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Ancor Terminals: the must haves

6K views 26 replies 15 participants last post by  asdf38 
#1 ·
So, I'm going to rewire my DC panel (and maybe run some new wires) on my Catalina 30, and I thought I should put together a terminal / connector kit (rather than make 40 trips to West Marine).

I know it's hard to generalize, but what are the must haves, in terms of terminals....the 20% of the connectors that one uses, 80% of the time.

I found a 600 piece kit on Amazon, but again, why pay for connectors you're never going to use?

Would love to hear from those of you who have been down this road before.

thanks,

tom
 
#2 ·
Hooked spades, for each gauge of wire, are ok; but whenever possible I recommend ring terminals. In order for them to come off the entire screw has to come out of the connection, something you will like be alerted to through intermittent electrical problems long before it becomes completely disconnected.

Some heat shrink tape or tubes is also a must have, to cover any butt-crimps you need to do.

Oh, and spend the money for a good quality stripper/crimper; don't cheap out and buy a dollar store one, spend the extra 5 or 6 $ and get a good one, you'll be glad you did.


Fred
 
#14 ·
Oh, and spend the money for a good quality stripper/crimper; don't cheap out and buy a dollar store one, spend the extra 5 or 6 $ and get a good one, you'll be glad you did.
I don't know where you will find a quality crimper for $5 or $6 extra. The kind you should get is the double-action sort that locks around the terminal until the crimp is completed. I found one on sale at WM for $50 -- the normal price is around $90. However, I wasted more terminals with crimps that either didn't hold or that destroyed the terminal. Terminals are not cheap.
Invest in the gold-plated crimper.

Also you will find that about 2/3 of your terminals should be the size that is color-coded yellow.
 
#3 ·
Thanks, Fred.

On the butt connectors, should I get the thru-pipe kind, AS WELL AS the closed on one side, kind? Also, how about the step-up or step down connector?

Also, how many gauges should one get?

On the ring terminals, it seems like they have a zillion eyelet sizes.
 
#4 ·
Along the same line of thought, what is a good price to pay for, and where is a good place to find, a quality racheting crimper? I have seen ratcheting crimpers from Paladin for ~$40, but they require that you buy a die for an additional $20. Sixty bucks is more than I want to spend on a crimper.
 
#6 ·
I bought all my terminals at Harbor Freight. You can also get the stripper and crimper there as well.

Order the shirnk wrap from Tiewraps.com . Be sure to get the kind with the adhesive.

Use vaseline for dieletric goop.

It's all much cheaper this way. Some will argue the quailty. Fro me it has worked great.
 
#21 ·
I bought all my terminals at Harbor Freight. You can also get the stripper and crimper there as well.
What is the quality of tools from HarborFreight? I was interested in their heat gun, but the price is soooo low that I am suspicious that the quality will not be very good.

I would be grateful for feedback from any HF customers..

thanks
Micheal
 
#7 ·
Definitely want the adhesive lined heatshrink tubing.

Avoid spade terminals... you really need ring terminals and butt splices.

The spade connectors are pretty useful, especially if the female ones are insulated properly. I use these for making up polarized connections for electronics that I can remove.

I'd second Harbor Freight.
 
#9 ·
On my boat, I use #10 14-16ga (blue) ring terminals the most. Also the 1/4 and 3/8's ring. Anything larger than 10ga wire, you most likely will need a rather larger crimper. Home Depot (if your local store has a marine wire section) has great prices on Ancor products.
 
#10 ·
Blues and Reds are the one I use most.
Rings that will go around a 1/4 inch bolt and ones that will go around a # 10 screw seem to fill 90 percent of my needs.
Boats-cars-motorcycles
 
#11 ·
boy, this is great. Exactly what I needed. How about the splicing: always tube butt splices, or do you make use of the crimp end cap style? [all wires go into a tube which is capped, then gets crimped]

Finally, how about Ancor normal vs. Ancor with built in heat shrink?

Thanks, again, guys.

I'm hoping to do a step by step on what I learned with the re-panel project, with photos.
 
