Peter,
Yes, you do need a heavy cable between the two bus bars. You want the cable to be at least as heavy as the heaviest cable attached to either of the bus bars. The good news is that it can be extremely short, so you don't have to spend $$$ on long lengths. I've heard that WM will do crimping for you in some of their stores. You should be able to get 6" or so of cable, and a couple of lugs, and the crimping done on the spot, for not much money. Hope this helps.

[QUOTE=Gorgonshead;17612]Hi guys -

I have too many items to connect to my main negative bus which has 4 posts. I bought a second bus-bar but don't really know how to connect the two of them. Do I need heavy duty cable between the two. I'm talking about the main negative bus within my battery compartment -- battery negative, engine block negative, charger negative, reserve battery negative, echo charger negative, windlass negative, and others.

Thanks --

Peter L

BTW -- Rafael is going back in the water today!![/QUOTE]

With 4 posts you can stack some of the lugs. Flip one upside down and one right side up or come in from opposite sides.. If you still need to join two bus bars or a bus bar and a shunt etc... I use a short piece of 1" W X 1/8" thick copper bar stock from McMaster Carr...

I also use it to gang ANL fuse holders together and create a fuse bus.

You can see an example of the copper bar stock joining the shunt and neg bus on the right of this photo as well as on the left joining the three ANL fuses.. Much more compact that wire....
[IMG]http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/image/149747335.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=Gorgonshead;17631]... McMaster Carr's web site has lots of useful stuff. ...PL[/QUOTE]

I discovered them about 20 years ago and use them frequently. Sometimes you know there must be a 'do-hickey' to do what you need but you don't have a clue what it is called. You can browse around McM-Carr usually find it.

I made my buss bars from 1/2" Cu water pipe flattened out drilled and soldered a flat washer on one side, mounted on a wood block used 1/4-20 brass screws... quick and easy.