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Battery cable crimping. . .what tool and butt splice crimps???

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atomicjoe23

Well-Known Member
#1
#1
I want/need to relocate my battery. . .what would you recommend I use to splice the new cable extension onto the old cable? I'm not sure where to get crimps large enough for 1 or 2 gauge cable. . .

Any of you have a recommendation for a hydraulic crimping tool for the butt-splice crimps and the crimping the terminals onto the cables?

Thanks!
 
jon coleman

jon coleman

Well-Known Member
#2
#2
last time i dealt w that i used welding leads lugs& eyelets for stick welding cables.didnt use proper crimp tool. just a ballpeen- bench vice then solder flux - torch.im cheap. elec. tape then heat shrink. then forget it. ps dont scrimp on insulation
, many a race car gone because elec.fail.off road ? well u know , weak link gets exposed.
 
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atomicjoe23

Well-Known Member
#4
#4
85Yota. . .this is what I was looking at; I figured someone on here would hae experience with them and if it popped up I could go ahead with the purchase. . .

Thanks!
 
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dzrt performance

Well-Known Member
#5
#5
atomicjoe23 said:
I want/need to relocate my battery. . .what would you recommend I use to splice the new cable extension onto the old cable? I'm not sure where to get crimps large enough for 1 or 2 gauge cable. . .

Any of you have a recommendation for a hydraulic crimping tool for the butt-splice crimps and the crimping the terminals onto the cables?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
do yourself a favor and spend $1.25 per foot and go get a run of 4ga welding cable. its easy to find at commercial hardware stores, online whatever. don't crimp and extend a batter cable.

a hydraulic crimper is best. if you don't want to buy one because its something you will hardly use......get your new cable, measure it out, and take it and have the ends crimped on. anyone dealing in automotive electrical systems should be able to do it.

if you cant find someone local you can ship it to me and ill crimp yours for free.
 
Kyle D

Kyle D

Well-Known Member
#6
#6
You may even check your local Caterpillar dealer. I know we have a cable crimper in our parts department hose shop. Probably a $5 crimp charge or something like that. Please don’t lengthen the battery cable. That’s asking for a problem in an environment that is handing them out without asking all day long.
 
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atomicjoe23

Well-Known Member
#7
#7
I bought a 16 Ton hydraulic crimper with 11 dies. . .goes WAY bigger than what I anticipate I will ever need, but with at least 6 project vehicles (67 Firebird coupe being built fo Auto-X, a Meyers Manx buggy, a VW Beetle to be converted into a Baja Bug, a 79 F-150 to be turned into a 4WD street legal pre-runner, a '99 Ranger to be turned into a pre-runner/Gambler 500 play toy, and a '65 Ford F100 dropped onto an '03 Crown Vic chassis/drivetrain for a "budget" road-racing series) it's something I figure I will use more than once. . .
 
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atomicjoe23

Well-Known Member
#8
#8
dzrt performance said:
do yourself a favor and spend $1.25 per foot and go get a run of 4ga welding cable. its easy to find at commercial hardware stores, online whatever.
Click to expand...
I was going to use 1 or 2 ga. . . I have heard the welding wire is much better; I lucked out and a friend of mine has spools of cable from his race car days. . .he said i can come get whatever I need, he also has crimps and lugs that he said I could have as well!!!

dzrt performance said:
don't crimp and extend a batter cable.
Click to expand...
So if you don't recomend crimping and extending how should I go about getting a longer cable??? The cable is integrated into the '03 Crown Vic chassis which places the battery at the passenger front corner. . .a bad place for wheel to wheel racing (for multiple reasons). We want to move the battery back to the firewall at the very least.

I've got to extend the positive and negative cables somehow. . .a terminal block bolted to the firewall, connect the OEM cables there and then run the new cables from there to where I need them?
 
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giles45shop

New Member
#10
#10
Just re-did the battery and alternator cables in my Jeep. Bought this hydraulic tool from Amazon for <$40, it does up to 2/0 cable:

Works very nicely, the only minor drawback is that the dies are labeled for metric wire sizes, so you have to Google a conversion table which was easy to find and then I just wrote down the conversions on the instruction manual for future reference. You can buy the terminal ends of Amazon or local marine stores (like West Marine).
 
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PaulW

Well-Known Member
#11
#11
Crimping options
1) Most battery shops have a crimper for lugs or splices. The shop $ I use the guy has a long handle tool that crimps all sizes with a nice looking hex crimp. He always covers the lugs or splices with heat shrink.
2) Per above buy a commercial crimper $ or the hammer tool.
3) Use your vice and DIY. Put the lug in the vice correctly sized for your wire then lay a bolt beside it and tighten up the vice. You get a solid crimp. Cover the result with heat shrink.
4) For splice go to the electric supplier and buy the approved splice $. I has two set screws that grip the wire. When sufficiently tight cover the result with heat shrink. They come for all fat wire sizes.
5) You can buy solder pellets $ to put inside the lug, then after you crimp you can heat the lug to melt the solder and have an even better connection. I guess this method is overkill?
 
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atomicjoe23

Well-Known Member
#16
#16
This is what I ended up getting:


A friend has one at his auto-repair business and says that it works great, has never given him a problem, and has never had situation where he didn't have a die available to complete a job.

Thanks for all the recommendations!
 
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