Copper Clad Wire

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equium

equium

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I was about to purchase some wire on ebay for my project, when I noticed the description said it was copper clad aluminum wire. In a nutshell, it's stranded alum. wire, coated in copper. It's less expensive than solid copper stranded wire.
I was going to use it for a headlight-relay upgrade.
any advice on this type of wire is appreciated.
thanks
danny
 
from what i've heard, solder does not stick to CCA very well

you need special flux and/or solder

some people buy the CCA off ebay then realize that they cant work with it, then go buy copper wire
 
Three words: Don't use it. Aluminum wire corrodes at a rapid rate compared to copper, and this corrosion raises the resistance of the wire to the point that it is a fire hazard. Especially in high current circuits. Copper cladding reduces the corrosion problem but adds the variable of surface conduction due to the fact that copper is a better conductor than aluminum. This effectively reduces the gauge of the wire since very little current is flowing through the center of each strand, i.e. a 12 gauge wire now acts like an 18 gauge copper wire. Have my doubts about the integrity of a solder joint with copper clad aluminum as well. Spring for the copper wire. There's a reason that mobile homes are now wired with copper after years of being wired with aluminum...
 
I can sum this up LOL

love-stay-away-13257057211.png
 
Aluminum wire has its place in our daily lives but definitely not in automotive applications.

Personally I like commercial grade multi-strand electrical wire like they use in conduit because the insulation is much better than what I can buy at the auto parts stores. If you know any electricians or HVAC people, maybe they will hook you up with some left overs.
 
Oklacarcollecto said:
Aluminum wire has its place in our daily lives but definitely not in automotive applications.

Personally I like commercial grade multi-strand electrical wire like they use in conduit because the insulation is much better than what I can buy at the auto parts stores. If you know any electricians or HVAC people, maybe they will hook you up with some left overs.
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I didn't know we could use that kind of wire. I could have sworn I read somewhere not to use that. Not sure why; it's stranded copper with great insulation like you said. I've got some laying around. good to know I can use it. thanks
 
equium said:
I didn't know we could use that kind of wire. I could have sworn I read somewhere not to use that. Not sure why; it's stranded copper with great insulation like you said. I've got some laying around. good to know I can use it. thanks
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If I am not supposed to, I have been doing it wrong for all these years without having problems. I might have been doing it wrong. I know that you not supposed use solid copper wire for automotive because it doesn't have the flex capabilities.
 
Oklacarcollecto said:
If I am not supposed to, I have been doing it wrong for all these years without having problems. I might have been doing it wrong. I know that you not supposed use solid copper wire for automotive because it doesn't have the flex capabilities.
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That was it. SOLID copper. That rings a bell. I knew it was something.
thanks
 
Only real problem I know of using stuff like THHN "house" wire is that it's fairly stiff, as in hardened. Makes it a bit more difficult to "lay" into some places. You CAN buy automotive wire with better insulation. Years ago I bought some kind of Belden heavy duty truck wire to rewire the old Landcruiser. You could take a short piece of say, no14 and lay it across the battery, and most of the time it would "blow" the wire apart without melting through the insulation.

Much better than thermoplastic. Sorry, don't remember the name of it, and this was in the 70's
 
You get what you pay for. Aluminum wire was a less expensive material for building mobile homes. The entrance cable to your home meter can is likely aluminum too.
It's not going to move in that application but it will pay to tighten those lugs once every 5 years.
I use aircraft grade wire in building IVRs. Sure it drives the cost up. Failures and worry about failures goes waaaaay down.
 
You'll notice that the more flexibility a wire needs, the more, finer strands it has.
 
Have a 100ft or so of that cable lying around. So I used it in a harness I built. Starter to relay,relay to fuse box. Where ever 10GA was called for. And for all the extra grounds I put in. But I made sure to cover it with heat shielding or split loom and secured it good because that insulation seems rather soft to me. Think it will last?
 
hangn0ut said:
Have a 100ft or so of that cable lying around. So I used it in a harness I built. Starter to relay,relay to fuse box. Where ever 10GA was called for. And for all the extra grounds I put in. But I made sure to cover it with heat shielding or split loom and secured it good because that insulation seems rather soft to me. Think it will last?
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no...
 
