Also, pay close attention to what he "rants" about on OFC. Most people assume copper wire is copper wire. BUT, if steps in the manufacturing are not taken to keep the wire oxy free you will get oxidiation in places you don't want it.
The only wires I could see you ever having a problem with would be speaker wires in the door jamb or the connections right a the amp and then only if the nothing was bolted down and the wires was run on top of the carpet.
This true, however, it is also in a protective sheeth which helps with that not to mention the amount of power being carried thorugh factory speaker wire is very minimal.
What I was trying to say does relate to power. A power wire's diameter relates to it's ability to carry power which is a function of P=A*V or P = I ^2 * R and realistically the wire's resistance could be calculated by it's most narrow point. It is very likely that it could internally break even a small amount will change the resistance value of a wire. The thicker the wire the lower the likely hood of a wire breaking simply because of how massive the wire is. On the other hand the smaller it is the more likely it is to have these internal breaks from bends or the vibrations esp. if there is one in the engine compartment. If you choose not to believe that it "could" happen well I apologize but it can happen.
I'm gonna stop you right there. We're not dealing with hollow pipe here. When you bend a solid wire it's not going to bend inward on the inner radius like a crimp bent exhaust will. The diameter of the wire will remail constant through out the bend.
If you think this is a possibility I hope you've upgraded every wire on your car because this is simply ludicrous. With constand flexion and tension on a wire it will eventually break, yes. How much do you think an average wire in a car moves?
Going above and beyond is fine, but you're still thinking like we're running power in a house. Your amps are NOT a constant draw. Ok, they are, but not a constant heavy draw. In fact, most people with large amps never even come close to ever pulling anything near the max that the amp can put out. On the very rare occassion they do it's for short bursts. This makes it perfectly safe to use a smaller wire with NO issues.
That calculator is a little funny. It tells me to run 4 gauge to my distribution block, but then a 6 gauge and A TWO GAUGE to the amps. that seems a little wierd to me!
