Price went way up!


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Posted by David Sherman on Friday, July 20, 2007 at 14:48:33 :

In Reply to: Why military battery terminal vs. quick disconnects posted by NorCal Dave on Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 20:14:55 :

They used to be about $3.50. I'm sure they'll claim it's the price of lead. Some outfit's getting ready to re-open the Bunker Hill so maybe that'll bring the price down.

Anyway, I like them because they make it easy to replace terminals and cables separately. Often a terminal gets cracked or corroded, while the cable is still good, or a cable gets pinched off or burned and the terminal is still good. Also, I can easily crimp a heavy ring terminal to the cable and then solder it, but I can't make decent crimp-on lead battery terminals myself, which means getting them made at a battery store. The standard aftermarket repair battery terminals with the steel strap and two screws to hold the cable on seem to be universally lousy and I would never use one. Also, the military terminals are just plain thicker and heavier all-round than any others. I only see brass (or probably actually bronze) terminals on old machinery, not on anything new. They seem to be okay, but they tend to crack easily if you have to stretch or compress them to get a good fit and they're a bit more subject to corrosion.

One down-side to the military ones is you've added one extra place to have a bad connection (between the eye and the terminal) which you wouldn't have with a terminal directly crimped to the wire. Where neglect and corrosion are likely to be a bigger problem, I sometimes replace the cad-plated screws with stainless steel, and add a lock-washer to keep pressure on the connection despite thermal expansion.



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