2 ga Cable/Wire Crimping

[corsair23]

Discovered last night that the positive connector for my winch going to the battery is fubar. Connector looked weak and thin to begin with but with all of the pushing and prodding to route the cable to the battery the connector gave up the ghost.

So, now I guess I need to buy a new connector and a crimper, but as usual I know nothing about these. I've got your typical little electrical crimper deal for 14-20 ga wire but nothing big enough to do the 2 ga winch wire.

Is this what I need

http://www.mytoolstore.com/ideal/ide12-08.html

I read an old thread by Red Chili about relocating batteries to the rear on a 4Runner where he talked about getting a crimper that wasn't too expensive so I'm hoping that means I just don't know what I should be looking for.

TIA

 

[wesintl]

Fill the lug with solder 1/-3/4 and insert cable end. Don't burn yourself. Then i put a shrink fit insulator on the end.

 

[corsair23]

Hmmm...that holds ok? There won't be much (shouldn't be) stress on the cable but some of the ones for the winch look like the cable was fed in, crimped, and then a hole punched to make the "ring" or eye. I think my positive lead was a PO "redo" as the width of the metal on the ring isn't more than 1/8" wide, and now it is split/broken. HONEST. Tragic really as all the others are nice and thick.

 

[Hants]

Here's a variety from DelCity:

http://www.delcity.net/delcity/servlet/catalog?parentid=229&page=1

The Die Cast Terminal Crimping Tool at about $150 (typical price) crimps all the way around and gives a (much) better mechanical connection than the $50 hammer/vice crimpers.

I've been eying it for my upcoming dual-battery/winch project. If you end up wanting to buy one, I'd consider splitting the cost with you

 

[wesintl]

That's how I do mine.. I havent' had any issues. If your cable is short it might pull on it or if you use really stiff cable with less strands. Othewise that's how I did all my new cable connections for the new used winch and redoing my grounds on the rig.

 

[nuclearlemon]

if you want to crimp it also, you can pound it in with a chisel, but the solder and heat shrink has worked for me for years.

 

[trucruiser]

I have used the little crimper that they supply when you buy a custom set of ignition wires, tap with a hammer.
If you have never purchased a set of wires you have to crimp the ends on then you may not know what im talking about.

 

[corsair23]

Alrighty...I'm going to try the solder/heat shrink trick first

I'm also going to run over to that JL Audio distributor just down the road from me as they have some really cool bling stuff that might work for a long term. I want to run the power for the winch, lights, and power center (secodary fuse block for CB, outlets, etc) off there and JL makes something that looks like it would make these connections real slick (see here). Of course no idea how much $$ that bling stuff cost


Hants, as for that crimping tool...That is tempting but I'm got to stay inexpensive for now as the mod fund has taken a serious hit lately

 

[Hants]

... the mod fund has taken a serious hit lately

I suspect quite a few of us are in that boat right now

 

[Seldom Seen]

I've been working on mounting my winch in the 4Runner and I decided to mount the control box under the hood, so I'm going to need new cables.

Since the crimpers I had only go up to 6 ga, I figured I'd solder them as well. I did some searching on the marine sites for how-to's. I always defer to the boating crowd, for projects like this, 'cuz I can't think of a harsher environment for electrical connections.

This is what I found out: You must use tinned lugs and cable or be able to tin the lug and cable. Use non-acid flux and non-flux core solder that is formulated for electrical connections. The stuff you would use for soldering copper pipe won't work for making good connections.

All the articles I read DO NOT recommend soldering alone. Soldering, if done right, will make a good electrical connection but will not make a mechanical connection.

All of the how-to's I read highly recommend crimping 1st and then soldering!! Most of the articles stated that if crimping is done right, there is very little room for the solder to flow into anyway and there is little benefit to soldering other than increased water tightness. Dielectric grease and heat shrink will give equal weatherproofness.

Per Red Chili's recommendation I got me one of those hammer crimpers to finish the project and it works great. you are welcome to use it if you want.

