Custom battery cables?

bateman

bateman

Active member
Looking to redo all the cables in my 2nd gen. Looks like several companies build them relatively cheap. Any certain flavor or company you folks recommend? I first noticed the Larry B options, but have since found much cheaper options.

Would it be worth the money to just buy a good crimping tool and terminal lugs? Just curious what others have done.
 
I bought a hydraulic crimping tool off amazon for under $50. Comes with different dies, works great. I made all my cables out of welding cable for a local hardware store with crimp on lugs and good heat shrink. Never buy pre made cables again.
 
I bought cables from this company. Good customer service and very well made product. Probably more on the expensive side but compared to oem, not so much, especially considering it is an upgrade. I'm not a "diy"er when it comes to electronics so it suited my needs well.
 
I do enjoy buying the appropriate tool when it comes time to do a new job, but on the other hand in 20 years of being a gear head I've never needed to build a set of battery cables. Wondering if it might not be worth the bit extra to just buy a set and be done with it.

Marq92, are you referring to the company "CustomBatteryCables.com"? I didn't exactly mean them in particular with my thread title, but I have since found them during my search. Looks inline with Larry B's quality and price.

Part of me wants to be a cheap SOB and just crimp some new ends on my cables and roll out. Isn't that the name of the game on non performance parts? lol
 
I use Spectro Wire & Cable out of OK for my terminals, heat shrink and crimpers. We use them every week rebuild customer's cables. I'm sure there are better crimpers out there, but these are good for the money.
 
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Rebuild them, coat them with good stuff and they’ll last.


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Yeah I didn't know Larry B sold battery cables, just starters and solenoids. I was never really aware of Larry B at the time I was looking at cables. It was a little pricey but I like to buy from places that specialize in that area and I only had to buy cables from the driver's side as I'm running a single group 31. Quality was really nice and they answered all my questions on Facebook. I'm sure you could contact Larry B and see what kind of package they could come up with for you and compare the custom battery cables.
 
Looks like Larry B's has the same exact kit that Custom Battery Cables has. Within $5 of price as well. $270 and $275. Man I hate to spend money on stuff like this or ball joints, diff. gears and bearings, etc... lol
 
diesel_importer said:
I use Spectro Wire & Cable out of OK for my terminals, heat shrink and crimpers. We use them every week rebuild customer's cables. I'm sure there are better crimpers out there, but these are good for the money.
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Which crimper did you buy? The hammer crimper or the big handled crimpers? Your cables look good. I would like to reuse my cables if I can save some money/buy tools to use in the future.
 
bateman said:
Looks like Larry B's has the same exact kit that Custom Battery Cables has. Within $5 of price as well. $270 and $275. Man I hate to spend money on stuff like this or ball joints, diff. gears and bearings, etc... lol
Click to expand...

Man, that's basically all I spend money on anymore. ha ha I feel the same way.
 
Custom Battery Cables


I have used their sets a number of times. They have worked out very good and I do like the terminals they use. Especially when there are 50 connectors on each battery for power and ground.

The price is fair and I am not building any battery cables at this time. A set at the dealer even at cost is north of $ 450.00 last time I priced out a set. So yeah I will buy their set.
 
raychem, I hear ya. I was left stranded in the Smokey Mountain National Park right after new years at a camp ground. Battery problems led to a 2 hour round trip with Uber to get to the Interstate dealer. It's a show stopper when my pickup wont crank.

With that being said, my cables don't look bad at all. Passenger side is still OE holding strong. The driver side has some crappy style terminals that pinch the wire.

Our shop foreman offered me his hammer crimper and said it works great. I have mil-spec terminals as well. So now I'm debating if this is a time to bust out my wallet or save $250 and fix what I have if it will work.
 
I've made cables before by taking one of those copper lugs, clamping it upright and filling it full of bits of solder, holding a propane torch on it until the solder melts and the lug turns into a molten little cauldron, and then shoving the bare wires into it.

I'm sure that's not the best way to do it but all my cables have about 10 years on them (in about the easiest climate and duty cycle imaginable) and haven't given me any trouble yet.

I'm not really convinced that crimping a better way to go either.

I imagine a better technique would be if you got the wires in the cable hot too, before sticking it into the lug full of molten solder, to try to get some of the solder to suck itself into the cable.
 
Begle1, the only prob there is solder and vibrations. Learned that in aviation and think it might be a problem in an old 12v. Sounds like you have had good luck with it though.

I’m going to do a bit of research on the hammer crimp machine. If it seems sufficient I will try to upgrade my current wires with military terminals and lugs.
 
I use a hammer crimp fixture a couple times a week in boat work. Cheap, buy one offline, then use welding cable as was mentioned.
 
bateman said:
Begle1, the only prob there is solder and vibrations. Learned that in aviation and think it might be a problem in an old 12v. Sounds like you have had good luck with it though.

I’m going to do a bit of research on the hammer crimp machine. If it seems sufficient I will try to upgrade my current wires with military terminals and lugs.
Click to expand...

I can see vibration breaking the solder being an issue. The solder keeps the connection all clean in there though.

Maybe the best method would be to solder and then crimp, or some kind of strain relief.
 
I have used these solder loaded terminals for years on all sorts of applications. Golf carts to 150hp tractors, everything gets a set when the original ones are suspect.

No failures to report of. Run them on my 1sr gen 12v with no issues. And nothing rises rougher than a 2wd first gen dually.
 
If your cables are still in decent shape you could just replace the lugs on the end. I swapped to a battery with threaded studs and soldered some nice copper lugs on the end of my existing cables then put some heat shrink over them. Much cleaner and easier to deal with now. If you don't wanna swap batteries they made adapters to go from top post to threaded studs.
 
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