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Don’t trust auto parts store battery cables

Delmar

Delmar

Solar Wizard
Joined
Dec 9, 2019
Messages
1,108
Location
Lake Conroe Texas
One of the original cable terminals on my golf cart corroded and I don’t have crimpers for heavy cables. I wanted to use the cart for the weekend, so figured I’d just buy a premade cable from my local auto supply. They have to handle lots of amps when starting an engine, right?

Worked for about a year then I smelled the magic smoke. The crimp must have a bad connection that overheated and melted the battery terminal of my Trojan T875. The bolt head was what was embedded in the terminal.

Oh well, it supplied my motivation for a SOK server rack retrofit that I’m extremely happy with. Yes I am having the correct cable premade by my local golf cart dealer.

Anyone need a deal on 5-1/2 used Trojan T-875’s with Hydrolink watering?
 

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I had a situation with my old ford recently and had to change out a cable and silly me, rushed down to the local UAP/NAPA and got one off the rack, I checked the crimps and just before I was about to add my own heat-shrink on the ends (they had none) I noticed the wire looked odd ! I decided to cut off am end (I have lots) and LO & BEHOLD ! CCA WIRE ! Copper Clad Aluminum !! Took it back and they didn't want to take it back, then I grabbed another off the shelf that SAYS ON LABEL "Pure Copper Wire" and after staring down the manager he gave me my cash back and pulled the stock off the shelves as the guy had an argument with "some head office bloke"... Seems they got scammed too ! Well, so it appeared.
 
Delmar said:
One of the original cable terminals on my golf cart corroded and I don’t have crimpers for heavy cables. I wanted to use the cart for the weekend, so figured I’d just buy a premade cable from my local auto supply. They have to handle lots of amps when starting an engine, right?

Worked for about a year then I smelled the magic smoke. The crimp must have a bad connection that overheated and melted the battery terminal of my Trojan T875. The bolt head was what was embedded in the terminal.

Oh well, it supplied my motivation for a SOK server rack retrofit that I’m extremely happy with. Yes I am having the correct cable premade by my local golf cart dealer.

Anyone need a deal on 5-1/2 used Trojan T-875’s with Hydrolink watering?
Click to expand...
Nice upgrade! Please tell me that's not painter's tape, and that the battery has some kind of weatherproofing on the open ports?
 
Steve_S said:
I had a situation with my old ford recently and had to change out a cable and silly me, rushed down to the local UAP/NAPA and got one off the rack, I checked the crimps and just before I was about to add my own heat-shrink on the ends (they had none) I noticed the wire looked odd ! I decided to cut off am end (I have lots) and LO & BEHOLD ! CCA WIRE ! Copper Clad Aluminum !! Took it back and they didn't want to take it back, then I grabbed another off the shelf that SAYS ON LABEL "Pure Copper Wire" and after staring down the manager he gave me my cash back and pulled the stock off the shelves as the guy had an argument with "some head office bloke"... Seems they got scammed too ! Well, so it appeared.
Click to expand...
Well, at least Delmar cable is pure copper judging from the blue/green patina discoloration.
 
At this point, I’m much more inclined to use some of the welding wire. I’ve got left over from solar projects than buy anything from the store.

I bet I can find some quality high amperage alligator clamps for it.

What amperage should jumper cables be rated for?
 
Bluedog225 said:
At this point, I’m much more inclined to use some of the welding wire. I’ve got left over from solar projects than buy anything from the store.

I bet I can find some quality high amperage alligator clamps for it.

What amperage should jumper cables be rated for?
Click to expand...
Starting a car can take a few hundred amps but only for a few seconds. Larger means less volt drop though, which means bigger starter or faster cranks.

That said, my long 12ft jumper cables are only 6 gauge and had no problem jump starting our van.
 
Bluedog225 said:
What amperage should jumper cables be rated for?
Click to expand...
That's actually not a useful rating, as per SparkyJJO, the jumper cables don't have to carry the starter current without a significant voltage drop, they just have to carry a few dozen amps for a minute to charge _your_ battery up enough that _it_ can supply the starter current.
 
I have a couple of premade automotive battery cables here (don't remember where they came from) that have steel lugs. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ be careful out there.
 
Steve_S said:
I had a situation with my old ford recently and had to change out a cable and silly me, rushed down to the local UAP/NAPA and got one off the rack, I checked the crimps and just before I was about to add my own heat-shrink on the ends (they had none) I noticed the wire looked odd ! I decided to cut off am end (I have lots) and LO & BEHOLD ! CCA WIRE ! Copper Clad Aluminum !! Took it back and they didn't want to take it back, then I grabbed another off the shelf that SAYS ON LABEL "Pure Copper Wire" and after staring down the manager he gave me my cash back and pulled the stock off the shelves as the guy had an argument with "some head office bloke"... Seems they got scammed too ! Well, so it appeared.
Click to expand...
False advertising? No way!
 
Yes automotive cables are intended to run a start motor for 1 to 20 seconds. Not the continuous power of a GC. At least look for the #2 cables instead of the standard #4. Automotive equipment uses SAE wire with less copper than AWG.

Otherwise get a crimper, lugs and some wire to do it right.
 
