Battery Lug Crimpers

[US1Fountain]

Doing alot of searching and FTZ and Greenlee come up quite often here.

Any opinions between the 2 brands for a DIY'r for a small project? I'm only going to be building several cables. Having the cables made up in advance won't work. Made to length as I proceed, 1 at a time, thus willing to pay for the tool.

What about the ratcheting feature? What's it's advantage for the additional cost?

Seems these range up to either 2/0 or 4/0, depending on model. Any advise on which to buy? I know that's hard to answer, but pretty much the largest load will be a bussbar with a max amp load of 300A within a couple feet of battery bank....Windlass (50A), invertor (100A), house load (30A??) and stereo amps to be determined still. Normal battery switching, with conductors, 3 batteries and switches all within a couple feet of each other. Unsure how common 4/0 wires are used on a small cruiser with basic power requirements.


Read about the $80 Harbor Freight hyd crimpers, while price is appealing, not sold on them.

Thanks in advance.
Jerry

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by US1Fountain

Doing alot of searching and FTZ and Greenlee come up quite often here.

Any opinions between the 2 brands for a DIY'r for a small project? I'm only going to be building several cables. Having the cables made up in advance won't work. Made to length as I proceed, 1 at a time, thus willing to pay for the tool.

What about the ratcheting feature? What's it's advantage for the additional cost?

Seems these range up to either 2/0 or 4/0, depending on model. Any advise on which to buy? I know that's hard to answer, but pretty much the largest load will be a bussbar with a max amp load of 300A within a couple feet of battery bank....Windlass (50A), invertor (100A), house load (30A??) and stereo amps to be determined still. Normal battery switching, with conductors, 3 batteries and switches all within a couple feet of each other. Unsure how common 4/0 wires are used on a small cruiser with basic power requirements.


Read about the $80 Harbor Freight hyd crimpers, while price is appealing, not sold on them.

Thanks in advance.
Jerry

Both the FTZ and the Greenlee are excellent tools. You might also consider the Quick Cable crimper. They make some amazingly beautiful battery lugs and they and FTZ are now all I use for lugs. The Ancor lugs are junk comparatively speaking.

The FTZ is a diamond crimp (four sided) and the Greenlee and Qucik Cable are a Hex crimp. I own the FTZ but actually prefer the hex crimp as it makes for a neater looking lug crimp under heat shrink. I use the FTZ though be cause I mostly use FTZ lugs and also Quick Cable which are made to the same spec.

79 QuickCable Tools, Cable Crimper, Cutter & Stripper

[US1Fountain]

Is there a gain to be had with either the square or hex crimp over the other, or purely cosmetics? How do the QC dies hold up? They look less beefier.
I have always purchased the HD lugs, terminals and wiring from GenuineDealz and would prefer to stay as such if possible, for whichever tool I end up with. I don't see any specs there.

Any thoughts on the ratchet feature?

Thanks

[US1Fountain]

Ignore the 2/0- 4/0 question. Too many crimpers researched and getting capacities mixed up.

[St. Elsewhere]

I have used this one with satisfactory results: Fisheries - Product Detail. I have found squeezing it in a vice works well.

[beetle]

I crimped up 60+ 4/0 battery cable lugs for my dad when rewiring the battery bank on his boat, and we bought a Greenlee K09-2GL crimper:

Amazon.com: Greenlee K09-2GL K-Series Crimping Tool, 8-4/0 AWG: Home Improvement

This is a dial-a-wire-diameter hex-crimper, and it took 3-4 crimps per lug to make the crip as the actual crimping surface is quite narrow. It would have been much nicer to make a complete crimp in one pass, rather than have to work the lug into the crimper 3+ times for each lug.

I've used the Ancor crimper previously mentioned, in a vice and with a lump hammer, and it has the same issue (multiple passes to crimp one lug) though it is much smaller to store on board than the big Greenlee tool.

My suggestion is that you check with the manufacturer to see if the tool will make a complete crimp in one pass - you're probably looking at something that with a crimping surface area of 1/2"-5/8", rather than the 1/8"-3/16" that the Greenlee had. I don't know if one could actually do a complete crimp that wide in one pass with a hand-tool - I had to work darn hard to close the Greenlee tool down for the 1/8" crimp in 4/0 cable!

- rob/beetle

[CharlieJ]

For the DIY'er who is only doing the occasional crimp, the Harbor Freight 12 ton, short handle, hydraulic crimper is hard to beat. The 8 ton model's dies are not properly sized but you can crimp up to AWG 2 with it. The 12 ton, however, has properly sized dies. And for $80 you can't really go wrong.

Charlie