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How To: Joining Different Gauge Wires

HRTKD

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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.

Cerrxian Quick Disconnect.jpg


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.

20200905_153651.jpg

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.

20200905_153725.jpg

That fit well into the butt connector.

20200905_153752.jpg

I then hacked off enough of the sheath from the 6 AWG to reach the halfway mark on the outside of the butt connector.

20200905_153917.jpg

The butt connector went into the hydraulic crimper.

20200905_154055.jpg

The result was a tight crimp on both wires. Maybe a little too tight, but the butt connector didn't seem to mind.

20200905_154418.jpg

I followed up the crimp with a section of heat shrink tubing over each individual butt connector.

20200905_154537.jpg

Then more heat shrink tubing to hold both wires together.

20200905_163530.jpg

One more round of heat shrink tubing, because overkill is good.

20200905_163746.jpg

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.
 
You could also use a closed end crimp with strain relief.
 
It might be worth mentioning that doubling up a wire drops its gauge by about 3, so 10awg back on itself is about 7awg. It's reasonable to expect that butting 6 to 7 would work pretty well.
 
Good job. As long as you rate your protection devices according to the new smaller AWG wires.
 
While trying to figure out how to do the crimp, I came across this document called The Good Crimping Guide.

I freely admit that my crimps are less than professional. I've had to cut off a few crimps because they just didn't look good.
 
You could also use a closed end crimp with strain relief.

The factory that made my trailer just LOVED using closed end connectors. They are all over the place. I didn't consider using that type of connector, mainly because the connection was going to be exposed to the elements. The SAE quick connect is located on the front wall of my trailer. It's probably not the best location to keep it clean.

I do wonder if closed end connectors are made that large. I found plenty for small gauge wire.
 
The factory that made my trailer just LOVED using closed end connectors. They are all over the place. I didn't consider using that type of connector, mainly because the connection was going to be exposed to the elements. The SAE quick connect is located on the front wall of my trailer. It's probably not the best location to keep it clean.

I do wonder if closed end connectors are made that large. I found plenty for small gauge wire.
You could use a lug.
But I agree it won't be as weather resistant.
 
Thanks. I used this to make some cables to attach 10 AWG 7 strand wire on MC4 connectors to 6 AWG 7 strand wire to lesson voltage loss on longer runs.

I just want to mention a good set of tools is important, and I think from your pics, yours are sized good. My crimpers although labeled AWG are metric, so they are slightly off. Or it could have been the 6 AWG butt splices I bought were actually metric and a little big. This caused the outside of the crimp to flatten where the dies come together.
 
Just wanted to say thank you to you guys for this thread. :)
 
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