I have 8 gauge leads on my stereo amp and I need to extend them to the battery. I've always heard that soldering makes the best connection, does this hold true for large wire too? If so, got any tips on soldering these fat wires? Or should I just get some crimp connectors and call it good?

 

I like to sort of weave the wires together, solder and then cover with glued heatshrink for a waterproof connection. I typically expose about an inch plus of wire on both pieces to make it easy to work with.

 

So when you're done are the wires side by side or end to end?

 

Id guess twisted together, side by side.

 

I do it end to end.

 

Ok thanks, I'll have to give that a try

 

The best way to extend it?
Get yourself a fused box like I have.
Run the amp end of it to the fused box, then run a new cable from the box to the battery.
I would also have it fused up by the battery too though.

50 amp fuse in the fuse distro box for the bass amp, and a 30 amp fuse for the door speaker amp, and a 100 amp circuit breaker within 18" of the battery.

You can see my positive distro box feed two amps, and the negative box also takes care of the negative side of things.
The negative one though is not fused, no need for that.

 

To splice two large wires together, you can get non-insulated crimp-on butt connectors. I usually apply a some soldering flux paste to the wires, put both wires into the butt connector and crimp them in. Then, heat up the butt connector with a torch enough to melt solder and apply solder to both ends of the butt connector until it is full. Let it cool off, then wrap the whole connection with water proof heat shrink. That'll be stronger than the original wire.

 

Thanks guys, yeah my soldering iron wasn't up to the task, not enough heat. Think I'll try to find the non-insulated crimp connectors and torch idea.

 

Corey I do have fused blocks like those, I just have to get over to them. Thanks