Making battery cables

[sande005]

I plan on adding a small inverter/6v batteries this spring. Due to various other "life" things, the turnaround window for the project will be relatively short between getting the trailer out of storage and on the road for a planned trip. Until I can actually get to the trailer and start the project, I have only a rough idea about how long a wire run will be needed between the batteries and the inverter. Pre-made cables on Amazon look to be very expensive. There may not be enough time to wait for delivery, and to order ahead I'd have to overbuy as to length to be safe. Plus I'd have to cut off very expensive lugs on one end of the premades! I have a couple of marine places nearby where I can get 1/0 or 2 ga wire and lugs. I could do a bad job of soldering. But would really like to have the lugs crimped on. The marine places don't have a crimper. Nearby "Rent All" places don't have them for rent. Have struck out at chain Auto stores, Batteries Plus, and even an RV dealer. Any suggestions on types of local places I should hunt for to see if they can crimp, or even make, "to length" cables when the time comes?

[xrated]

First of all, Do NOT solder the lugs on. Heat (current flow through the wires) can be your enemy with soldered lugs. Crimping is the accepted standard! Here is a link to Amazon where there are a lot of crimping tools available. Just be careful though and make sure that the ones you consider are large enough to handle the size wire/lug combination that you will need to crimp. I normally recommend a high quality tool in most instances, but for very occasional use, some of the cheaper one would probably serve you well.....

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=wire+crim...f=nb_sb_noss_1

[ncitro]

I have used this crimper with good luck in the past.

https://www.amazon.com/TEMCo-Hammer-...ateway&sr=8-22

[howson]

I plan on adding a small inverter/6v batteries this spring. Due to various other "life" things, the turnaround window for the project will be relatively short between getting the trailer out of storage and on the road for a planned trip. Until I can actually get to the trailer and start the project, I have only a rough idea about how long a wire run will be needed between the batteries and the inverter. Pre-made cables on Amazon look to be very expensive. There may not be enough time to wait for delivery, and to order ahead I'd have to overbuy as to length to be safe. Plus I'd have to cut off very expensive lugs on one end of the premades! I have a couple of marine places nearby where I can get 1/0 or 2 ga wire and lugs. I could do a bad job of soldering. But would really like to have the lugs crimped on. The marine places don't have a crimper. Nearby "Rent All" places don't have them for rent. Have struck out at chain Auto stores, Batteries Plus, and even an RV dealer. Any suggestions on types of local places I should hunt for to see if they can crimp, or even make, "to length" cables when the time comes?

Based on @Damon's (a.k.a. Nomado) real-world experience with installing his setup I purchased the crimper he recommended in post 13 of this thread: https://www.mygrandrv.com/fo...l=1#post218089

I have not tried using it yet, but it's big and looks like it will do the job nicely. It's not cheap but I'm a sucker for tools...

AMSolar (the company I purchased my equipment from) recommended a hammer crimp like this one: https://amsolar.com/rv-installation-tools/tool-cmp

Don't forget to get a good pair of wire cutters, too. (I haven't tried this too, either, but I have it and it looks like it will work great.)



-Howard

[Cate&Rob]

Attachment to post 57 on this thread is how I have been making battery cables for years . . . https://www.mygrandrv.com/fo...882#post166882

Edit: I would strongly recommend against the "hammer crimper" . . . based on personal experience.

Rob

[sande005]

Alright..Amazon order placed. I had spent the day running around the Mpls/St. Paul metro looking for either a crimper to rent, or someplace to fab cables. No go. After way too much time scouring the net for information, it came down to:
1. Yes, a quality crimper will do a superior job. But it costs. I just hated to have to buy another tool that I may not ever use again after 6 crimps.
2. The inverter I planned to buy (Xantrex 600w) called for 1/0 cable. But other brands in the same size called for as small as 4 ga. (if I assume a 6ft run). I split the difference, and bought 2 lengths of 15' 2 ga. Cheaper, not that much more voltage drop, and therefore gave me a bit extra to mess things up with.
3. Despite Rob's very good advice, I'll give the cheap "hammer crimper" a try. One suggestion was to put it in my bench vise, rather than pound on it, to make the crimp. We'll see....
4. Although I can't start work on the trailer until the end of April, I ordered everything now. Then I can play with the crimper, and if it doesn't work out, still get the one howson provided a link to.

I did learn how pricy marine cable can be...almost $9 per foot for 1/0 at West Marine. Yikes has copper gone up. No way would I have ever converted my boat with a 25' total run to a 24v trolling motor back in the day if prices had been that high.

[xrated]

When I installed my Trojan T105's in the trailer, I needed a jumper/battery cable to be able to series the two 6 volt batteries and end up with 12 volts. I've got crimpers at the house, but they are for smaller wire. Rather than buying a set of crimpers for the one cable, I bought a piece of 1/0 welding cable and the two lugs and did the "put it in the vice" at the house. I used a 1/4-20 bolt and ground the end of it down to the shape of what a crimping dye would be....to make the crimp/indention in the lug. It worked just fine. Obviously, if I had a bunch of them to do, it would be a lot easier to buy the crimper for that size cable and just do it that way, but.....

[howson]

Note to thread readers: the solder related posts were moved here:

Solder Battery Cable to Lug?
https://www.mygrandrv.com/fo...y-Cable-to-Lug

-Howard

[Mark&Colleen]

I've had custom cables made for my boat from this company. http://www.genuinedealz.com/

[Nomado]

As Howard mentioned I had a hard time with the hydraulic crimpers and found this one very easy to use and provided a solid crimp. It is similar to a hammer crimp but has an adjustment for the wire size. Because of this I think it would be more consistent on the crimps vs a hammer crimp. Here is a link on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/TEMCo-Lug-Cri...ateway&sr=8-14

Also, another suggestion is to buy more lugs than you think you need for each size. They are not that expensive and easy to buy on Amazon. I ended up for various reasons having to make some extra cables and running around town trying to find lugs is not the easiest.