MK quick release battery connectors . . .

[Expidia]

Now that I rent a garage to store my boat where there is no power, so my onboard charger is useless. And worse yet, I have to pull the bigger group 27 troller battery after each trip and lug it down into my basement to re-charge it.

I thought to myself there must be a better way, but at least I searched for a quick battery disconnect and found these: Thats part of my battle solved which was a pain having to unbolt the cables every time. I dont see them carried on iboats but found them here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001PTHKM6/...332200_TE_item

 

[kjsAZ]

these are great and I use them since quite a while for the same reason. (Wally World had them with the wrong price: $7.98, meanwhile corrected). There are Chinese copies on the market but they aren't galvanized (Chinese gold instead...) and have thinner material/metal. Naturally they are cheaper but I wouldn't trust them to much. I have a pair of these clones to attach the charger as that's a maximum of 10A. The wires in the boat have the MinnKota MK-BC-1 (Made in Sweden). They are rated for 700A start current!
They are a lot better than the no longer USCG approved but unfortunately still very common wing-nut connections.....

 

[MH Hawker]

I have used this type in the past and never had a problem. You can get them in any wire size up to 2/0

http://www.amazon.com/Install-SB50-L...son+connectors

 

[kjsAZ]

I have used this type in the past and never had a problem. You can get them in any wire size up to 2/0

http://www.amazon.com/Install-SB50-L...son+connectors

I use these for my trolling motor but they are a pain to disconnect...... The model which could handle the starter current would be big enough to unbalance the boat

 

[Star]

For lower current connections they are fine. I use Anderson connectors on all my batteries, rated for the load you are connecting. After the second year or so I add a thin piece of rubber under the pressure clip to insure a good tight connection. The 50 amp unit satisfies all of my needs, around $15 per set.

 

[Pony]

I have been using these....

 

[Expidia]

One issue I found was once I cut the post loops off the end of the wires even though they were as thick as 8 and 6 gauge they were still too small for the connector to tighten down onto the wires. I have a set of wires coming from the troller recepticle and another from the back of the boat's onboard charger.

My solution was to go to home depot and pick up a set ($1.99 ea.) of these screw down connectors which fits perfectly into the quick battery connector

Too small to tighten down onto several wires:


Solution:






Hope this helps others that come across a similar issue with these quick connector battery connectors!

 

[kjsAZ]

That's one solution. I also have two wires into each of these and simply crimped a ring connector over it. The ring I then cut off. If the wires you want to connect aren't thick enough (all of them together) you can also just reverse the little plate and it will clamp thinner wires just fine. That's what I did for my charger cables.

What I don't like with your HD solution is that they are aluminum. Not a great solution to have copper/zink/aluminum in a wet environment enhanced with battery acid fumes....

 

[Expidia]

That's one solution. I also have two wires into each of these and simply crimped a ring connector over it. The ring I then cut off. If the wires you want to connect aren't thick enough (all of them together) you can also just reverse the little plate and it will clamp thinner wires just fine. That's what I did for my charger cables.

What I don't like with your HD solution is that they are aluminum. Not a great solution to have copper/zink/aluminum in a wet environment enhanced with battery acid fumes....

I thought of that metalurgy thing when I realized that the connectors I bought were aluminum. They did have copper too but then I thought to myself that the MK quick release connectors are aluminum I think?

I was going to solder the wires together anyway into one bigger clump since some of them (from the onboard charger) are smaller. I'm doing the starter battery too because sometimes depending on how far it is back to the dock I'm leaving the new starter battery down 10% until the next weekend I take the boat out.

I like the reverse that collar idea. I thought of that but I figured with time they will loosen. That big screw down should solve that for me against the soldered together wires.

Just checked the MK package it says says tin plated brass.
Package also shows 1-14 AWG and shows how the collar is flipped over for smaller wires.
I think I'll solder the wires and just flip the collar over like you did and the package shows to flip plate for smaller wires. That will eliminate any metalurgy issues.

Thx for that heads up!

 

[kjsAZ]

With soldering you have multiple issues. First and foremost solder is like honney and will flow under pressure over time and your contact will get lose. Then it corrodes quite fast under humidity. That's why it is illegal in most countries to solder stranded wire when going into a clamp connection and you have to use crimp sleeves instead. Last but not least the solder solidifies the strands of the wire quite a bit into the insulation. Under vibration that's where the wires will break and give you a heck of a search job. If you solder you have to make a multiple step shrink-tube support for it to prevent this breakage. Crimping is always the easier and better solution.....
As I have some background in this and found some public info I made a wiring write-up a while ago:
http://www.pinzi.us/boating/Wiring-done-right.pdf

 

[Expidia]

Wow, thats what I call putting your money where your mouth is :high5:
My father was an electronic engineer at raytheon who was also involved in the space program. He always taught me that solder was always a better connection.
He taught me how to solder in my days of building crystal radios (anyone remember having to ground it with an alligator clip to a radiator?).

I read your comments and the link. Wow. I stand corrected. Makes a lot more sense now using crimp connectors. He taught me how to use those too like 50 years ago. I noticed there is always water under my troller battery in the forward hatch due to it puddling in between the ribs. So humidity is definetly a factor especially when stored in the garage on those 90-100 degree days.

I also noticed when I open various devices for repair many use butt crimp on type connectors. I always thought they did it that way to save on the labor of soldering.
Certainly true that a crimped wire connection will hold up better to vibration than a soldered one. Can't tell you how many hours I've spent over the years heating soldered connections on circuit boards trying to find the broken dead spot.

I printed out that file for future reference. Great that we can draw off of the knowledge of some of the members here as to their fields or experiences.

I'll flip the clamp and re-mount the quick disconnect battery connectors (and return those HD posts) by screwing the clamp down on the bare wires and support the wires together close to the connection with some wire ties.

Two thumbs up to Ya "kjs" for your instructional input :rockon:

 

[kjsAZ]

welcome! If you ever need access to it again just click on the library link in my signature and it gets you there. I'm an electronics engineer too (after I was a trailer designer in Europe for a few years) and I can tell you it's tough to admit that in some cases soldering is not as good and/or requires so much extra work to make it equal to crimping that it's not worth the effort. Yes, the resistance of a soldered joint is a tad lower (IF done right) but the side effects for some applications are not worth it.