I would like to wire up my winch front and back on both the samurai and the dodge. To do this requires cable... lots of it. An alternative is to get some welding cable and make an "extention cord" out of #2 or #1 copper welding cable.
The insulation on the regular winch cable is a hard plastic type. the insulation on the welding cable is a soft rubber. How durable is the insulation on the welding cable? does it break down over time?
What are the pro's/ con's to using welding cable in a permanent application?
Thanks

 

Without a doubt the welding cable is much superior cause its heavy duty and has finer wire strands, which help deliver maximum current. The insulation is fairly durable - welding cable is pulled over just about any obstacle imagineable (dirt, steel, steel grating, concrete etc. etc. etc.) and very rarely wears through. If you are still concerned, cover it with some split loom.

Go big or go home....

 

Is the truck in the sun alot? I have had my welder for 4yrs now and its been used about every weekend and I have yet to replace the cables and they are not even starting to crack...I think the rubbber now adays last a heck longer...I think you will be ok with weldin cables....

 

Sun?? what's that? That funny round orange ball comes out in july and goes away again in august here on the "wet" coast.... Although I have a two week stint down there (texas) in july and again in august.... I have a feeling I'll know what sun is after that

I was thinking of the split loom after I posted. The nice thing about welding cable is that everyone carries it so it is cheap. (as compared to the other stuff) Big = more amps

 

You cant go wrong with welding cable....its designed to carry a lot more juice than the winch will need.

 

Welding cable is all I use for all my heavy electrical work. Shop around for price on this item, the pricing is all over the map. Next you need to choose the connectors you want to use. The copper crimp lugs are the cheaper ones and do a good job, the plated lug ends are about triple in price but are much better. You probably will want to use the Anderson quick dissconnect to unplug the cables from your winch. Make sure you use heat shrink over all the terminal ends to seal them. The heat shrink comes in red and black so you can color code the cables. You will also want to put a type 1 high amp circut breaker in line. Pollak makes them up to 150 amps. Your winch should come with a book that gives wire size reccommendations, go 1 or 2 sizes larger in size than what they reccommend. Your winch will last a LOT longer and pull more. When installing the cable make sure it is secured good, no sags, and use harness loom over the cables to help protect the cables. Good luck

 

Hey I use welding cable for all of the battery connections on my truck, from the battery isolators to the wiring on the alternator. I have a 8-D deep cycle in the bed and that is connected with .00 welding cable from the front all the way to the back behind the wheel. I run all the cable through split loom and zip tie about every foot. I have a crimper to install my own ends on. It looks like a big pair of bolt cutters with rotating dies at the end. I get my cable from several diffrent places depending on what I am using it for. The cheaper cable has a rubber covering and feels like SJO cord and the other I get is made for Forney and it has a slick smooth feel to it. This I use for my jumper cables.
I use the Anderson connectors when I have to have something portable. Stay away from specialty shops when you get these because they will really stick you for these, instead go to a place thats works on electric fork lifts and they will be a LOT cheaper. I went to NAPA and they sell them by the piece think they were somewhere around $12.00 for each end but at the fork lift shop I paid less than $5.00 for the exact unit. Also the connectors are color coded by the amperage and grey will not fit blue & ect.
I made a set of jumper cables out of #2 welding cable 25 feet long with 200 amp parrot clamps so I can pull up behind someone and reach around the car and start it.
I have started class A motorhomes with a 330 cat engine with these when no one else could.
Jim.

 

Like Jim said - find a material handling equipment dealer for forktruck quick disconnects. Welding supply house for cable.

I have a Ramsey QuickMount winch I swap around between vehicles and use on the tongue of the gooseneck for yanking stuff up on the trailer. My cables are 00 welding cable with 200A? (blue) quickconnects on each end - their mates are hardwired into everything else's batteries. Made a set of 25' jumper cables with parrot clamps like Jim's out of either #1 or 0 welding cable. Between the two sets I can go just over 50 feet and, with the CTD batteries and alternator setup, can start most vehicles without any trouble even with majorly dead batteries.

