Where to buy crimped battery cable

I have one of the first HFT hydraulic crimpers, but the dies are too small for anything thicker than 4awg.

I have filed/ground out some of the smaller sizes to do 2awg thick walled ring terminals and 4awg, but I would like to try the tool shown above, which can be found for under 30$ on Ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mechanical-Rotating-Die-Compound-Wire-Terminal-Cable-Lug-Crimping-Crimper-Tool-/191231201280?hash=item2c86449000:g:RT8AAOSwbqpTsMmt

The HFT Hydraulic crimper is kind of awkward and clunky and can require some effort and lots of time to get a good looking earless crimp.

4X4Dodger wrote:
DO NOT Solder the wire. It creates a hard spot that will break with repeated vibration. It is not recommended.

That is my experience also. I have never seen a recommendation from any manufacturer to solder the terminal.

D.E.Bishop wrote:
there is a West Marine in San Diego on Rosecrans I think. The answer to your second question is no that is not normal and will eventually cause problems.

I have never heard that you should not solder any place but on this site. I would love to know who recommend not soldering. I've soldered crimp fitting on many different sizes of wire and never had a problem and I have purchased battery cables with cast led terminals. As far as hard spots how about hard drawn wire it is hard and stiff but can be made soft by annealing it.

I'll be home on Sunday, come on up with the wire and the terminals and use my Betts crimper. Mechanical but it works.

The automotive industry as a whole does not want soldered connections. The problem as i see it is is the smaller low amps wires. NOT battery cables. This is "Likely" where this "no solder" comments come from. Total nonsense. Here is Trojans take on battery cable connections using thermal imaging. Scroll down to the "white papers" section

It requires the right crimper the right die and the right wire to correctly crimp. You can not have any " air " in the connection or over time and high amps use (think inverter) will oxidize the the connection. If you crimp and solder the solder will seal out the air and fill in the voids of the crimp connection. This makes the best overall connection. And you dont need to spend big bucks on correct wire die or crimper.

As it says in the Trojan white papers, proper crimp, then solder. Not to be mistaken for using a hammer crimp or other poor means. Solder with the wire up and the terminal down so the solder doesn't run into the wire causing stiffness. If one method is chosen, it's crimping. Soldering isn't a substitute for not having a crimper.

While working on electric fork lifts and JLG or Gennie lift products for 35 years I have never seen a crimp that was also soldered. General Electric systems. Motor brushes, armatures, scr controls, contactor tips etc would all go into melt down before the crimped cable lugs were a problem. I have seen lug connections melt down when poorly crimped and then soldered. If you like wearing a belt and suspenders solder too as there is no harm but a good crimp is first.

The best crimps I have used was with a hydraulic, cordless 15 ton tool used by a telco for handling 0000 and 00 48 volt cable. They didn't use solder, just crimped the ends, and this was for NEBS-3 gear that if it failed, there would be very bad consequences. It also used lugs which you put the heat shrink tubing on, crimped on two places, then used a heat gun to seal it all in place, the heat shrink tubing having some sort of glue on the inside to further deal with oxygen.

Said tool was $5000... and I've not been able to find anything near as good, so I have it on my list, right next to the Uponor ProPEX tool which costs $750, but makes the best expanding PEX connections out there.

My local NAPA store did mine for me.

Welding supply.

Do not solder!

Get your cable and ends then find any electrical contractor or the local power company guys. They all have the crimpers that will do from about #10 through at least 0000. Beer money will usually get the job done!

mlts22 wrote:
The best crimps I have used was with a hydraulic, cordless 15 ton tool used by a telco for handling 0000 and 00 48 volt cable. They didn't use solder, just crimped the ends, and this was for NEBS-3 gear that if it failed, there would be very bad consequences. It also used lugs which you put the heat shrink tubing on, crimped on two places, then used a heat gun to seal it all in place, the heat shrink tubing having some sort of glue on the inside to further deal with oxygen.

Said tool was $5000... and I've not been able to find anything near as good, so I have it on my list, right next to the Uponor ProPEX tool which costs $750, but makes the best expanding PEX connections out there.

Yes, my son bought the Milwaukee propex tool. $500. Very worthwhile with how simple it is to use and knock $7,500 off the plumbing job!!! When I was working I thought our Geenlee power crimper was expensive at $1,800.

I have to say the Ebay $30 tool does a great job for the money. It's not perfect like the Greenlee crimp but absolutely nothing wrong with it. Mine isn't even leaking after doing 30 or more connections. I figured if it did I'd just toss it in the lake, after I properly drained it and took all necessary environmental precautions of course.

With a good crimp, solder is wasted, as a good crimp is, by definition, gas tight. Someone posted pictures of a crimp they cut in half. It was basically a solid piece of copper. No solder was getting in there. All soldering would do is wick in to the cable and damage the insulation.