Copper sleeve?

What you need is a Reducing Cable Connector

Greaves Cable Reducing Connector

jhilley wrote:
What you need is a Reducing Cable Connector

Greaves Cable Reducing Connector

That's what I would use too (or equivalent), but what to do for crimping it?

In theory, after you reduce the wire, there is no reason to run the larger wire. A chain is only as strong as the weakest link. Just as the voltage drop created is negligible, so is the benefit of using the larger wire.

I have soldered this wire before. Strip it back, untwist the strands and brush on flux first. Push them together and heat it all with a torch, I use a smaller butane torch. Have two pieces of shrink tube ready to slide over the exposed area.

BurbMan wrote:

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
You couldn't get me to not solder it for all the Quetzales in Guatemala.

Not sure what a quetzale is or how many there are in Guatemala...BUT....what do you use to solder cable that fat? How do you get the wire hot enough to flow the solder without burning off 3" of insulation?

My little Weller won't heat anything over 14 ga and even that gets messy...I could use some advice on tools/techniques here.

Refillable and adjustable down to a pinprick flame. I have used this torch to solder 3/0 cable lugs. I only use a solder gun on PC boards and discrete components these days. I solder WEATHERPACK TERMINALS with this torch!

BurbMan wrote:

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
You couldn't get me to not solder it for all the Quetzales in Guatemala.

Not sure what a quetzale is or how many there are in Guatemala...BUT....what do you use to solder cable that fat? How do you get the wire hot enough to flow the solder without burning off 3" of insulation?

My little Weller won't heat anything over 14 ga and even that gets messy...I could use some advice on tools/techniques here.

Takes a TORCH to do soldering on large wires, basically a propane type which you would use for sweating copper pipe..

Using a small electric gun or iron will do nothing more than create melted insulation and bad solder joints (aka "cold" solder joint).. Takes a lot of heat which can be applied and removed in a very short amount of time to do this properly (note.. I have had bunches of soldering "refresher" classes plus many years experience soldering).

Take a look at page 35 of my following document (hopefully the link works) .

HERE

Disclaimer.. The above link "should" work but may or may not work if I get logged out.. Google also makes you use their crummy reader which messes with the pictures.. You can download to your PC and open with Adobe reader to see the pictures correctly..

danager wrote:
In theory, after you reduce the wire, there is no reason to run the larger wire. A chain is only as strong as the weakest link. Just as the voltage drop created is negligible, so is the benefit of using the larger wire.

I have soldered this wire before. Strip it back, untwist the strands and brush on flux first. Push them together and heat it all with a torch, I use a smaller butane torch. Have two pieces of shrink tube ready to slide over the exposed area.

In this case that is not true. There won't be any additional voltage drop and you get the benefit of the low voltage drop in the 2/0 cable. This is the only way to terminate large cables in electical and electronic equipment.

How long is the 1/0? I would try to just use #2 without worry.

Jhilley,

Thank you for this info, I did not know they made this type of connector.

I had planned on using my lathe and turning dead soft copper bar into this same type of connector and then using the 16 ton crimper to attach it to the cable etc.

Tia,
Don

jhilley wrote:
What you need is a Reducing Cable Connector
Greaves Cable Reducing Connector

Me, I'd just clip a few strands off the 1/0 cable so that it would fit the #2 cable fitting. KISS and two less joints. Would probably end up being larger than a #2 cable.

Smkettner,

This ia a SWAG on the length at this time, but from rough floor measurements, it appears to be right around 8-10' max (one way) from the battery to the MS MPPT 60a CC.

Once I get the bottom coroplast covering off, I will have a more accuate measurement, plus I also plan on updating the OEM 10ga wire run to the front 2 batteries which has a 20'+ (one way) from the 9260 converter, this explains why these 2 front tongue batteries were never fully charged, no matter how long I ran the gen set.

Tia,
Don

smkettner wrote:
How long is the 1/0? I would try to just use #2 without worry.