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Big 3 Upgrade? Where to buy wires?

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Old Jul 17, 2010 | 07:39 PM
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Big 3 Upgrade? Where to buy wires?

I seen a lot of talk about this on numerous forums.

Just a little curious what gauge and type of wire did you use?

I was planning to find the cheapest wire I can get in 4 gauge.
There is some talk about using a fuse kit. (Internet cheap 4 gauge amazon or so)

I have a 87 4runner and it has a 60amp charge.

Is it ok not to run a fuse kit?

Thanks

Last edited by strictly_s; Jul 17, 2010 at 09:17 PM.
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Old Jul 17, 2010 | 08:51 PM
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Go to a welding supply shop. Its multi stran and cheaper in comparison, I got a student discount to boot. I'm running single 0, overkill but thats what I wanted.
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Old Jul 17, 2010 | 09:17 PM
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did you run a fuse kit as well on yours?
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Old Jul 17, 2010 | 09:22 PM
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I just did this upgrade as well for my cs130 105 amp alt upgrade, which muddpigg above helped me out alot with...anyways, I got my wiring at ACE hardware, I went with multi stran 2 guage wiring. And as for your fuse question, people run it without fuses, but why not put one in while you're doing it? I put a 120 amp fuse inline in mine, it was about 3 bucks at O'reilys

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Old Jul 18, 2010 | 04:42 PM
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I just bought a amp kit for $30 bucks. I needed the speaker wires and rca's anyways.

4 gauge and it comes with a 60 amp inline. I definitely should of went bigger with the alternator, but i bought my truck for $100 bucks the cheapest alternator is $50 bucks.
Maybe later on the lines i'll do the mod if I do go crazy with aux and lights.

Oh one of the reasons why I am doing the big 3 is because I am installing a new alternator. Might as well since its out and easy to reach!
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Old Jul 18, 2010 | 05:45 PM
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good luck! And just so you know, you'll have to do some splicing for the power source of the fuse box, and make sure you splice into the original wiring and keep the smaller wire hooked up to the alternator, it powers the dash lights, fan, rear lights, brake lights etc... if you need any more help just ask
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Old Jul 19, 2010 | 12:54 PM
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if you cheap out now, it will cost you alot more later. do it right the first time or dont do it at all. the point of doing the "big 3" is to allow better current flow, you already have 4 gauge wire run from the factory most likely so to replace it with 4 gauge would be pointless. do at least 2 gauge if not 0 gauge if you want to do it right. 0 gauge wire is not cheap by any means but again do it right or dont do it. also keep in mind that you are going to need to buy some ring terminals for the wire to connect to things such as your alternator and main fuse box. NEVER skip out on fusing something that carries a current, the last thing you want is the wire to somehow ground out or cause a surge that in a normal situation would just pop a fuse, but since you decided to skip the fuse it starts a fire. Think it through completley, make a list of what you need, write down the costs of ecerything and start saving your money.

just my opinion, take it as you will.
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Old Jul 19, 2010 | 10:25 PM
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No, I haven't installed fuse yet. I got a large blade fuse and holder off Ebay for cheap but ran short on time and haven't gotten back to it.
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Old Jul 20, 2010 | 10:24 AM
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Originally Posted by drpdmazda
if you cheap out now, it will cost you alot more later. do it right the first time or dont do it at all. the point of doing the "big 3" is to allow better current flow, you already have 4 gauge wire run from the factory most likely so to replace it with 4 gauge would be pointless. do at least 2 gauge if not 0 gauge if you want to do it right. 0 gauge wire is not cheap by any means but again do it right or dont do it. also keep in mind that you are going to need to buy some ring terminals for the wire to connect to things such as your alternator and main fuse box. NEVER skip out on fusing something that carries a current, the last thing you want is the wire to somehow ground out or cause a surge that in a normal situation would just pop a fuse, but since you decided to skip the fuse it starts a fire. Think it through completley, make a list of what you need, write down the costs of ecerything and start saving your money.

just my opinion, take it as you will.
Factory wiring is 8 guage so 4 guage would still be an upgrade, but good advice nontheless
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Old Jul 20, 2010 | 08:42 PM
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I did a 4gauge and put a 70 amp inline. Now i just need the truck to idle better =\
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Old Jul 20, 2010 | 09:16 PM
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Originally Posted by strictly_s
I did a 4gauge and put a 70 amp inline. Now i just need the truck to idle better =\
also give your battery a better fround, whatever size you use to do your uprgrde, run the same size for the battery ground. you we see that the ground wire goes a short distance to a bolt on the fender, pre measure a length of wire, get two ring terminals for the ends and go from the battery bolt to the body bolt. make sure you use ring terminals that are thin enough to fit behind the body bolt.

update with some pics
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Old Jul 23, 2010 | 05:36 PM
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Just finished mine



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Old Jul 25, 2010 | 01:39 PM
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nice, looks good. Did you get the ground at rear of block to body?
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Old Jun 10, 2017 | 06:53 PM
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Sorry to dig up an old thread but I'm trying to find out what the big three is?
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