I have 6 AWG welding wire coming out of my solar component compartment in my trailer, joining up to 10 AWG on an SAE quick connect. The purpose of this thread is to show how I connected wires of dissimilar gauge using a butt connector.
I cut the wire for the quick connect about half way. The part that is being joined is the one that is installed on the outside of the trailer. This is a Cerrxian 60cm 10 AWG SAE 2 pin quick disconnect that I bought on Amazon. It was recommended by another forum member. It worked well. My only reservation is that the strands are very easily cut when removing the sheathing.
I used a 6 AWG butt connector from TEMCo Industrial. The 6 AWG welding cable as well as the hydraulic crimper also came from TEMCo.
To start, I removed sheath from the 10 AWG wire to equal the length of the butt connector.
I then folded the strands of the wire back onto themselves. The fold is necessary to take up the extra space in the butt connector designed for 6 AWG.
That fit well into the butt connector.
I then hacked off enough of the sheath from the 6 AWG to reach the halfway mark on the outside of the butt connector.
The butt connector went into the hydraulic crimper.
The result was a tight crimp on both wires. Maybe a little too tight, but the butt connector didn't seem to mind.
I followed up the crimp with a section of heat shrink tubing over each individual butt connector.
Then more heat shrink tubing to hold both wires together.
One more round of heat shrink tubing, because overkill is good.
The other method for joining two dissimilar gauge wires was to put appropriately sized ring terminals on each wire, then use a short bolt to hold the ring terminals to each other. A bus bar would also work, but this location did not lend itself to a bus bar.
I cut the wire for the quick connect about half way. The part that is being joined is the one that is installed on the outside of the trailer. This is a Cerrxian 60cm 10 AWG SAE 2 pin quick disconnect that I bought on Amazon. It was recommended by another forum member. It worked well. My only reservation is that the strands are very easily cut when removing the sheathing.
I used a 6 AWG butt connector from TEMCo Industrial. The 6 AWG welding cable as well as the hydraulic crimper also came from TEMCo.
To start, I removed sheath from the 10 AWG wire to equal the length of the butt connector.
I then folded the strands of the wire back onto themselves. The fold is necessary to take up the extra space in the butt connector designed for 6 AWG.
That fit well into the butt connector.
I then hacked off enough of the sheath from the 6 AWG to reach the halfway mark on the outside of the butt connector.
The butt connector went into the hydraulic crimper.
The result was a tight crimp on both wires. Maybe a little too tight, but the butt connector didn't seem to mind.
I followed up the crimp with a section of heat shrink tubing over each individual butt connector.
Then more heat shrink tubing to hold both wires together.
One more round of heat shrink tubing, because overkill is good.
The other method for joining two dissimilar gauge wires was to put appropriately sized ring terminals on each wire, then use a short bolt to hold the ring terminals to each other. A bus bar would also work, but this location did not lend itself to a bus bar.