VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Commercial Vehicles Vintage Siren Wiring

Good evening. Trying to connect vintage siren to truck with 12 volt system. Siren ehcked out at local starter shop and it tested out at 12v, but 30 amps. To wire this up without melting wires, I would need 6 gauge wires, which are basically jumper cable size. Original wires to this siren (never worked in my possession) are about 14 gauge and the terminals to the siren are small, so I'm not seeing how this makes sense.
Am I missing a solenoid or relay in this circuit that would get me down to "normal" size wires?

No data plate on siren, so can't provide make or model, but I can post photo if that helps.

I'll hang up and listen.

Not sure where you get the 6 gauge wire requirement, 14 gauge DC will handle 30 amps adequately. Also, keep in mind you are not running siren continuously as would be the case with say a heater motor. I have an old Federal Siren on my 6 volt fire truck that also pulls 30 amps. I run mine with a starter solenoid and a 30 amp fuse with 14 gauge wire and no problems. It is important to use a solenoid as most toggle switches won't handle the 30 amps on a repeated basis. I.E. on, off, on, off. The arcing will make a short life. I tried different lighting solenoids but they couldn't handle the intermittent cycling but when I went to the starter solenoid end of problems.

OOPS, meant to say "14 gauge wire will handle 30 Amps DC adequately"