#15 ·
As with everything else, you get what you pay for.
Ancor products cost more...they should.
Ancor is the only mfgr that makes the adhesive (water proof) terminals, but you can get a package of same from Harbor Freight and Radio Shack. They are expensive but perfectly suited to the purpose...the more rigorous outdoor / bilge environments. Harbor Freight terminals tend to crack upon crimping. Ratchet crimpers work well if they're crimping Ancor terminals, otherwise get the variety that have the semi-circular anvils in the jaws and look like a pair of pliers with long handles...you need the long handles for generating the pressures crimping requires. Remember, a good crimp will distort the terminal around the conductors very tightly without destroying the insulation. The conductors should just be visible at the end of the barrel...not necessary to protrude. ABYC says captive terminals only...rings and bent spades ok; push-pull ok too, if it takes at least 6# pull to separate.
Don't EVER cut individual wires to force conductor into a convenient terminal. If the conductor is obviously too small to crimp properly, double it over on itself or insert another conductor into the barrel and trim the excess after crimping. There's more.
 
#16 ·
Wow, lots of good input; but I don't think you need a $60 dollar crimper. The best one available at Home Depot worked fine for me, and I did a LOT of wiring work on my boats.

This is my crimper, $21 from H.M.
http://store.hamiltonmarine.com/browse.cfm/4,26911.htm

Totally agree about ring connectors over spade/forks; especially if you need to connect more than one wire to a stud. (but none of us ever do that, do we?;) )

Do spend the money on good connectors, the Ancor ones are great. I usually getr most of my stuff from Hamilton Marine
http://www.hamiltonmarine.com/,
but I'm a Maniac at heart.

Don't cheap out on terminal blocks either; you'll be glad for extra places for more vampires to connect to, and it will make for a much neater installation.

Oh, don't forget split conduit and hangers........

Fred
 
#17 ·
Do not dink around with combination stripper/crimpers. Get a convenient sized pair of strippers; I like the stripping jaw to be on the outside of the hinge. For crimping you need a pair of Klein pliers. The Kleins have two jaws, which are all you need, one for insulated and one for uninsulated, and a small nipping end for cutting wire. Klein is to crimping pliers as Crescent is to adjustable wrenches. Both the strippers and Klein pliers are available at your local Home Marina. Klein also makes a nice pair of strippers. With daily use I get about five years out of a pair of their strippers. I've never worn out a set of Klein pliers, even though I use them daily as well.

I am against the plastic insulated crimp fittings for other than attaching to terminal blocks. If you are connecting wires together in a butt splice i would recommend a "sta-con" and shrink tube. The butt connectors rot out and if you cover them with shrink tube, the plastic melts as you heat the shrink tube. Better to just eliminate them. A great alternative is available at your local well-drilling supply house. You can get heavy wall sta-cons, much thicker metal than the plastic coated jobbies and shrink tubing that has some real wall thickness to it. The shrink tubing we use on submersible pumps is far better than the thin cheap stuff at WM, Home Marina, or your auto parts store. And it all comes with the glue inside, in clear or black, pre-cut or cut to length. Once this shrink tube cools it is as stiff as the wire it's connecting.

In those areas where it is necessary to use electrical tape, I recommend Scotch 88, accept no substitutes. We used to use it for splicing wires to be immersed, until we switched to the convenience of shrink tubing. Splices covered with 88 last just as long as with shrink tube, it's truly a great tape that may change your opinion on electrical tapes. You may have to go to an electrical supply house to find it, although some hardware stores do carry it. That well-drilling supply house will have it.

The trouble with the terminal ends is finding ones uninsulated, if you're going to cover up to the terminal end with shrink tubing. The electrical supply house is your source for these as well, with a good selection of terminals, insulated and non-insulated. You will also find such specialty terminal ends there as ones where the wire attaches at 90 degrees to the end. Look 'em over, you have far more options than what the Ancor value pack has and you can buy what you really need versus having half a box of stuff you'll never use.
 
#18 ·
In those areas where it is necessary to use electrical tape, I recommend Scotch 88, accept no substitutes. We used to use it for splicing wires to be immersed, until we switched to the convenience of shrink tubing. Splices covered with 88 last just as long as with shrink tube, it's truly a great tape that may change your opinion on electrical tapes. You may have to go to an electrical supply house to find it, although some hardware stores do carry it. That well-drilling supply house will have it.
Sway, have you ever tried "Rubbaweld" tape?? Like most of these products, they claim to do everything and generally can't.. :(

I did buy a roll of the stuff a while back (it's around here somewhere), but find it is too easy to grab the nearest roll of ordinary electrical tape when there's a job to do.
 
