Welding Cable vs Booster Cable.

[George7941]

Yeah, welding cable is superior with its finer stranding and flexible rubber insulation. But I can buy all copper booster cable on sale for less than half the price of welding cable. I keep 6, 4 and 1 gauge booster cable around, so when I need to make cables for the trucks I work on, I just use booster cable and they have held up fine over the years for me. These cables are used in locations not subject to excessive heat.

No questions, just stating this is what I do.

 

[mjoekingz28]

Well, dont skimp on the connections and clamps!

 

[George7941]

I use this crimper and if I have any doubts about the integrity of the crimp, I add solder. I use quality terminals from DelCity.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: George7941
I use this crimper and if I have any doubts about the integrity of the crimp, I add solder. I use quality terminals from DelCity.



How do you heat it hot enough to flow solder and not get it so hot it melts/burns the wire insulation?

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: George7941
Yeah, welding cable is superior with its finer stranding and flexible rubber insulation. But I can buy all copper booster cable on sale for less than half the price of welding cable. I keep 6, 4 and 1 gauge booster cable around, so when I need to make cables for the trucks I work on, I just use booster cable and they have held up fine over the years for me. These cables are used in locations not subject to excessive heat.

No questions, just stating this is what I do.


So you are saying you use booster cable wire to make pairs of booster cables?

And welding cable wire to make welding cables?

 

[George7941]

Originally Posted By: Donald
How do you heat it hot enough to flow solder and not get it so hot it melts/burns the wire insulation?


I heat up the terminal with a propane torch so that it heats up quickly and keeps damage to the insulation to a minimum. I have rosin paste flux that I pre apply to the copper wire. About 3/8in of the insulation adjacent to the terminal chars but that is covered by the thick wall heat shrink that I apply to weatherproof the connection.

 

[George7941]

Originally Posted By: Donald
So you are saying you use booster cable wire to make pairs of booster cables?

And welding cable wire to make welding cables?


I am sorry, I wasn't clear in my post. For example, if I need to replace the cable from the battery to the glow plug relay on a truck, I fabricate this cable from 4 ga booster cable and enclose this cable in high temperature loom. I haven't had any issues with this practice.

 

[AlaskaMike]

Sounds like a great way to do it.

I use a lot of loom too--it seems like all the car makers skimp way too much when it comes to protecting high amperage wiring.

 

[KGMtech]

With the availability of those new high capacity 1000 amp, booster packs, the need for the old fashioned booster cables has really gone away.

Canadian Tire has 1000amp units for $ 119 CAD and 2000amps for $199. Charge it up, leave in the glove box and you're good until you have to rescue that damsel in distress...or your MIL.

 

[901Memphis]

Originally Posted By: KGMtech
With the availability of those new high capacity 1000 amp, booster packs, the need for the old fashioned booster cables has really gone away.

Canadian Tire has 1000amp units for $ 119 CAD and 2000amps for $199. Charge it up, leave in the glove box and you're good until you have to rescue that damsel in distress...or your MIL.



I want to get a more powerful model. I have a genius boost 400 amp GB20 and it's supposed to be 200 amps continous but sometimes it won't start certain vehicles, the other night I couldn't start a dead pathfinder v6 but it started my old Vulcan Taurus with no battery at all, kinda weird.

They have a few more powerful models now too, up 4000 amp / 22,500 joules.

https://no.co/products/power/jumpstarters

 

[SHOZ]

I use regular # 3 THHW building cable for when I put the batteries in the trunk and also for added ground wires. Sometime #4 for the grounds.

If the lug is big enough I will put it in a vise, heat it up, add some flux then solder and then inset the cable into the lug.

 

[George7941]

I just looked up specs on THHW wire and it looks to be a good choice for auto wiring. It is finely stranded and the insulation is high temp at 105*C.