"johnhh" wrote in
:

Do you use the same kind of lug that you use for crimping? I wish I
hadn't just put in new cables. What a pain getting them to the
switches. Maybe I'll replace them.


No. There are lugs with a solder cup instead of the open-hole-through
crimp with the wire ends sticking out towards the lug. The solder cups
can be filled, carefully, without running out the other end. Buy copper
lugs, not aluminum. You can't solder to aluminum anything.

Your cables are fine if the wire's heavy enough. What I like about
properly soldered connections is:
1 - no seawater can get to the connection as the solder makes a solid
connection across the whole surface of both lug and wires. There's no
gap like a crimp for moisture to get into and corrode all to hell.
Without moisture in the joint, the joint has no electrolysis.

2 - The connecting surface area of a crimped lug is the point contact
area between the outer conductors of the wire and the points at which it
touches the lug's interior. The connecting surface area of a soldered
joint is the entire surface area of both. They are fully bonded
together. The current gradient across the soldered joint is very smooth
with no hot spots caused by point contact crimping. No conductors of the
soldered joint were pressure snapped off during a crimping process. The
soldered wire, if you avoid "wicking" like you learn in a good soldering
class up into the conductors beyond the lug, is very tightly joined.

So, why don't they solder all connections to make them great?......

M-O-N-E-Y, same as why the other stuff is such crap. Proper solder
bonding takes way too much time and skill for production work.

Strong? I can pick up a whole L-16 deep cycle by one battery cable
without the solder parting. Strong enough??...(c;