#19 ·
Hartley,
No I have not, and at $12 per 9 feet I do not anticipate the pleasure occuring soon!
The reason I rec. Scotch 88 is that it is the best electrical tape I've found, it even works in the cold, and it is "reasonably priced" at about $5 per roll. Compared to hardware store tape at a buck a roll it is pricey but then, unlike the hardware store tape, it works!
 
#20 ·
I really like the adhesive lined heat shrink connectors because I consider a crimped connector as highly subject to corrosion and encapsulating it slows that process. I use the ratchet type Ancor crimper and although it makes a very secure crimp, it's still only a mechanical connection and the space around the connection makes it subject to corrosion. For big connections (like battery cables), I crimp, solder and then cover in adhesive lined shrink wrap tubing

Here's a place to get supplies for less than West marine. Once you find a cheaper source for the supplies, it doesn't seem so bad to go the extra mile.

www.genuinedealz.com

www.delcity.net
 
#22 · (Edited)
I've used some harbor freight stuff and its all worked pretty well. But for important / tough jobs, I go with a good name brand made in the USA w/ a lifetime no hassle warranty. If I break it, I don't want to explain how I broke it or mail it in w/ an explanation and wait a week for a replacement. I want a new tool now to finish the job.

As for the original poster, I didn't see anyone recommend this, but my experience from working on race cars (extreme vibration) is that the only connection you can count on is soldering.
Some people may say a proper crimp is sufficient with shrink wrap That's nice, but a correct soldering of 2 wires is permanent and stronger than the wire itself. When I wire my boat this winter, all terminals will be soldered and shrink wrapped. And I'll be damned if I'll have an electrical issue. With as much motion as a boat has, I'm surprised no one suggested this. The only downside, most soldering irons req. 120v but they do make gas powered and some battery powered options.

Edit: Do you need a pair of $50 crimpers, no, you can still get a good crimp w/ the cheapos. Do they make your job A LOT easier, hell yes. And even a cheap pair of strippers saves a lot of time over using a razor or knife.
 
#23 ·
You really shouldn't solder most connections on a boat. The problem with soldering a connection, is the solder causes the wire to become more rigid, and the connection is more subject to fatigue failure. Also, a soldered only connection can fail under a high load-which is why the ABYC specifications say that all electrical connections must be mechanically fastened, even if they are soldered.

As for tools... cheap tools are generally far more expensive than good tools. Getting the right tool for the job is generally the best plan-both financially and in terms of frustration... :)

As for the original poster, I didn't see anyone recommend this, but my experience from working on race cars (extreme vibration) is that the only connection you can count on is soldering.
Some people may say a proper crimp is sufficient with shrink wrap That's nice, but a correct soldering of 2 wires is permanent and stronger than the wire itself. When I wire my boat this winter, all terminals will be soldered and shrink wrapped. And I'll be damned if I'll have an electrical issue. With as much motion as a boat has, I'm surprised no one suggested this. The only downside, most soldering irons req. 120v but they do make gas powered and some battery powered options.
 
#25 ·
A properly crimped connection actually has a fair amount of physical strength. Soldering a connection properly is not something most people can do consistently. Soldering also introduces galvanic corrosion issues, due to the different metals involved in a soldered join. Overall, it is far faster, safer and easier for most people to make a decent crimped connection, than it is for them to solder the wires.
 
#26 ·
Hey, so I don't have the link, but the crimp vs. solder debate has raged elsewhere on the board. Bottom line, argued by dozens, was that crimps are better on a boat. somebody, maybe don casey, did resistance testing on a variety of connections, and interestingly, made a case for crimp + brush on liquid heat shrink.
 
#27 ·
Old thread but it's covering different places to purchase terminals..

I wanted to add that McMaster has a whole selection covering heat shrink, adhesive heat shrink, and some that have solder built in (I'm not familiar with these). McMaster is fantastic and makes finding what you're looking for very easy.
 
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