Hydraulic wire crimper

[chessie4905]

Some time back, that subject came up and had me thinking about them. I decided to try one out. I bought one from Harbor Freight, Cliffs favorite store lol. That tool works pretty slick, has inserts to crimp from 0 to #12 wire, and comes with a complete set of replacement seals. I recently used it to crimp some # 6 wire and does an impressive job for the money. Normally I would solder the wire. Wont have to any more. Thanks guys, for the discussion!
If I need to do any from 00 to 0000, I'll  have to spring for a better one, since hf only offers this one.

[richard5933]

Glad it's working for you. I got one from Amazon to use on battery cables, and it is also a game changer in making battery cables. The crimps are much tighter without any air pockets. Add an adhesive heat-shrink tube and you've got a great cable.

[chessie4905]

I double heat shrink all my wire connections. Second one a little longer than the first.

[luvrbus]

For the money the HF crimpers are ok keep the spare repair kit where you can find it, I have used mine a lot.but I have a better one for battery cables 

[Geom]

I love HF... perhaps a little too much  but I got the Amazon version. It's clearly not "pro grade", but I've used the heck out of it crimping 4/0, 2/0, 4, 6, 8, and 10 awg wire.
Those connections are super-tight and with heat-shrink should outlast whatever I've put them in 
One thing to note about crimping vs soldering is that crimping actually squeezes the copper into one single solid hunk, vacating any air gaps. If you've ever chopped off a lug, you'll see the inside looks like one solid tube of copper.

[chessie4905]

The Harbor Freight one only goes to 0. Amazon sells a larger one that goes from 10 to 0000.
It too is very reasonably priced, although the handle looks a little chinzy, but has mostly positive ratings. I have that on my Christmas list. I usually buy things I want a lot Thanksgiving to before Christmas. Many times Wife will disappear the item if I don't use it right away and it shows up in my stocking or under the 🌳. We have a good laugh afterwards when I say... So thats where that got to. Kids bug me to make a Christmas list every year, but rarely do they get anything off the list.