How to Crimp a Battery Cable Lug

Great thread with some good suggestions for tools.
As a result I suspect a number of people will be buying a proper crimping tool and re-doing those cable connections. Myself included. Previously it's been a hammer job.
The only questions that remain are is a manual or hydraulic crimping tool best? Should you always go for one size bigger?
i.e. If 70mm2 cables buy a crimper that will do up to 120mm2 cables.
 
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ghostlymoron said:
That sounds the best option to me.
Click to expand...

Just seen this thread....

Ghostly perhaps a better option?

I run an electrical panel wiring business so have lug crimp tool and most sizes of lugs in stock.

What size cable (Sq mm? or AWG)

What size hole in lugs (M8?)

Home base is Tarporley

Work base is Llangollen

Can help if you want.

Steve
 
Talulah said:
Great thread with some good suggestions for tools.
As a result I suspect a number of people will be buying a proper crimping tool and re-doing those cable connections. Myself included. Previously it's been a hammer job.
The only questions that remain are is a manual or hydraulic crimping tool best? Should you always go for one size bigger?
i.e. If 70mm2 cables buy a crimper that will do up to 120mm2 cables.
Click to expand...

We use an old crimp tool that is adjustable from 10mm2 to 100mm2 for larger cable lugs.

Below 10mm2 we use commonly available hand ratchet crimpers that use the red, blue or yellow lugs or terminations that cover the smaller range of 1.5mm2, 4mm2 and 6mm2 cables.
 
TSB240 said:
Just seen this thread....

Ghostly perhaps a better option?

I run an electrical panel wiring business so have lug crimp tool and most sizes of lugs in stock.

What size cable (Sq mm? or AWG)

What size hole in lugs (M8?)

Home base is Tarporley

Work base is Llangollen

Can help if you want.

Steve
Click to expand...
Thanks for the offer Steve, I'll bear it in mind.
 
The Dogs Pollacks Brother said:
We took our cables and lugs to the local auto electrician (6 in total) and he used his hydraulic crimping machine for us. All done in less than 10 mins for a tenner.....:D
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I'm well known for buying tools that would help me do a job, but in this case it didn't make sense. I prepared the cables (see A Guide to Preparing Wires for Crimping) then got a man to visit with a hydraulic crimper. He did an excellent job, even though it was in Greece!
 
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Done dozens of joints in my time seen crimped joints fail but never seen a soldered one.Never seen a soldered one fracture either.Steelworks machinery gets a lot more hammer than a boat.
 
Ive made loads of cables over the years for truck and land rovers plus anderson power leads, and i always used to just nip the end nearest to the lug in the vice and fill the rest of the lug with solder, all the ones i made are still going incl the two sets on my land rovers, BUT i made some new anderson ones the other day and used the hex cable crimper at work, was very impressed with the finish.



Lynall
 
Welding cables are regularly done with "Hammer-on" terminals. Welding cables will be taking more amps, and for longer, than battery cables in a boat. Nuff said.
 
Talulah said:
The only questions that remain are is a manual or hydraulic crimping tool best? Should you always go for one size bigger?
i.e. If 70mm2 cables buy a crimper that will do up to 120mm2 cables.
Click to expand...

For reliability of termination whether mechanical or hydraulic is somewhat academic, provided sufficient force can be imparted to compress the crimp then either will do the job. However the hydraulic option will be less bulky. My mechanical crimper for 25mm2 to 120mm2 is 36" long and a bit unwieldy, I rarely use it now except in the workshop, on site I use my hydraulic one. As with all tools buy the best you can, bearing in mind the use they will get.
 
For years I have been using the hammer technique. This evening for the first time ever I used a hydraulic crimping tool.
The difference in the end result is just staggering. There is just no comparison. Crimping tools every time from now on.
 
If you crimp by a non-optimal method (mine was to cut a new shape in the end of a cheap tool and lengthen its handles for leverage) you can still fill to voids with solder. Having crimped and made a mechanically sound joint I heated it with a blowlamp and filled it up with solder (followed by the usual heat shrink cover). It seems perfectly sound after many years, and I am confident that the electrical continuity couldn't be better.

If I had known that you can get a suitable crimper for 30 quid I'd have gone for it though.
 
nedmin said:
Done dozens of joints in my time seen crimped joints fail but never seen a soldered one.Never seen a soldered one fracture either.Steelworks machinery gets a lot more hammer than a boat.
Click to expand...

+1 made hundreds if not thousands of 24/48v dc battery and motor cables off in some very very briny environments...... solder over crimping every time!..... but if you have to crimp then hydraulic is far far superior to to other types and personally wouldn't touch the idea of crushing in a vice / beating with an hammer etc etc....
 
Like others I bit the bullet and bought am Ebay hydraulic crimper for the refit of my boat which involved a complete rewire involving replacement of ten heavy duty battery cables, ie. 20-odd lugs.
What was noticable was that the removed cables which had lugs hammered and soldered was that on all the insulation at the cable end was brittle and falling off. There was no flexibility in the cable for a good 5cm from the end and there were broken strands which suggested hard-spots from the soldering.
Just one tip with the hydraulic approach: buy the right lugs for the size of cable used.
 
The times I've needed a crimper I've managed to borrow one. The last time the chandler who I bought the cable and crimps from let me one of their crimping tools....Prolly helped that I used to be in there at least twice a week for the last couple of months buying stuff I needed to do the job that day :D

You know, the sort of jobs that you find after removing a panel that you needed to to do to do two other jobs up the chain, but you can't complete those until you do this one, so the friendly chandler is the only option.
 
nigelmercier said:
I'm well known for buying tools that would help me do a job, but in this case it didn't make sense. I prepared the cables (see A Guide to Preparing Wires for Crimping) then got a man to visit with a hydraulic crimper. He did an excellent job, even though it was in Greece!
Click to expand...

+1

I have a hydraulic crimper up to 70mm2. When I needed to crimp some lugs on 95mm2 cable, I used the technique in Nigel's link, then took them to a local auto electrics shop for crimping.
 
If you can take them off or considering replacing the wire ,take them to a good battery centre and they'll crimp them for you. They'll have the right size crimping tool and end fittings to do the job.
It'll save you buying the tool and the company should be really competent. Heat shrink over the ends may be worth considering.
Good luck
 
nigel1
Glad to find someone else who had to use a size smaller.
I've got lots of crimped lugs clearly stamped a size smaller than they should be!

Also used it for copper wire crimps as noted elswhere. Gives a hex pattern instead of the correct shape but holds beautifully. Still wish that I could get the correct dies to fit my hydraulic crimper.
 
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