Delmar said:
One of the original cable terminals on my golf cart corroded and I don’t have crimpers for heavy cables. I wanted to use the cart for the weekend, so figured I’d just buy a premade cable from my local auto supply. They have to handle lots of amps when starting an engine, right?

Worked for about a year then I smelled the magic smoke. The crimp must have a bad connection that overheated and melted the battery terminal of my Trojan T875. The bolt head was what was embedded in the terminal.

Oh well, it supplied my motivation for a SOK server rack retrofit that I’m extremely happy with. Yes I am having the correct cable premade by my local golf cart dealer.

Anyone need a deal on 5-1/2 used Trojan T-875’s with Hydrolink watering?
Click to expand...

In the parts store cable's defense, what gauge is that?

Also, the lug is still crimped onto the cable. Are we sure our connection was tight?

Edit: Also, I'm not sure what I'm looking at now.
 
Cable is Meld by over amp.
So wrong cable use .
Or the wrong heat that the cable can handel.
Normal cable are good for 60 celcius temp .(Start cable)
So if u use it on spot that temperatuur go up in close space you need a higher temp cable.
My self use 90 celcius and up .
Pay more and have more Safety.
For the rest what amp draw and what cable u use ?
And how longs is the cable.
 
Suijkerbuijk said:
Cable is Meld by over amp.
So wrong cable use .
Or the wrong heat that the cable can handel.
Normal cable are good for 60 celcius temp .(Start cable)
So if u use it on spot that temperatuur go up in close space you need a higher temp cable.
My self use 90 celcius and up .
Pay more and have more Safety.
For the rest what amp draw and what cable u use ?
And how longs is the cable.
Click to expand...
yep length of wire affects resistance and hence temperature of wire. some folks forget that, but I doubt that Del did... he might have had a poor connection though by the looks of it, with the pitting and arc over I ouwld have guessed a loose terminal.
 
Daddy Tanuki said:
with the pitting and arc over I would have guessed a loose terminal.
Click to expand...
From the photo of the cable it pretty much can indicate either the crimp was too large for the cable or the corrosion loosened the crimp one thing I would advise for @Delmar is looking at the corrosion I'd cover it in dielectric or some other form of rust protection next try if your using steel lugs again.
 
Use on high water place some fett like attach file.
 

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This discussion got me to look at my purchased cable assemblies. Removed heat shrink. Crimp is only on one side and wire wiggles a bit. The lug is copper. I've got 2 of these in my system. I'll try re-crimping the lug with my hydraulic crimper and cut open to verify crimp quality. Thanks for this thread very helpful.
 

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I use this crimp unit and never fail me.
It go to 50mm2
The problem some use it with aluminium or cheap Chinese lugs. .
Compleet stupid.
And than you see 1 and 2 stars .
Really pay for real lugs.



I think i go for this model later.

 

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Suijkerbuijk said:
I use this crimp unit and never fail me.
It go to 50mm2
The problem some use it with aluminium or cheap Chinese lugs. .
Compleet stupid.
And than you see 1 and 2 stars .
Really pay for real lugs.

I think i go for this model later.
Click to expand...
You can trim everything from /ref= off and still get the same product, it's just cleaner, and Amazon can't track the link back to you.

I have the second one, and it's quite nice. I saw all the warnings about how the AWG die were actually mismarked mm die, but I didn't have that problem, they are all marked in mm, so I end up trying a couple of different ones, and frequently crimp one size up and then one size down, and it works well.
 
wpns said:
You can trim everything from /ref= off and still get the same product, it's just cleaner, and Amazon can't track the link back to you.

I have the second one, and it's quite nice. I saw all the warnings about how the AWG die were actually mismarked mm die, but I didn't have that problem, they are all marked in mm, so I end up trying a couple of different ones, and frequently crimp one size up and then one size down, and it works well.
Click to expand...
I'm in the EU so we use mm2 .
So for my self no problem .
But we always tell .
Good tools do only 50% of the job .
The rest is the user .
 
WattSecond said:
This discussion got me to look at my purchased cable assemblies. Removed heat shrink. Crimp is only on one side and wire wiggles a bit. The lug is copper. I've got 2 of these in my system. I'll try re-crimping the lug with my hydraulic crimper and cut open to verify crimp quality. Thanks for this thread very helpful.
Click to expand...

Yeah.

You can verify current crimp quality with a pullout test.

Hook the terminal on something heavy and then life the cable and see if the wire pulls out.
 
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Checkthisout said:
Yeah.

You can verify current crimp quality with a pullout test.

Hook the terminal on something heavy and then life the cable and see if the wire pulls out.
Click to expand...
after I crimp, I grab the flat side of the ring terminal with my vice and then put my full weight on it. if it comes out, i goofed, if not its good to go. I weigh about 95 kg at the moment so that quite a bit of pull.
 
#1 the hydraulic crimpers on Amazon do work.
#2 test it with with the largest anticipated lug/cable before the return period ends. (Look for leakage or lack of compression)
#3 the indicated die size is probably wrong so use the size that gives the best crimp that yields crisp corners with little to no extrusion/flashing.
#4 use Selterm or Ancor brand aka “starter lug” type and only a single crimp. For fine strand cables like Windy Nation or Ancor marine. For course strand cable use “power lugs” and multiple crimp bands.
#5 Always use adhesive lined heat shrink to keep moisture out
 
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