Making my own cables

[Sergio]

Originally Posted by dc_customdesign

Sergio, I heard one guy call that heat shrink tube a corrosion catcher or something like that. Showed how the said got under that heat shrink and made a huge mess and screwed up the cable. Thanks, that's another thing I wanted to ask, but forgot.

I guess someone can always figure out a way to do the job wrong, but if You look at what a professional crimp looks like on a closed end lug, there is no place for corrosion to develop or enter the connector.

The adhesive in the heat shrinking tube will seal it and keep moisture from entering the cable.

[scooterman]

I look at the stock cables and they don't heat shrink anything, center crimps, compare the photo and it isn't close but they do seem to work at least lower amp applications.

[Sergio]

My point was that the adhesive heat shrink is not the problem, but it was likely the wrong application for it.

I guess most stock battery cables use open end lugs and a center crimp that also creates an irregular surface, so it would be very hard to "Seal" it properly with heat shrink tubing.

Since most of us end up replacing the stock cables due to the ends looking corroded or brittle, it seems like the extra protection on the ends is a good idea.

[scottyb]

Originally Posted by Sergio

My point was that the adhesive heat shrink is not the problem, but it was likely the wrong application for it.

I guess most stock battery cables use open end lugs and a center crimp that also creates an irregular surface, so it would be very hard to "Seal" it properly with heat shrink tubing.

Since most of us end up replacing the stock cables due to the ends looking corroded or brittle, it seems like the extra protection on the ends is a good idea.

Exactly - the acidic vapors generated by EACH charge cycle is what is causing and feeding the corrosion on these cables.

[dc_customdesign]

What's better, full copper or the Tin copper lugs?

[Sergio]

I prefer the heavy walled Tinned Copper closed end lugs, they are more expensive but will slow corrosion, not stop it completely.

It is also a good practice to always keep some kind of anti-corrosion product on the battery posts and cable ends for extra protection.

[scooterman]

We usually update the cables for more power so with so much invested you want as good of connections as you can afford. No matter how good cables you have you still need to do your maintenance and keep them clean as batteries gets older they off gases more and seems at this time in the batteries life is when the issues happen. Think about it, we upgrade about double the amperage through the same size lug at the connection, there isn't any more surface area to transfer that current so yes the better the connection and lugs the less chance of issues.

[cartattach]

Originally Posted by Sergio

I prefer the heavy walled Tinned Copper closed end lugs, they are more expensive but will slow corrosion, not stop it completely.

It is also a good practice to always keep some kind of anti-corrosion product on the battery posts and cable ends for extra protection.

Actually that is exactly opposite of the truth. Pure copper lugs are roughly 3 times more expensive than the tinned counterpart. The "tinned" lugs have a lower copper content and thus are cheaper to make. A 2AWG tinned lug is about .34 when bought in quantity, the same lug in pure copper is nearly 1$

I have also seen the person on ebay who claims heat shrink is a corrosion catcher, he is obviously not very good at what he does. Heat shrink is what keeps it out. If it was a corrosion catcher, then insulated cable would be the biggest corrosion catcher in the world.

As to making cables, by the time you get everything together you could buy a set done for you. The average Precedent set for the batteries is less than $40.

[Sergio]

What tinned lugs are you referring to?

The ones I am talking about are pure copper with a Tin plating for corrosion resistance.

I never heard of lower content copper lugs, unless they are from Chinese manufactures and not quality lugs like FTZ industries.

The Tin plating is an extra process applied over the lug so it does not make sense that it would be cheaper.

[scooterman]

Yea I never heard of that one, I have found cheap tin plated lugs closed ended but I can't remember where, there was a reason why I didn't buy them.
Also the sets Scotty sells is of the highest quality I've seen and he has documentation to back it up.
I'm personally looking to buy a better crimp tool because of exactly what Sergio said earlier in this thread, after I made a set with the cheap tool it was very difficult to make a crimp that would hold. The lugs were expensive, I had to search around and the cheap ones had a red flag on them from what I remember I just don't remember exactly what I found out about them. After looking at my stock lugs and the new ones they do have a slightly larger surface area, this is important to make sure you get full contact to the battery, this is the point where cheap will cause issues for sure.