Optimistic Paranoid
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You can find cheap electrical tape for sale everywhere. But it almost always loses it’s grip and falls off after a few months. If that happens on wires behind your walls, you’ve got real problems
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3M makes the professional grade tape that doesn’t come unstuck. They designate it as Super 33+. Super 88 is similar, but thicker.
For individual wires, I prefer to use heat shrink tubing. But there are still a few places where only tape will do.
120 volt AC electrical parts were designed for use in stationary houses, not moving vehicles. Connections can work loose under vibration.
Once I connect two wires together with a wire nut, I like to wrap a little electrical tape around the nut and wires.
I also think it’s a good idea to wrap the sides of outlets and switches with several wraps of electrical tape to help prevent the screws from backing out once you tighten them down over the wire.
For ordinary wires, heat shrink tubing is a better choice than any tape. It just CANNOT come loose, once it has been shrunk.
For marine applications, they make a special heat shrink that is lined with adhesive. The heat not only shrinks the tube, it also activates the adhesive. The adhesive makes the whole joint waterproof, even if submerged.
It’s more expensive than regular heat shrink, and PROBABLY overkill for most of what we do. I would consider it for areas exposed to the elements, say, wires on the roof.
3M makes really good heat shrink tubing. I would be really leery of unknown/unmarked brands – probably cheap Chinese crap.
Ancor and Blue Sea Marine for the marine heat shrink.
Colored heat shrink can be used to code wires. You can cut a 1 or 2 inch piece of one color, shrink it over a wire near the end, then cut some smaller pieces of different colors and shrink them over the first tube, Say a white tube with red and green rings over it.
Rather than run individual wires, consider getting automotive zip cord. It’s similar to the lamp cord sold at your local hardware store, except that one side is red and one is black, and the insulation is rated to resist gas, oil, anti-freeze, etc. which the household zip cord is not.
Crimp on terminals are available either insulated or uninsulated. The insulated are color coded – yellow insulation for 10 and 12 gauge wire, blue insulation for 14 and 16 gauge, and red for the 18 and 20 gauge. This can be convenient.
BUT, the uninsulated are not only cheaper, I think using heat shrink tubing over them actually gives you a better connection. Plus, you pick your own color heat shrink for coding, as above. But it is more work, and takes longer.
That's all I have. Others should please feel free to add their own tips to this thread.
Regards
John
.
3M makes the professional grade tape that doesn’t come unstuck. They designate it as Super 33+. Super 88 is similar, but thicker.
For individual wires, I prefer to use heat shrink tubing. But there are still a few places where only tape will do.
120 volt AC electrical parts were designed for use in stationary houses, not moving vehicles. Connections can work loose under vibration.
Once I connect two wires together with a wire nut, I like to wrap a little electrical tape around the nut and wires.
I also think it’s a good idea to wrap the sides of outlets and switches with several wraps of electrical tape to help prevent the screws from backing out once you tighten them down over the wire.
For ordinary wires, heat shrink tubing is a better choice than any tape. It just CANNOT come loose, once it has been shrunk.
For marine applications, they make a special heat shrink that is lined with adhesive. The heat not only shrinks the tube, it also activates the adhesive. The adhesive makes the whole joint waterproof, even if submerged.
It’s more expensive than regular heat shrink, and PROBABLY overkill for most of what we do. I would consider it for areas exposed to the elements, say, wires on the roof.
3M makes really good heat shrink tubing. I would be really leery of unknown/unmarked brands – probably cheap Chinese crap.
Ancor and Blue Sea Marine for the marine heat shrink.
Colored heat shrink can be used to code wires. You can cut a 1 or 2 inch piece of one color, shrink it over a wire near the end, then cut some smaller pieces of different colors and shrink them over the first tube, Say a white tube with red and green rings over it.
Rather than run individual wires, consider getting automotive zip cord. It’s similar to the lamp cord sold at your local hardware store, except that one side is red and one is black, and the insulation is rated to resist gas, oil, anti-freeze, etc. which the household zip cord is not.
Crimp on terminals are available either insulated or uninsulated. The insulated are color coded – yellow insulation for 10 and 12 gauge wire, blue insulation for 14 and 16 gauge, and red for the 18 and 20 gauge. This can be convenient.
BUT, the uninsulated are not only cheaper, I think using heat shrink tubing over them actually gives you a better connection. Plus, you pick your own color heat shrink for coding, as above. But it is more work, and takes longer.
That's all I have. Others should please feel free to add their own tips to this thread.
Regards
John
