Wire lug Crimper

[S/V Selene]

Hello,
Seeking a recommendation on a "Hydraulic Lug Crimper."


My 42yo boat is going to get some electrical upgrades that include replacing/ adding more battery.



When I look online to buy one of those tools, I see several options but there are varying degrees of tonnage they generate. 10, 12, 16 etc., etc.



Is there a specific one I should acquire or is that not relevant for boat/ marine needs?


Also is there a recommended brand? I'd like to avoid buying junk.


Thank you in advance. ~ED

[NewMoon]

https://marinehowto.com/making-your-own-battery-cables/

[Iron E]

TEMCo TH0006 for Hydraulic

and

TEMCo TH0020 for manual

are both good tools.

[Knotical]

I bought a manual crimper from Amazon for $35 that can crimp up to 1/0, for anything larger I have a 4’ long manual one that I bought second hand from a local tool store.

[SV Confianza]

I have this one: FTZ Correct Crimp Heavy Duty Lug Crimp Tool https://a.co/d/2Xboe9D

It’s big but I am very happy with it. The two hydraulic ones I’ve used both leaked and were messy. They were borrowed and not sure which brand.

[Bowdrie]

Whatever you choose, get one that makes a "Hex" shaped crimp.
The ones that deform the terminal with a single big divot or a square unequally stress the multitude of fine wires in marine grade cable.
Also the big concave impression left is difficult to get a proper seal around the terminal with tape or heat shrink.
Ideally a crimp should approximate what we see in a swedged rigging terminal.
The hex comes closest to that in our commonly available tools.

[Bycrick]

Hex vs "square" crimp. The FTZ crimper mentioned up-thread, and widely recommended, isn’t a hex-shaped crimper. I couldn’t find any real evidence that the hex crimp was "better" than the square crimp. I’ve got the FTZ tool, use their terminals, and have yet to have one fail.

[SV Confianza]

I really haven’t had any issues with the square crimps, and heat shrink works fine with it. I’m sure there’s always a better way, but just sharing my experience.

[Bycrick]

The hydraulic ones I’ve seen all crimped just fine, but the dies weren’t anywhere near correctly calibrated. If you could figure out the right size, it worked fine.

[s/v Jedi]

Hex and square are fine. It’s the single divet crimpers that use hammers or a vice that are not good.

I like the big manual FTZ crimper too because there’s less to break.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by S/V Selene

Hello,
Seeking a recommendation on a "Hydraulic Lug Crimper."


My 42yo boat is going to get some electrical upgrades that include replacing/ adding more battery.



When I look online to buy one of those tools, I see several options but there are varying degrees of tonnage they generate. 10, 12, 16 etc., etc.



Is there a specific one I should acquire or is that not relevant for boat/ marine needs?


Also is there a recommended brand? I'd like to avoid buying junk.


Thank you in advance. ~ED

For hex style crimps, it is the dies that determine the quality of the crimp, not the pressure. Providing there is enough pressure (and the jaws don't flex), once the dies are fully closed the crimp is done. How good the crimp is then determined by the OD and ID of the lug and the cable size.

So look at the dies first. Do they look well made, properly sized etc.

If a tool comes with a calibration certificate, it will most likely be excellent but mostly expensive as well. If you want a more economical tool, look for one where the dies look similar to the expensive item.

In another life, we used to calibrate and certify crimp tooling. Certification required the completed termination to tested for electrical resistance and physical pull out. It was surprising how many new tools failed (but usually just failed i.e still good enough for 99.9% of DIY work)!

[GordMay]

A square [or ‘Quad’] profile crimper compresses a sleeve, to form a four-sided terminal. On the other hand, hex’ profile crimping pliers deform a round ferrule sleeve, into a six-sided terminal.
Nominally, a hexagonal crimp fits circular holes, slightly closer to max capacity, and square suits cage-clamp rectangular terminals slightly better.
Both of these crimp profiles can create a firm terminal, but are suitable for different applications.

According to Amphenol Crimp Specifications:
➥ www.amphenol-industrial.com www.industrial-amphenol.com

“The complete compression of wire strands using a hexagonal crimp and standard crimping dies is not possible. This means: Standard hexagonal crimps are not guaranteed being gas-tight.
Therefore it should be observed that a professional hexagonal crimp requires the use of crimping dies which are matched exactly with material and dimensions. Good compression is between 5 and 15%. To much creates cracks on the strands.”
“4-I dent crimp, B-crimps or DUAL crimps (hex and indet, like Elpress) can achieve a close gas tight crimp level.”

Note: Solderless crimp terminals are designed to perform as specified, only when crimped by tools, from the same manufacturer.

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by GordMay

According to Amphenol Crimp Specifications:
➥ www.amphenol-industrial.com www.industrial-amphenol.com

A close inspection of the products will reveal that a standard "Amphenol" terminal is not the same size as an "Ancor" brand.
The "industrial" terminals have a thicker wall.
And the wire commonly used in industrial/land-based service wiring is not of the same construction, either in size or number of strands as Ancor brand marine cable.
As a side note, I always use a double-hex crimp, it leaves a nice clean terminal ending that goes thru holes and fits nicely on terminal blocks/bus bars/studs, etc.
As always YMMV.

[FlyingScot]

FTZ Crimper is super easy to use. FTZ lugs come in two grades. Sometimes the bigger ones are too big to fit, that's when the smaller ones are needed. Power Lugs are the bigger ones and accept two crimps. They are color coded and marked as to which dies to use. Super easy and intuitive. Starter lugs are the lesser version but still better than Ancor and other brands I've seen or used.

I've had a hydraulic one, it was way more of a workout than the FTZ crimper. The FTZ is like using bolt cutters. Most of the ones I've seen it's hard to get the correct die for AWG lugs, despite what they may say. Typically it's mm2 relabeled dies.

I buy all of the above mostly from BayMarineSupply.com and will continue to do so.

[syorca]

I'm not in any way an expert on this but I measured the dies on a popular hydraulic crimper on Amazon a couple years ago, and compared to a Klauke crimper and Klaukes lug specs. Some measurements where the same but most of them differed, some quite significant.



Sent the hydraulic crimper back and have since only used Klauke lugs and crimper (NB there are different standards to choose between).