There IS purpose for "strange" wire. When I was a kid, and first got into amateur radio, there was a telephone wire (pole to pole) that we all called "copperclad" which had a tempered steel core, because it was stronger, with ice, snow, etc. Harder'n 'ell to cut, but you could 'bout tow a car with that stuff.

The one stuff I've ALWAYS hated was "tinsel" used in telephone handset and instrument "coily cords" This junk is flimsy copper strands wound around CLOTH core, and you can NOT solder it. It requires special crimped terminals to be reliable. It is used because it helps cut down on static when flexing the wire. Still used today in some headphone cords

Another interesting mix is stuff like (Andrews etc) "heliax" which is large diameter low signal loss transmitting and receiving "hardline" used for long tower runs of RF feedline. This stuff is ordinarily a corrugated copper outer shield with an irritating foam dielectric, and a tubular aluminum inner core that is copper coated. You need a "big ***" iron to solder the center conductor, esp. up on a tower in the wind. I used to use the "big" Weller butane iron for that

The bigger stuff with a tube inner conductor is normall mechanical connections not soldered. The larger "air core" stuff is sometimes pressurized at low pressure with nitrogen

50ohm_RF_Coaxial_andrew_heliax_feeder_Cable.jpg


I never had to deal with anything this big, LOL a bout 1 3/8" was biggest I ever fiddled with

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The cable I have is 5 wires with paper strands running alongside. All covered with a heavy insulation. Each wire is made up of 30-50? very fine copper strands. Very flexible. Each wire is insulated with a rather thick yet soft insulator. Overall the conductor is heavier than a 10 guage. I had been using this as a long extension cord to get 220 out to a garage. That has been done properly now so the cable is just taking up space. Thanks for the help! Edit: just checked it out. Only 3 wires,each 65 strands of 0.008 dia. copper wire.
 
Is there ident numbers on the jacket? No way to know what this was meant for, originally.
 
Sounds like 12/3 SOOW. It would look like a larger gauge, and has very thick rubbery insulation, especially when compared to Romex (solid) or even THHN. As said it should be on the jacket.
 
Sorry for the delay. And thanks for the help. I got several rolls lying around. The 3 wire cable was on top of the pile. Wrong one. Proper cable has 4wires. Black,white,red and green.(I did say 220.) However the wires are the same. 0.008dia. and 65count. I can find no printing anywhere. Zkx14s description sounds like it. What do ya think? Watch closely? Will the insulation hold up? Liquids or chemicals to avoid? I imagine it doesn't handle heat to well. I did take that into account. I do okay with wiring. The harness I built works good so far. I pulled every wire out of the car to start. Starts good, charges good and the lights stay bright at idle and when the motor isn't running. Thanks again!
 
There's no way to say what your wire will do without knowing what it is. Are you using the whole cable, or individual conductors separated? 12/4 SOOW is about 5/8". That could be quite bulky depending where you run it. If you do run individual wires from it... SOO has oil resistant inner wires, SO does not. Not that either should be soaked in oil or anything else...
 
I have pulled the individual wires out,4 from that cable. Not knowing the qualities, I was careful how I used it. Kept away from heat sources, covered with thermal sleeve where necessary, plenty of slack and clamped down as needed. I think it will be okay. I will be checking it often. I do read carefully all comments made and certainly appreciate the help. Thanks!
 
Yes, that is shop-type extension cord wire. The outer jacket determines if it is SOOW, SJ, SJO, etc. It is made to be very flexible and resists stretching. The wire itself will be good for this use; very good for flexing. The insulation of the individual wires is the question and may be prone to absorbing oil, but that is just my best guess. It should not move around if well tied down and supported as the insulation so soft, but wire be prone to easily nick and cut, so extra protection is a good idea. Auto wiring insulation is tougher and more resistant to oil absorption.
 
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