I am just puzzled ...

[AJMike]

Given the issues I have had with the Renogy 40 amp DC-DC charger I thought I would get the Victron 30 amp charger instead. Ordered it from a local supplier and it arrived earlier this week. Today I sat down to get the stuff I needed to install it and ran into a very strange problem.

The Victron charger uses a set screw connection for the wires. That is, there is a hole for the bare wire and a set screw to hold it in place when it is inserted. The Victron manual calls for a 16 mm2 wire size if the wire run is 5 meters or more and since I believe it to be that long I checked to see what the corresponding gauge would be. Turns out to be 5 gauge according to several online conversion webpage routines I checked.

Now I have never seen 5 gauge wire, but then I am not an electrician and what do I know of available wire gauges, so I decided to check the auto stores. None of the local auto parts stores have 5 gauge wire. OK. Perhaps I could use 4 gauge in its place, but since the Victron charger I have is still in its original plastic case and box I decided to call the techs at the store I bought the charger to find out if it would take 4 gauge. You can imagine my surprise when I was told it would not take anything larger than 6 gauge. Well, I asked, why would the manual call for 5 gauge if the device will not take that size wire, and was met with a long period of silence, only to then be told that I could step the 4 gauge wire down to 6 gauge right before the connection to the device.

So a couple of questions. Where would I go to get 5 gauge wire? Does anyone sell it (other than perhaps specialty houses)? Is it really safe to step down the wire size from 4 gauge to 6 gauge to fit into the charger? And why would the manual tell you to use a wire size that would not fit???

OK. That last question was not a real question; more a cry of frustration.