Does anyone know if MTH made/makes an extended version of wire between transformer and track? If I splice 2 together, will I lose any power? Is that safe? I have RealTrax and a brand new Z-4000. Thanks.
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
A good solder joint should not have a negative effect. You could also just get a length you need form Amazon. Nothing unique about the MTH version.
Have Fun.
Ron
Just cut your cable in half, splice, solder, and electrical tape or heat shrink tubing your wire connectors, making sure your leads have the correct polarity and make your wire whatever length you need. Just don't use any wire smaller than your original size wire.
Thanks, Gary. 16 guage?
@loadletter91 posted:Thanks, Gary. 16 guage?
If that's what the existing wire gauge is, it should be fine unless you're running it a lot longer distance, then you might want to go up to 14 gauge wire. You're welcome, sorry for the delay, broke the screen on my phone making it not usable, had to transfer everything by hand back to my previous phone. Good thing I held onto it.
Back before covid, we had a great electronics supply store, they moved 3 times-and now are trapped in a bankrupt mall-literally cannot get their merchandise. It’s a mess.
They sold the best banana plugs-heavy duty-not like the lightweight stuff MTH sells.
And you can use 14 Gauge wire.
Any length
I wish I knew they were moving the last time I was in their store-I would have bought more banana plugs.
The reason I made my own Cables-the MTH Cables melted.
Why did they melt?
Because my MTH TIU had loose nuts on the posts on the inside of the TIU-and one day, after running multiple trains for about 4 hours, I started getting that “ozone smell” of hot electronics..,and found the MTH wire had melted..along with the plastic around the Female banana plugs in the TIU.
The tech at MTH I talked to when getting the plastic parts, told me I had tightened the nut too much to hold my wire and that had pulled the posts through the plastic-he had nothing to say after I stated, I used MTH banana plugs.
And found the loose nuts holding the wire on the post inside the TIU.
Then, when I won a TIU with remote on the Big e, the guy claimed he used it on his layout…but it clearly was not-not with the loose nuts on the inside.
