inventor. But I figure my kids will mostly be using the usb ports.

the math I did above was figured on pulling one wire tied to the 2 outlets but after so more googling looks like I need to pull a separate wire for each outlet

@shifty` @bmf4069 @Bakershack @assassin10000 , appreciate the guidance

 

For pure copper not copper clad aluminum

 

One wire to both would be fine.

 

I'm very confused by this chart...

 

It's the rainbow affect or wrong coffee brand.

 

Years ago a ran the maintenance crew at a factory. I was interviewing candidates for maintenance/handyman position, and I still am amused by this one guy's response. I posed a hypothetical question: "let's say we're building out a new office space, using a lighting grid of 6 fluorescent fixtures, each with 4x48" bulbs...what kind of wire would you use?" I was expecting responses like: "can we use Romex in a commercial building?", or "is it a 408 volt grid?", or virtually any other response indicating that his brain was engaged, and that he had sufficient experience to solve the problem. He carefully considered the question, and after several moments of apparently deep thought he responded..."I'd use 'lectric wire, of course". (As opposed to barbed wire, or maybe bailing wire I guess). He didn't get the job.

 

That’s a shame. He wasn’t wrong. And common sense isn’t that common anymore.