I went over to Westmarine, on County Line, this week to pick up more cable and lugs and got to talking to one of the guys in there. Lo-and-behold they have an entire work bench set up for customers to use to make their own cables !!!!! Buy your stuff there and you are welcome to use it. Cutters, strippers and a bench mounted compound leverage crimper, every thing a gearhead would need to get-er-done right!!!!

 

[RockRunner]

Take it to a stereo shop, they will do it ussually for free. I did that with my last truck, now I did buy a bunch of stuff from them in the past but I don't see them saying no.

 

[RockRunner]

I suspect quite a few of us are in that boat right now

I could not even buy my wife a B-day present How do you think she took that Now I have to let her drive the 4Runner everyday for a month Plus I am still broke............

 

[corsair23]

I went over to Westmarine, on County Line, this week to pick up more cable and lugs and got to talking to one of the guys in there. Lo-and-behold they have an entire work bench set up for customers to use to make their own cables !!!!! Buy your stuff there and you are welcome to use it. Cutters, strippers and a bench mounted compound leverage crimper, every thing a gearhead would need to get-er-done right!!!!

SWEET! That is super close to me. I'll have to swing by and check it out!

 

[RockRunner]

SWEET! That is super close to me. I'll have to swing by and check it out!

Lookout for the price, I buy some of my boating items there but only when they are on sale.

 

[corsair23]

Lookout for the price, I buy some of my boating items there but only when they are on sale.

Thanks for the heads up...Unfortunately they've got me while I'm in a hurry and can't spend too much time searching out the best price

 

[Red_Chili]

Gee, I didn't even have to make a post!

+1 on Seldom Seen's advice BTW...

 

[leiniesred]

crimp and solder. Use propane torch.

Here is how I do it.
Use a propane torch to heat up the 2 gauge end you got at the car parts store. (hold it with pliers)
Tin the inside with solder.
Put heat shrink tubing on wire a couple of feet away from the end.
Stick cable in end.
Crimp by putting the end in the vice with the little craftsman screwdriver in the middle of the end so it smashes down the middle of the end to try to force the cable to seperate.
Test mechanical connection. Crimp a little more if it wiggles.
Heat up the crimped end and fill that sucker with solder. Go ahead an tin the outside if you want to. It seams to reduce corrosion.

Let cool. Then slip heat shrink tubing on. Use to torch one last time to do the heat shrink tubing.

 

[Hants]

SWEET! That is super close to me. I'll have to swing by and check it out!

Post up your findings -- it sounds like it'd worth a trip up there (after all the components are acquired & mounted).

 

[corsair23]

Post up your findings -- it sounds like it'd worth a trip up there (after all the components are acquired & mounted).

Will do Hants...I'll try to run by after work if they are still open today. If not it will be this weekend

 

[corsair23]

Post up your findings -- it sounds like it'd worth a trip up there (after all the components are acquired & mounted).

Ok...So I ventured to West Marine Friday evening. Nice guys in the store.

Impressions:

Selection: Pretty slim pickens. Not sure if they were just running low on some stuff or what but there wasn't much variety and they seemed to be out of a lot of items. I found what I need though so I was

Price: Tom mentioned in an earlier post that they are pricey. Not having priced out the stuff I needed I can't say for sure but I think I agree with Tom. Price for two 2ga battery terminal lugs/ring was around $8. Came in packages of 2. Crimper deal (actually a swagger?) was ~$25. I looked at price of 4ga cable and it was $5.50/foot but keep in mind this is a marine store so the cable is marine cable (so the guy said).

They do have the "work bench" where customers can put together their own cable (tough for me to do seeing that the cable was attached to the LX). Not much but looked decent enough to get the job done if you had all your cable measured out etc. I'm not sure if you could show up with your own stuff and use the bench.

I inquired about whether or not they offered clubs discounts. NOPE. I explained to the guy about the RS club and that it was through the forum that I heard about the store. It didn't seem to matter.

Anyway, if you are in a pinch and need some cable, lugs, etc. they have the items if you can't find the stuff elsewhere. This week I'm going to run into Quality Auto Sound on County Line just west of Quebec (SW corner next to Le Peep) to see what they have.