Thread: What happened to your Discovery 2 today?

I used a vice and then a chisel to lock in the crimp on my second battery cables. works and hasn't shorted out yet . But that was a lot easier doing it with a cable on the bench rather than on the car.

So I wasn't sure how to do it without the proper crimping tools.

Originally Posted by clintooo

I used a vice and then a chisel to lock in the crimp on my second battery cables. works and hasn't shorted out yet . But that was a lot easier doing it with a cable on the bench rather than on the car.

So I wasn't sure how to do it without the proper crimping tools.

I always find soldering is best, except of very short cables that can't be moved out of the way of heat sensitive parts close by.
Lug sized correctly to suit the cable, hold cable lug with with a long nosed pliers, heat lug with a heat gun(even those cheapie heads that accept disposable gas cartridges give off plenty of heat) .. fill inside of lug with solder, grab cable with gloved other hand whilst still holding the lug in the pliers hand, and insert cable.
The lug holds enough heat to keep solder liquid whilst you grab the cable and insert it into the lug, as as soon as you insert the cable, it's much lower temp instantly solidifies the solder and you're right to go. Splash a small amount of water over hot lug(I use an old sports drink bottle, with the built in pop top) to cool it to a more manageable temperature and ... done!

I did that a while back on my (D1) power cable. Earth cable was still in excellent condition. Then did my aux battery install using the above method.
At first I tried to use the heat gun to heat the cable, but of course it needed too much heat, and it'd destroy the plastic insulation on the cable .. so had to think up any other .. much less noxious, method to make up my various power cables.
All my cables were 4B&S as that's what I had on hand.

I have a crimper tool, but it's for coax cables, and no where near strong enough to crimp a lug for a 4B&S cable, but I did have the idea to heat up the lugs with the heat gun and then crimp thinking that the soft, malleable lug would be easier to crimp.
In the end it was much simpler and speedy to solder them all.
Heat guns are cheap( I got a $2 one), lugs are cheap(even the large ones ~ $2 or so) .. bolt type battery terminal connectors are cheap.

Never done anything like that with those large sized cables before, so had no real idea on how to best do it.
The only other dual battery setup I did was for my RRC about 20 years ago, and I got a Silicon Chip dual battery manager kit. I think either from Jaycar or Dick Smith(when they sold electronic components), but it used normal 20A/10Gauge type wiring.

The only thing that the heat gun is not good for is light duty heat shrink. I used heatshrink on all the cables I made up(I think about 6 or 7 all up) for my D1 aux battery, and used some left over heatshrink over the lugs. I ran out and got some more, but got some dual density type heatshrink.
Much more solid, and didn't try to melt at the sound of the heat gun clicking light it up!
Dunno if the heatshrink is needed, but all the pre made cables I've seen all use it, and I had some. Maybe it helps with corrosion at the exposed end.

Will also do my D2(V8) power connector too before I get it on the road. I don't like the design of the D2's battery power connector.

I bought a hydraulic crimper of eBay for 40 odd bucks. Works an absolute treat on 4 and 6 bs.


Like this one 9 Die 8 Ton Hydraulic Crimper Cable Wire Force Crimping Tool Kit 4mm-70mm | eBay

I bought a hydraulic crimper of eBay for 40 odd bucks. Works an absolute treat on 4 and 6 bs.

Thanks' for the "Heads Up"
At less than $40 Delivered I couldn't help Not getting one of these and as I only need to crimp the larger fittings on rare occasions I really couldn't justify spending hundreds of dollars on a "Quality" tool.
The eye fittings I used for the battery connections are 50mm and this tool has dies that go from 4mm-70mm so it should do the job and I will also try it out the next time I need to fit an Anderson plug as it will make a nicer looking crimp than my other crimper

On another note I used my new winch that ARB fitted for me to move a lemon tree that is planted in the bottom half of a small rainwater tank which probably weighs a tonne or so and when I was rewinding the winch rope I decided to check the bolts that the winch is mounted with.
They were just Nipped up and not tensioned correctly, I rectified this and then did a thorough check of all the mounting bolts on the new bull bar which were done up properly.
I wonder why ARB didn't fit the winch correctly ?
I am pretty sure that the way the bolts were tightened that the winch would probably fall off on my next trip up the corrugated Useless Loop road and I am glad that I took the time to check the bolts.

Originally Posted by trout1105

Thanks' for the "Heads Up"
At less than $40 Delivered I couldn't help Not getting one of these and as I only need to crimp the larger fittings on rare occasions I really couldn't justify spending hundreds of dollars on a "Quality" tool.
.

x2, I ordered one after reading this post also , for the occasional job, makes a neater and tight crimp as me save borrowing one from my mate.

Geez I should get a commission 😉

Drove it 700 ks on the last 350 ks it was dragging our new camping accommodation
Did`nt even use 3/4 of a tank

That's pretty frugal ! What did you get ?