Home Made Battery Cables

[CRittaler]

Awesome!  Thanks!

All the heavy cables in my Suzuki Samurai are 0AWG and 2AWG welding cable.  I went that way because at least I know industrial cables are held to a standard, unlike car audio cable.  Sure I sacrificed some flexibility, but I wanted cabling that was known to be true to size and properly standardized.

I'm in the process of redoing all the battery power/ground cables on the F250 when I found this post.  I'm using the same 2AWG Flexoprene welding cable.

[ArdWrknTrk]

A lot of us have good things to say about the tinned marine cable from Great Lakes Skipper.
It is very fine and flexible.
You can get it with a couple of different insulations.

[Gary Lewis]

Yep, that’s what I use.

[Gary Lewis]

Ok, here's a prelim report on the new TEMco 5 ton crimper.  First, here's the crimper in its blow-molded case, along with all the die and the repair kit.  And note how dry things are?  My old crimper leaked from Day 1.



And here are the first two crimps.  Both are, as they proudly say, 10 gauge.  The terminal on the left was bare copper and I tinned it myself.  The terminal on the right is one of the many Molex terminals I just bought.  I used the standard #10 die and the crimp is perfect.  Hexagonal with crisp corners, which the manual says is correct for the right die.  But w/o the "wings" that the manual says are due to using too small of a die.

I'll measure the die and post that info as well as make more crimps and post pics thereof, but as of now I'm a happy camper.  This thing can be used one-handed, which means you can hold the wire in with the other hand.  It doesn't leak.  And it crimps "just right".  

[kramttocs]

All looks great! Appreciate the review (not that we expected any less )
Much better than the yellow one I've been using.

[ArdWrknTrk]

I couldn't keep my head around all those die sets.  

But your crimp looks good, and you don't have to source any oddball Magnalugs!    

[Gary Lewis]

Scott -

Jim - Just think that there are die for every wire size, not just the even ones.  So, for instance, you have an 11 between 10 and 12.  

But you are right, it looks to me like I won't have to use Magnalugs.  And while I might want to use them on things like battery cables, I'll bet that I can crimp them w/o the wings I've been getting.

[Gary Lewis]

I want to point out something else that I noticed from the picture that I didn't see before.  The terminal on the right is one of the new Molex VersaKrimps I ordered from Amazon, while the one on the left is a generic one from my stash.  Note the seam on the two terminals.  Molex says:

VersaKrimp terminals and splices are as versatile as they are tough. Bonded with a special silver brazing alloy, VersaKrimp brazed-seam terminal barrels simply can not split, remaining terminated under conditions of stress or wire pull. VersaKrimp terminals can be crimped from any direction.

Here's the picture again:

[Gary Lewis]

Found a new use for my 5-ton crimper this morning.  The cable connecting the two safeties on my lift broke so I ordered some new cable and sleeves.  I installed the cable this morning and crimped sleeves on each end to ensure the cable doesn't unravel or pull out of the safeties.  Can you tell what die I used?  

[ArdWrknTrk]

I'm surprised the cable gave out.
It doesn't seem like a high stress application

[Gary Lewis]

It broke where the screw captures it in the safety.  I didn't crank down as hard on it this time, but I got 100' and it only takes 20, so if it breaks this time I'll figure something else out.