Electrically they can work fine.
I don’t have a hydraulic or ratchet crimper. My ‘big’ crimper is a die/swage unit like small bolt cutters, 20”? handles that fits 8ga-1ga. I think it was under $50usa but the “nice” crimpers for 2/0, 1/0 are hundreds of dollars. Maybe somebody has info on one for less?
The hammer crimper won’t ‘gas tight’ a terminal. It does 1/0 and 2/0 ok, 3/0 barely fits or doesn’t fit, essentially. I only needed 3/0 once and I’m pretty sure I I used square bar in a shop press onto the bottom channel of my press brake.
Center it up nicely, tap to start the crush and it will hold the wire loosely. Examine it- if all good and straight/symmetric drive it with an angry 3# hammer swing. Occasionally an additional whack is needed if for some reason there’s wide airspace. Heat shrink- done. It seems when you make a good crimp that you might have to grab a smaller hammer and help the terminal out of the crimper sometimes.
A swage die crimper is better. I should make a new mandrel for my hammer crimper that is B-type crimp. They all come with one that makes a V. It works, not ideal imho.
HYCLAT 10 Tons Hydraulic Wire Battery Cable Lug Terminal Crimper Crimping Tool With 9 Pairs of Dies https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XR8BY6...abc_5V8P3QN3DV37XXZQ2BET?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Hydraulic crimper under $50.
I will admit that I replaced it with this:
TEMCo Industrial Hydraulic Cable Lug Crimper TH0005 V2.0 (11 US TON) 10 AWG to 600 MCM Electrical Terminal Cable Wire Tool Kit with 32 Die Sets https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HJXG3K...abc_EP48PC5EA2PFRWHM8638?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Will also has some recommendations, I think that is where I got the first crimper. It works great, but sometimes you need more die sizes to do a really professional looking crimp without wings. The first one only has metric sizes.
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