Battery Connectors All Over Again - Short and Sweet

[LowGear]

I have a few dozen battery terminals to put together.  My neighbor has a mechanical crimper that was state of the art a few decades ago.  The five ton ones are $80. 

This application is for 36 Volts DC carrying 50 Amps to a golf car motor frequently.  Now remember this unit isn't going to be more that six blocks from the garage at any time in it's future.

$80 is 4 or 5 pretty good lunches even here in Kona.

I've been through a couple of the threads and I promise not to use solder for anything.

What would you do?

Casey

[mobile_bob]

a couple of options

1. got to an autoparts store, and ask for a hammer type unit, it looks sort of like a hammer cable
cutter except it is made to crimp connectors from about #4 up to about 0000 cable. very effective
and cost about 20 bucks at most.

2. this one i learned from our friends over at otherpower.com, that is the use of a cheap pair of bolt cutters, if you have a harbor freight or similar, buy a cheap pair of bolt cutters, with 18-24inch handles, remove the jaws and with the use of an angle grinder cut V jaws into them

i did this making two sets of different sizes of jaw V's to accept and crimp #4 and 0 cable ends
it works very well, as good as a 200 dollar set in my opinion, only it is limited to 2 sizes of ends.  however for something like 14 bucks a set for the bolt cutters one can afford to make up several sets with different sizes of V notches to cover the spectrum of sizes he is likely to need.

works for me.

bob g

[mobile_bob]

here is a hammer type crimper from amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Grote-84-9087-Battery-Crimper-Hammer/dp/B000FBSVP0/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1347877445&sr=8-4&keywords=hammer+crimper

it looks as though amazon has several from various manufactures

bob g

[mike90045]

Motors can really pull a high surge, till the driver is happy with the speed.   My buddy was always melting terminals off his batteries, he pulled so much juice, but at least the battery shop would just re-cast a new terminal and he was good to go.   So you really want a good crimp that won't heat up, once the crimp heats up, it changes size, and a few dozen cycles like that, and it works itself loose.

[squarebob]

here is a hammer type crimper from amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Grote-84-9087-Battery-Crimper-Hammer/dp/B000FBSVP0/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1347877445&sr=8-4&keywords=hammer+crimper

it looks as though amazon has several from various manufactures

bob g

I bought this exact unit a few months ago. Works great with a hammer or in the vise.

[mike90045]

 hydraulic crimper from canada/ebay info
http://www.microcogen.info/index.php?topic=2262.msg27349#msg27349

I read the many dismal reviews of the HF crimper, and got the Canadian one. eh!
Hydraulic Crimping Tool Kit 8 Ton Electric Wire Crimper

I dont know how long the link for the ebay shop will be good, not an auction
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/e11401.m516.l1123/7?euid=0d157ea390134d488100614aeefaaa27&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2FeBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D330598048548%26ssPageName%3DADME%3AL%3AOU%3AUS%3A1123

anyway, I'm only crimping up to 1/0 wire, and this is supposed to be good for that, according to all the RV, Trailer, and Boat forums I found liking this crimper.

Anyway, it makes great crimps with just a couple pumps on the handle.

[EBI-WPO]

I agree with the "Bobs" (sorry about that), I have used the hammer/punch type crimper on many terminals, never a disappointment, never a failure.

Terry

[LowGear]

Thanks for the help.

I got wild and crazy.  I test crimped the wire using the mid 20th century tool of my neighbors.  Took a photo and the Gosh Darn camera won't down load. 

Technology:  It fails every once in a while just to let you know your mortal and a near direct descendent of a stone age gathering.

It looks nice and I couldn't pull the wire out but I can't believe it's at the compression that one of the hammer jobs would do.  So what kind of functional test would I do? 

Casey

[LowGear]

UpDate:  Photos

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Should I use nolox or something that is suppose to slow oxidation?

I will shrink tube all the connectors - really.

Casey