corn18
Village Idiot
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2021
- Messages
- 728
I redid my RV system moving the batteries. While I was removing the existing 4/0 battery cables I noticed one of the wires was not tight in the lug. So I gave it a yank and the cable came out. I thought I had redone all my crimps with my Temco hydraulic crimper but must have missed one. So I went in the garage to test some of my redo cables that had impact crimps. I tried to pull out the cable from the lug on 4/0, 2/0 and 2 wires. Every one I could pull out. Some took some twisting and bending of the cable, but they all came out. I tested two of each size and none of them held.
Then I tried to pull out a Temco crimped wire from the lug. That sucker wasn't going anywhere. Beat the wire with a hammer with the lug in a vice and it would not move. Then I cut the crimp in half to look at it. Just one solid mass of copper. I remember reading somewhere that the hydraulic crimpers actually cold weld the whole cable. Compare that to the impact crimps where nothing was cold welded. All the individual strands were still individual.
I will never use an impact crimper and highly recommend no one use an impact crimper. The impact crimps are not reliable.
Then I tried to pull out a Temco crimped wire from the lug. That sucker wasn't going anywhere. Beat the wire with a hammer with the lug in a vice and it would not move. Then I cut the crimp in half to look at it. Just one solid mass of copper. I remember reading somewhere that the hydraulic crimpers actually cold weld the whole cable. Compare that to the impact crimps where nothing was cold welded. All the individual strands were still individual.
I will never use an impact crimper and highly recommend no one use an impact crimper. The impact crimps are not reliable.