Can i double over wire and crimp it?

[er9]

I ended up just wrapping the LED wire around the 14 gauge wire, covered about two inches of the wire with 3/16 heatshrink and then stuffed the bare ends into one end of a 14 gauge butt terminal. they both barely fit. crimped them tightly then heat shrunk the entire terminal overlapping an inch or so of the heatshrunk wire. worked perfectly, nice strong connections. only LED lights but i know i wont have to look at the wiring now for another 30 years or so.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by phantomracer

Soldering is not acceptable by abyc. I have never soldered on a boat. A properly crimped terminal is far stronger...and a lot easier than soldering! Check out the marinehowto link above for why.

99.9% of the time i use heat shrink terminals using a proper crimping tool (boughr from marinehowto.com). Makes a huge difference using a quality tool!

I do sometimes use eurostrips for really thin wires though.

I don't know about ABYC requirements but I can confirm from long personal experience that crimping is strong and reliable and wiring really doesn't need soldering. Most recently I've been redoing a lot of wiring on a 34 year old boat that was all crimped fittings. So far the only wires that had any problem were the ones in the bilge and that because they were old, non shrink type crimps.

Don't have any documentation of this but years ago a friend that had been a tech in the Navy told me that they used straight crimping on all their wiring. If it's good enough for the US Navy it's sure good enough for me.

So, any ex-Navy techs out there that can confirm this?

[john61ct]

Soldering can be done well just as good a result, but takes a high level of practiced skill.

Crimping is foolproof with minimal skills, given the right tools and supplies.

MS's referenced milspec pull tests can confirm connection quality.

The key is repeatable consistency so testing every crimp is not required.

[phantomracer]

From what I understand (correct me if I am wrong) you CAN solder, but it has to be crimped as well. That is a bit silly, if it IS crimped properly, the solder won't penetrate the wires into the crimp! For solder only, it has to be secured in a way that it can't move or flex for ABYC. A lot more work to take the place of a stronger and easier crimp connector!

crimping properly has all the advantages and none of the disadvantages..again, if done correctly. I would say 90% of DIYers don't do (yours truly included) it perfectly (but usually good enough).

After reading Rods page, buying his tool and practicing, my crimps ARE getting better.. and it is amazing how strong they are. Makes a HUGE difference over using dimple crimpers and destroying expensive waterproof connectors!

[er9]

Originally Posted by phantomracer

good primer on marine wiring https://marinehowto.com/marine-wire-termination/

thanks for that link / reminder. its only one of the few articles on his site i hadnt read.

i ordered a set of his crimps and some proper heatshrink butt splices.

i didnt realize just how bad my wiring and crimping was until i used a good crimping tool.