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Battery Cable Crimper

6K views 21 replies 14 participants last post by  Drumbeater 
#1 ·
Would anyone care to steer me toward a good crimper when making battery cables? I've looked around abit and see everything from "bang on it" kind, compound giant pliers, hydralic type rated in tons and even those who tout homemade ones from old cable cutters.

I'm looking for specific brand/model info if you have it.

It'd be nice if there a tool that accomodated multiple sizes as well (4,2, 00, etc)
 
#3 · (Edited)
I purchased the crimper you hit with a hammer and a heat shrink splice kit from Genuinedealz , thinking I would never use it again and didn't want to shell out $250 for a crimper. Ironically, I used it again within two months. Worked great both times. They have the expensive ones as well if you want to go that route. Free shipping and a great source for wiring supplies that I found on this forum. They will also fabricate custom cables for you.
Genuinedealz
 
#5 ·
I would have thought that your electrical wholesaler should have been able to loan the heavy duty crimping tool. I know that most wholesalers in the UK can loan one - like the one below.



I have one like the above, that can do most of the extra big sizes needed for battery to starter cables. I don't use it often, but it has paid for itself a few times over.

I did have one like this

until someone "forgot" to return it. Though this only goes up to 25mm cable, whereas the other one will crimp cables over 75mm. (Sorry, not used to USA cable sizes.)
 
#8 ·
I was looking at buying a quality crimper, like the one at GenuineDealz. However, because I am not "in the business" (despite wanting to be), I couldn't justify shelling out another $200+ on a tool that I would rarely use. (maybe 20 times on my boat)

I therefore paid GenuineDealz the $1.00 per end, which is a BARGAIN, to have them do the labor. Their labor charge includes cutting, stripping, double crimp & adhesive lined heat shrink applied over the connection if you ordered heat shrink. They do an excellent job!
 
#9 · (Edited)
In my case, I only needed to extend a eight foot battery cable two feet. So I would have been throwing away 8 feet of cable to gain two! In addition, getting the old cable out and installing a new one would have been a major PITA. On the other hand, I could have had a new cable made for less than the cost of a crimper! Tried to rent a crimper and couldn't, so I opted for the Conan style crimper for around $30, and ordered two more feet of cable and a splice kit. I had Genuinedealz put a terminal on one end, and I spliced the other. Not the prettiest splice, but it's sound, watertight and starts my diesel.
In addition to Genuinedealz shipping for free, I receive the order in 2 or 3 days, and I'm on the other side of the Country (Of course, the UK would be a different story!).
I've done 4 orders with them and have been very happy with each.
 
#10 · (Edited)
In my shopping I decided that were I to buy one, I would strongly consider this one for ~$60 from Harbor Freight;
Hydraulic Wire Crimping Tool


(does anybody know how to resize an image without copying the image)

The problem with this tool is that the dies are neither labelled correctly, nor are they to AWG spec.:rolleyes: I understand that the "AWG 0" pictured above is actually closer to an AWG 6. Harbor Freight has been told about this numerous times, but continues to sell the under sized dies.
 
#15 ·
In my shopping I decided that were I to buy one, I would strongly consider this one for ~$60 from Harbor Freight;
Hydraulic Wire Crimping Tool

The problem with this tool is that the dies are neither labelled correctly, nor are they to AWG spec.:rolleyes: I understand that the "AWG 0" pictured above is actually closer to an AWG 6. Harbor Freight has been told about this numerous times, but continues to sell the under sized dies.
While the hydraulic part is a decent price it is an entirely useless tool, with the wrong sized dies. I have seen crimps made with this tool and they are horribly over crimped with "tags" half the size of the lug... You can very easily over crimp or under crimp battery lug connections and over crimping is equally as bad as under crimping. In my opinion it is $60.00 thrown out the window without the proper dies. This is a tool typical of HF quality control.

Personally I'd suggest adding $100.00 to it and buy the FTZ tool and you'll have it for a lifetime. Hell buy it use it and turn around and sell it for $130.00 to another forum member or split it with a buddy.

Battery lugs are no place to skimp on the quality of the connection. Some of these battery banks, especially when we get into AGM's, can throw 20,000+ amps into a short. The last thing you want is a faulty lug crimp..

The FTZ tool is only $159.00 at KL Jack and well worth the expense. I am a strong opponent of "hammer" or "dimple crimps" on battery lugs for marine applications. I much prefer a 360 degree "swage" type crimp.

As a test to compare between my hammer crimper and FTZ tools I made two crimps. One with my Ancor hammer crimper and one with my FTZ lug crimper. Before inserting the stripped wire I filled the very end of each lug with grains of sugar. I then crimped each lug and dropped them into a glass of water.

The "hammer crimped" lug had wet sugar after less than an hour. Water had penetrated the crimp enough to get to the sugar. The FTZ crimp was bone dry when I drilled into it. I then made another FTZ crimp and at six months the FTZ made crimp was still pouring out dry sugar, when I drilled into it..

That is a big difference in how these crimps will survive in a moist marine environment. Hammer/dimple/staking crimps can also "molest" and fracture individual wire strands, not good....

The FTZ tool makes such a well executed crimp that even solder will not penetrate the crimp band area. This tool makes battery lug crimps that exceed Mil Spec, I've load tested them. While the HFT is a neat tool, in concept, it is far from well executed.

If you don't want to buy the proper tool for the job I'd suggest using Genuinedealz. GD uses the FTZ tool as well......
 
#12 ·
Thanks, but not what I was hoping for.. I hoped that there was a [IMG/size=xxx,yyy] tag that we could use.
 
#16 ·
Opened the pic on my desktop and re-sized smaller before posting it. I use Irfanview and Photoshop as well but any photo program will allow you to do the same re-sizing.

I will second the FTZ crimper @ $159. I bought mine a few years ago at GenuineDealz and have used it for hundreds of crimps since with great results.
 
#17 ·
wSince I rarely crimp/swage big wires what I did was to cut and prep the cables on the boat then take them to the West Marine store and used thier swager/crimper to put on the lugs. The crimper sits out there for anyone to use. I bought thier fittings. Worked great. Helps to have the shrink tube on the wire beforehand so you don't have to pull it over the lug afterwards.
 
#18 ·
I have a "bolt cutter" style swaging tool now but in the past I have "crimped" new terminal ends on battery cables simply by putting them in a mechanics vice and cranking it down.

Not the prettiest and certainly not "proper" but they kept on working just fine. Heat shrink tubing pretties them up a lot. :)
 
#22 ·
I soldered mine just like above. Remember to slide your heat shrink on the wire before you solder it in case it will not fit over your connector. Just melt the solder into the connector until is full and shove the wire into it. Wait about 30 seconds or so before you release it. I use a steel bench vise to hold the connector vertical so you can fill it up.
 
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