Where to buy stingers and what to look for?

[Eddie B]

I'm about to purchase my first lighting kit (Arri's Softbank I Tungsten) but am vague on what to look for before buying stingers. What gauge and other elements should you look for? Everyone I know to ask on the subject has made their own, but I'm not comfortable doing that. If anyone can give me a link, preferably to B&H, I'd really appreciate it. My current needs shouldn't require anything over 50'. Thanks.

 

[stuckfootage]

The Arri Softbank I has two 650s and one 300, so that's roughly 2x6.5amps plus 1x3amps, for a total of 16 amps.
Most stinger plugs are 15amps, so you'll need to use at least two plugs, even if you have to put everything on one 20amp breaker.
You'll have to figure out how long you want to be able to run, depending on locations, etc. You say say 50 feet max.

Even though you might only have a single light on one stinger, you should probably go ahead and plan on getting something
that's rated for the full 15amps, because you never know what you might want to add. Typically for 15A short runs, 12 gauge cable is used. So I would suggest you get two of these 50' 12ga stingers, and for convenience, two 25' 12ga stingers.

Just to give you an idea of the safety factor: if you connected all 4 stingers end-to-end, assuming the connectors are clean,
you would get a 150foot run of 12gauge cable, which would be a voltage drop of maybe 10volts, which is under 10%.