I'll accept that criticism. Noted and thanks. :-D
TBH, I don't know I'll ever be in the hardest possible conditions. I suppose very cold is one, but we try not to boat in very cold. Out of curiosity, what other factors make up the hardest conditions? Moreover, not really knowing the full load of this particular starter (which is why I asked), educated guesses are about the only feasible method. Then err on the upside.
I suspect that I'm darn near already working the system I have to its limit. If you look at the pictures of the current state of wire and connections, it's pretty poor. And I would also suspect that this condition was a contributing factor to the starter failure I experienced 18 months ago. Nevertheless, while having the highest AWG possible is a good thing, there is also a breaking point where it's overkill and restricts flexibility, space, and cost.
I'm not arguing your position, nor trying to convince you of mine. I'm just being open about the processes that steer the decisions that *I* am making. It has been said (not by me though) that it's my project and I'll do with it as I please, but half the point of this thread is to help others see approaches to projects like this they may have missed. Case and point is the plumbing project thread. It eventually lead to me rethinking several aspects and resulted in a much better rig. That's why I am here and I HOPE that's why we are all here.
Tom-