Crimp and solder the connections to the cables if at all possible. I used a shop press with some homemade dies and then soldered the connections for good measure. Going on 10 years old now and no issues with the setup.

 

Yet another "second" for neoprene jacketed welding cable!

Welding supply places seem to have the best selection and best price. (#4neoprene=$.60/ft
Stay away from "marine" supply places for cables! They are stupidly expensive!!! #4marine=$2.15/ft !!! ( there is a reason for tin plated copper wire in marine environments, but I'm not driving a boat).
Avoid like the plague, any clear PVC jacketed "audio" DC power cable! The clear PVC jacket will eventually degrade over time and can get slimy , tarnishing the copper conductors and is not NEAR as tough as black neoprene.

Neoprene Jacketed Cable Handling Hint:
After you buy your 30' to 50' of welding cable with that brand new, sticky, draggy neoprene rubber jacket that makes it difficult to untangle and handle, get a large garbage or trash bag and dump in some talcum powder(not cornstarch) into the bottom of the bag.
Drop the entire coil of new neoprene welding cable inside the bag and twist the neck of the bag closed. Shake and roll the cable around in the bag until the talcum powder coats the entire surface of all the cable. Open the bag up, shake off the excess powder, and remove your new slippery cable. You will be amazed at how that stuff will then slither out of a coil and won't tangle NEAR as bad as when new!
This little trick also makes it SO much easier to feed that cable through rubber grommets in the firewall of your truck and other tight spots.

Keith

 

Oh yeah, I meant to comment on the Anderson/SR disconnects.. Those things are absolutely GREAT!

Jim, I believe they are mechanically keyed and color coded by intended VOLTAGE ranges instead of current ranges... Grey SR connector bodies are for 36volts, I believe Red is for 24v and I know Blue is for 12 v , and I *think* Yellow is for 48volts etc.. That's to help keep someone from plugging a 48volt battery charger into a 36volt forklift etc.
I use numerous 36volt grey ones for my 12 volt hamradio power bus knowing they won't fit the 12v blue SR series connectors. No big deal.
That's all I could find at the time... I went with grey as that's all that the local defunct forklift shop had left over when they went out of business. They had tons of HUGE grey connectors that fit 4-0 cables for big forklift batts! I had to rummage around to find some of the smaller series connectors with contact pins to fit my #2 and #4 cables.

Keith

 

My mistake, you are right, it is voltage Hey, it's 4:30 A.M.
I repair and install a lot of computer UPS systems and we use these to connect the battery packs. The color identifys the voltage but in this catagory there is also a current rating from tiny to BIG. There are connectors that you are actually single terminals that you can key together into any configuration single, double triple and so on. These are the ones you should use for you radios cause they are really nice and small. This is where I get most of my andersons and a lot of my cable for my truck including T-fuses up to 500 amp. The larger UPS units are 48 volt and the battery cabinets weigh about 1/3 as much as our trucks do. Some go upto 1 MW @ 480 3 phase. We have a Liebert unit that has batteries on it that are 2 volt cells @ 2000 amps each and weigh 1000 pounds each. You are VERY carefull when you work on these. I get the connectors with the cables attached, some have tails about 4 ' long but I can crimp on splices it I need to. I made a set of jumper cables that plug into the connector on the truck but I have not put it back on my truck since it came back from the body shop 2 accidents ago.
When I do things on anything I do serious overkill, I do like the military. I have run across some .00 cable that is bright orange and has a silacone jacket on it, this is sweet. Any idea what my computer backup is like?
Jim

 

Speaking of welding cable, I just ordered 200' of 1/0 at .99 a foot.

 

welding lead is good stuff. next step up that i know of is portable power cable. man that stuff is bullet proof. wired my 2000 watt inverter with it. costs a lot but it's good.

 

Hey westcoaster if you ever want to hop over the bridge and take a look at mine one day just let me know. Lots of 1/0 welding cable on mine for over 6 years now and still like new.

 

WESTCOASTER, I thought I was the only fool alive that ran both ends of the 4WD spectrum. I have my CTD and a little 92 Tracker play toy.