Anderson Connector Crimping 101 - Wire Terminal Basics | Ep: 8/14

[@cbdane]

Nate, I’m so grateful for your channel! Even though my trailer upgrade (small Airstream) is essentially complete (540Ah, Quattro 3000 with new front generator plug for Powerboost, Lynx shunt, Lynx distributor, 600W on roof with 100-50, 200W on ground with 100-30, Orion XS, Cerbo GX with Touch 7”, integrated Mopekas, integrated Seelevel, integrated Ruuvis for fridge, freezer, tanks, and other things I’m probably forgetting), I can’t stop watching! Little details like your external solar disconnect and Lynx extenders made all the difference. On topic with this video, I don’t know if you’ve ever tried the Australian Trailer Vision Powerpole enclosures but they are really nice. Take a look sometime. Thank you again!

[@GK49245]

Anderson is our go-to DC connector. Excellent tutorial.

[@61lekker]

Much appreciated…great video and content.

[@NALF67]

That's an early morning upload! Thank you for putting out this series

[@EXPLORISTlife]

5am Mountain Time every Sunday for the last 3 years! 🤣🫣👍

[@YouLookinAtMe-Bro]

Always look forward to learning from these tutorials, and the illustrations are a massive help. Thank you for your valuable time you take to teach is the best and safest ways to explore the solar world! Be safe all🙏

[@Electronzap]

Nice tutorial.

[@SimonWad]

I think a useful thing to consider is that each housing takes a specific pin insert size, but each pin insert can be bought in a small range of sizes corresponding to a small range of wire gauges. You can buy the terminals separate to the housings. So it is importance to buy the correct pin size for its housing, and also the pin crimp size to match the wire that you want to connect. Otherwise you might not make a tight, strong crimp. To use Nate's phrasing, "Ask me how I know this" For larger pin sizes crimp gauges, this might be slightly less of an issue with Nate's non-hydraulic crimpers but it is with hydraulic ones which creat a hexagonal crimp - where you have to select the correct die size. If you don't, it looks like it has crimped the terminal but the wire is not crimped tightly. And you have to go down the ladder of dies. Again, "Ask me how I know this". As Nate mentions elsewhere, he is not a fan of hydraulic crimpers and I think rightly so - he covers this in another video. Unfortunately I had bought and often used my hydraulic crimpers before I had the pleasure of discovering Nate and Steph's wonderful channel. I can also confirm that the pins are removable, but trickier with the smaller ones than the large ones. Once again..."Ask me how I know"

[@rod8073]

Thank you!

[@mikesnifferpippets3733]

Anderson connectors are great. We use a lot of them for DC power supplies at work. I have a question when using them for DC/DC charging from the vehicles alternator. Because I like to “over engineer” my wiring due to fear of melting or fire. Is it possible to have wire too big? You mentioned 6ga at the bumper. But would some like 4ga or 2ga be too big? Would there be any kind of losses? I don’t think so, but curious about your input. Thanks for all the videos, I really like all the attention to detail.

[@EXPLORISTlife]

Consider using our wiring kits: shop.explorist.life We’ve sized all wires, fuses, lugs, heat shrink, etc to be appropriate (and safe) for their intended purpose. Arbitrarily over sizing wires can indeed sometimes pose problems and if you’re trying to not use our kits and instead size your own wire, I challenge you to scroll back a few chapters in this academy to find the chapter we made on sizing wires.

[@mquetel]

Thanks helpful video. For the smaller 15A-45A Anderson power poles, can you suggest what can be done for strain relief on the wire?

[@lakorai2]

They make boots that are sold on Amazon so comically for this purpose

[@reem46490]

With this being a popular use case for external connections, how do they hold up against corrosion? Are the pin and retainer same material? Tin coated or anything of the sort?

[@frankfaubert1927]

Great video Nate. I have a question. With the 10-16 ga crimping, does it matter which side of the crimping tool the wire comes in from? I have an Anchor crimper that has anvils for three different wire ranges and it seems to crimp better when the wire comes into the crimper from the side that shows the wire ranges.

[@lakorai2]

They make specific Anderson crimpers for smaller terminals rated up to 45A. They have a divit specifically for the bent section of the connector and makes a perfect crimp. Btw you can't use anything larger than 10awg with these smaller Anderson's. So realistically your ampacity is limited to 30A; the connector is rated for 45 but the wire is limited to 30.

[@EXPLORISTlife]

That second line is incorrect. 10AWG wire with 105 degree insulated is rated to 60A before derating factors. Please review the "Wire Basics" Chapter of this academy as a refresher

[@grounded7362]

They actually have removal tools for disassembling the pin from the housing.

[@EXPLORISTlife]

I suppose if you were doing a few dozen a day that would indeed be useful. Thanks for tuning into the tutorial! Hope you learned something. 🫡😃

[@livingtheplanb]

Comical large to you is standard to me. Forklift chargers.

[@Tijrah]

Did you try lots of Hydraulic Crimpers before deciding on the current one you showed... it can be a hit-or-miss.with these offshore brands

[@EXPLORISTlife]

We didn’t show any hydraulic crimpers in this video.

[@Tijrah]

I was referring to Timco battery lug that you showed. I thought it was hydraulic. It's only good for larger wires even though I have one that can accept smaller dies. BTW, great chanel with tons of awesome content! Great reference material.

[@EXPLORISTlife]

Nope. The Temco crimper is not hydraulic. I’m not a fan of hydraulic crimpers. Check the battery lug crimping video from this academy (a few weeks ago) for more info on that one as well use it for anything 6awg and larger. Also… Temco is a USA brand. Based in Brenham TX.