So on my Nathan K5 i re ran my main hot to 4 gauge wire its exactly 12 foot to the relay to battery. Ground is same 4 gauge it is 4 foot to clean frame. Yet Im still blowing relays!!! They work fine for maybe 10 times (filling from 80 psi to 120) but i go to turn it on and nothing… These are starting relays from parts stores like big round 4 prong ones. Ive burned up 3. Any help!!! Idk the amp of the relay but figured it could take it. Ordered a Stinger High Current 80 amp from Ebay. Will this solve my problems or is it gonna blow too!!!
Are you running an Oasis? Haha.
What compressor - how many amps are you drawing?
What comes to mind is that a starter solenoid/relay -although beefy- is probably not meant for continuous duty.
It is a viair 450. Not sure how many actual amps its drawing but web says 19 amps is what its supposed to. And im kind of thinking the same as you its not a very high duty cycle relay. Will the stinger 80 amp be a good choice?!
We’re all keen to help you out on this but you’re best to stick to the one thread - otherwise we’ll go around in circles on this.
Did you get your ground changed from the toolbox? If you’re still blowing the starter relays, maybe draw up a diagram of how you’ve hooked things up so we can take another look starting from scratch. Buy a cheapo multimeter in case you can’t borrow or get a hold of one. You’ll want to measure the ground impedance. You shouldn’t be in a situation where the relay burns out with the gear you’re describing. I’m still thinking that the compressor ground is bad, but we’ll just have to step through a process of elimination to find the culprit.
Sorry for the double post. And my compressor and relay are grounded to my clean sanded frame using 4 gauge wire and stainless steel bolt. It is exactly 4 foot. Know it sounds silly but im wondering if the relays are burning up because of duty cycle of them? I know they are starting relays
OK… four prongs on the relay:
Pin 1) Power In 12V
Pin 2) Power out 12V > going to the compressor power in wire
(the above two are high load amperage; indicated by the rating on the relay) Note that the earth or ground wire from the compressor should be going straight to chassis or the negative terminal on your battery.
Pin 3) Trigger 12v (something like an accessory)
Pin 4) Trigger Ground
(the trigger is very low amperage; it only runs a coil which throws the relay)
If the above is not exactly how you’ve wire or understood to have connected things, then can you draw up something (i.e. simple circuit) that indicates how you’ve wired them? Normally starter relays can handle massive amps.
All this is correct except there is no groud pin on these relays the ground is made through the mounting bolts the 4th pin is actually called a signaling wire from what im told
All this is correct except there is no ground pin on these relays they told me the ground is made through the relay mounting bolts
Buy a $5 relay from the parts store. Most are rated for 40 amps.
Ive got a Stinger 80 amp high current coming off ebay. Hope to be here by saturday
Make sure your relay is an accessory relay and rated for the constant load. I had the same issues and used a self grounding starter solenoid. Burnt them up pretty fast, they would get HOT to the touch after a few minutes. I ended up buying two 40 amp relays from the parts store and they work great ever since!
^ thats my exact problem!!! Perfect bud thanks alot!!
Yea the parts store guy said Accessory and starter sell lids are the same, apparently they are not haha
That stinger one Ive got is made for audio and extra batterys so hope this one works