Bh, If 2ga worked for you great! If the numbers I saw are correct, the reason might just be the difference between continuous and short use. Might boil down to how much of a safety factor does one want essentially. And of course we are taking calculated -or not- risks everytime we go out there.
But do keep in mind also that besides the heating/safety issue there is also the voltage drop issue which may rob power from your winch or make things hotter. Here are some numbers I looked up quickly for 2ga in a few tables to get a feel for the effect:
copper: I see for 10' of 2ga 100A will give somewhere between 0.3 and about 0.6V drop (depending on source). 20' double that etc. 200A double that, etc. So taking 0.4V above, say, if you have 20' say to go to the back of the truck and pull 200A (medium pull), your loss would be 1.6V, so instead of 14.4 you'd have 12.8V for the winch (assuming the alternator could maintain the 14.4V with a 200A pull on the battery). That's quite a bit of difference. For intermediate pulls the winch will then need more amps for the same pull so more heat in the wires and winch, not great. And it snowballs from there. But the bad part potentially about this then is that if you are in trouble and have a harder pull to the max of the winch, say 350A for a medium winch it'd be even worse voltage wise, and the lower voltage / higher current may then become a limiting factor then in how much your winch can pull before something gives. Not that we pull at max load that often of course if the winch is reasonably sized.
And worse still, if it's aluminum -as your cables may be- it's something like 40% greater voltage drop still.
Just thinking aloud here, so somebody who really knows about all this, correct me please.
With all that said, personally I would use bigger than 2ga, well at least with what (I think) I know now.
But do keep in mind also that besides the heating/safety issue there is also the voltage drop issue which may rob power from your winch or make things hotter. Here are some numbers I looked up quickly for 2ga in a few tables to get a feel for the effect:
copper: I see for 10' of 2ga 100A will give somewhere between 0.3 and about 0.6V drop (depending on source). 20' double that etc. 200A double that, etc. So taking 0.4V above, say, if you have 20' say to go to the back of the truck and pull 200A (medium pull), your loss would be 1.6V, so instead of 14.4 you'd have 12.8V for the winch (assuming the alternator could maintain the 14.4V with a 200A pull on the battery). That's quite a bit of difference. For intermediate pulls the winch will then need more amps for the same pull so more heat in the wires and winch, not great. And it snowballs from there. But the bad part potentially about this then is that if you are in trouble and have a harder pull to the max of the winch, say 350A for a medium winch it'd be even worse voltage wise, and the lower voltage / higher current may then become a limiting factor then in how much your winch can pull before something gives. Not that we pull at max load that often of course if the winch is reasonably sized.
And worse still, if it's aluminum -as your cables may be- it's something like 40% greater voltage drop still.
Just thinking aloud here, so somebody who really knows about all this, correct me please.
With all that said, personally I would use bigger than 2ga, well at least with what (I think) I know now.
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