Recommended battery terminal replacements?

Awesome guys!
I think I have a pretty informed idea of what i'm looking for now.
Thank you all!
 
X2 on Jerry's advice. It is difficult to get enough heat on a multi-stranded cable to make a solid connection. A hydraulic crimping tool can be gotten from Wal mart for 30 bucks.
 
Jerry Bransford said:
There are some characteristics of soldered connections that don't work well in vehicle applications since there is vibration to deal with. Primarily that of wicking solder back into the stranded wiring that can focus vibration at the point the stranded wire becomes solid at the point of being soldered and cause failures at that point. This is why crimping the wiring on vehicles where vibration is present is not commonly done. Pretty much all cable connectors are crimped in aerospace applications like aircraft and space vehicles where NASA regulations have become the standard for critical wiring connectors.

And you won't find factory soldered connections in any automotive battery cable that I've ever seen in 55 years of driving.

There's some good information at http://www.marinewireandcable.com/2013/11/crimping-vs-soldering-marine-cable-and.html
http://www.audioholics.com/audio-video-cables/crimping-and-soldering that while written around marine connections also applies to non-marine applications as well.

I've been a soldering kind of guy since the early 60's but I've been educated by more than a few on the fact that soldered connections are not often superior to properly crimped connections. I still solder many of my connections but for many applications I'll crimp them or have them crimped.

Not to mention bare copper wiring conducts better than copper wiring that has been covered with solder.
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Great info Jerry.... thanks for posting that!
 
59 wagon man said:
harbor freight sells a hydraulic hand crimper which works on up to 0 gauge I believe
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Yes that is the one I used...

Maybe @Chris has a amazon link to one.

There're really easy to use I would only suggest getting a cutter for the cables but it really is not necessary for only one connection. If you were assembling 8 or 12 ends the time saved might be worth the added expense.
 
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For the cost of the hydraulic press and the very few times I and likely most everyone here has had to replace battery cables over the years I think I'd just pay $25-30 to a shop to have them make the cables for me. :)
 
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Alright so I did this job today and it was pretty good.

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Love the new setup!
 
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JamesAndTheSahara said:
My cables were in good condition, so I opted to cut them & pull them out of their previous terminals and use a torch with solder in the copper eyes to attach them. 30,000 miles later still new as ever. Here are the photos before & after when I first got the Jeep. If I needed to replace the cables I probably would have had a shop make me a set. I'm interested to know why you wouldn't want to solder the cables to the copper eyes to attach to the battery terminal connector, because I thought that was the proper thing to do.

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To add to what Jerry related, typically when you get solder (yes, even the correct rosin core for electrical) hot enough to flow correctly, you are destroying the insulation and it wicks into the cable. At the end of the solder flow in the cable, that creates a stress riser that can start breaking strands of the cable under vibration and since it is inside the insulation, you will never see it.

Do not solder cable lugs for cables. Get, borrow, or have someone use a good lug crimper and then use the adhesive lined heat shrink to provide strain relief and prevent corrosion.

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Great info in this post.
What do you guys use for power distribution? I don't want to add too many accessory connections to my battery terminals and was thinking of adding some sort of power distribution block.
 
JeepNWilly said:
Great info in this post.
What do you guys use for power distribution? I don't want to add too many accessory connections to my battery terminals and was thinking of adding some sort of power distribution block.
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I personally do not add anything to the battery treminal that does not require a direct connection like a winch. When I install my planned aux lights I will add a secondary fuse/relay block to distribute the load.
 
Jerry Bransford said:
There are some characteristics of soldered connections that don't work well in vehicle applications since there is vibration to deal with. Primarily that of wicking solder back into the stranded wiring that can focus vibration at the point the stranded wire becomes solid at the point of being soldered and cause failures at that point. This is why crimping the wiring on vehicles where vibration is present is not commonly done. Pretty much all cable connectors are crimped in aerospace applications like aircraft and space vehicles where NASA regulations have become the standard for critical wiring connectors.

And you won't find factory soldered connections in any automotive battery cable that I've ever seen in 55 years of driving.

There's some good information at http://www.marinewireandcable.com/2013/11/crimping-vs-soldering-marine-cable-and.html
http://www.audioholics.com/audio-video-cables/crimping-and-soldering that while written around marine connections also applies to non-marine applications as well.

I've been a soldering kind of guy since the early 60's but I've been educated by more than a few on the fact that soldered connections are not often superior to properly crimped connections. I still solder many of my connections but for many applications I'll crimp them or have them crimped.

Not to mention bare copper wiring conducts better than copper wiring that has been covered with solder.
Click to expand...

Couple of points to make...First off, I'm a solder AND crimp kinda guy. I like to crimp the connection, then solder it. Jerry is 100% correct about vibration...However...it cannot be stress enough...for a crimped connection to work, it has to be properly crimped. The $2.99 pair of crimpers you get from the big box stores don't cut it. Good crimpers for automotive style terminals are $$$, plus they are specific to the terminal you are crimping. I have a couple different sets at work, and they work AWESOME...but for the average guy that is dealing with a bunch of different style terminals, its impractical to spend 300 bucks on a pair of crimp pliers.
 
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