Questions about battery cable length and stiffness

[Mike Lewis]

I may have asked these questions before and forgot. That's okay-- a rehash would be useful to new members of the Forum:

1. More than a year ago I installed two BattleBorn lithium batteries in my Escape. I bought cables for them that are 1/0 in size. The red cables are two feet long, the black cables are one foot long. Since then I have read that all battery cables in a multi-battery system should be the same length. Please comment.

2. These battery cables are 1/0 marine grade cables. They are pretty stiff. When I initially installed them I was concerned that the stiffness could damage the terminals on my new batteries due to the torque. After being on the batteries overnight I noticed that they "formed" to their new shape and no longer put a stress on the terminals. I am in the process of reconfiguring my battery compartment to add more batteries. Is my concern about stress on the battery terminals valid? I could "pre-form" new cables to their anticipated shape ahead of time and leave them overnight in the new shape. What do you think? I'd hate to ruin a $950 battery by damaging its terminals. I'd probably cuss.


Thanks.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

I may have asked these questions before and forgot. That's okay-- a rehash would be useful to new members of the Forum:

1. More than a year ago I installed two BattleBorn lithium batteries in my Escape. I bought cables for them that are 1/0 in size. The red cables are two feet long, the black cables are one foot long. Since then I have read that all battery cables in a multi-battery system should be the same length. Please comment.

2. These battery cables are 1/0 marine grade cables. They are pretty stiff. When I initially installed them I was concerned that the stiffness could damage the terminals on my new batteries due to the torque. After being on the batteries overnight I noticed that they "formed" to their new shape and no longer put a stress on the terminals. I am in the process of reconfiguring my battery compartment to add more batteries. Is my concern about stress on the battery terminals valid? I could "pre-form" new cables to their anticipated shape ahead of time and leave them overnight in the new shape. What do you think? I'd hate to ruin a $950 battery by damaging its terminals. I'd probably cuss.

Thanks.

Regarding #2 I thought that flexibility was one reason guys use welding cable for larger gauge applications. I used 6 AWG for some rewiring recently and it was fantastic.
https://powerwerx.com/welding-cable-epdm

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

1. More than a year ago I installed two BattleBorn lithium batteries in my Escape. I bought cables for them that are 1/0 in size. The red cables are two feet long, the black cables are one foot long. Since then I have read that all battery cables in a multi-battery system should be the same length. Please comment.

The relative length of cables on the positive and negative side of the battery doesn't matter. What matter in a parallel battery configuration is that the total resistance of wire and wiring devices is the same for the current paths through each battery - if you trace the route going through battery #1 or battery #2, the total length of wire that you go through should be the same. Effectively that means that the sections of wiring in common don't matter (to this issue of matching wiring), and the sections which are unique to each path should ideally be the same length.

Many online diagrams showing how to wire batteries in parallel violate this rule.

[NEWYORKHILLBILLY]

Brain answered #1



#2 the Battle born terminals are one the strongest Terminals in the business.I like there design because you really cant over torque them. I don't think with 1/0 you have anything to worry about. You could also heat the outside up with the heat gun . This would make the cable jacket more flexible. I assuming that your wire is stiffer because it has a PVC jacket as opposed to rubber as used in welding wire.

[Greg A]

Interesting thoughts, Mike. My Battleborn’s arrived yesterday, but the 1/0 cables are still stuck in FedEx somewhere so can’t see them yet to get a look at what you mention with the stiffness.

[Vermilye]

One note on adding Battleborn batteries to an existing Battleborn system - According to Roni Ventura of Dragonfly Energy (the non RV side of Battleborn) they do not recommend adding new batteries to a system more than 2 years old.

[Mike Lewis]

Originally Posted by Vermilye

One note on adding Battleborn batteries to an existing Battleborn system - According to Roni Ventura of Dragonfly Energy (the non RV side of Battleborn) they do not recommend adding new batteries to a system more than 2 years old.

That's good to know, thanks. I still have time to complete my system.