noob questions about battery terminal and wires

[Atlanta007 10+ year member]

Starting a new install and planning to replace the stock battery terminals with aftermarket for solid connections and a cleaner look. I attached photos of the stock + and - terminals. It appears these stock battery cables have a cap on them and then are essentially soldered to the side of the terminal ring. Or maybe the ring is made with the cap on it and the wires are just soldered into it. Are these common type terminals?

I'm not sure if this is welding cable or what, but the strands are pretty thick and it's going to take some time and effort to cut through them. They are not very flexible. I will probably just replace the negative cable with some 1/0 kicker ground wire as it is a short run. But since the battery is in the trunk I really don't want to mess with replacing the positive cable and run it all the way to the front.

I just wanted to ask anyone that might be familiar with this type of stock wire/terminals if there will be any issue with attaching the positive cable to a battery terminal that uses a set screw rather that soldering it or some other method.

hope the question makes sense; thanks.

My plan would be to use a stinger dual 1/0 negative terminal and I have a dual 1/0 phoenix gold positive terminal with one side fused.

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[BigRooster 10+ year member]

My truck had those same stock terminals... they are pieces of crap and they break easily if you do a lot of battery work. I bought some ones from walmart and they're really good and no you should not have any problem at all but if you do you can always put the other one back. Hope I helped //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Atlanta007 10+ year member]

My truck had those same stock terminals... they are pieces of crap and they break easily if you do a lot of battery work. I bought some ones from walmart and they're really good and no you should not have any problem at all but if you do you can always put the other one back. Hope I helped //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif[/quote

Thanks, they are kind of cheap original posts. Did you have similar wires - very inflexible with thick strands. I'm wondering if I'll need some welding cable shears to cut it.

 

[BigRooster 10+ year member]

Yeah thats what I have and I just used a knife to cut it, takes some time but it works.

 

[Phoenix Risen 10+ year member]

the wire is not welding cable. its just the crappy factory wire that 90% of the auto companies use.

and what youll need to do to upgrade the electrical system depends on what setup your going to be running.

which im assuming since you have a 1/0 wiring kit that it would probably be a good idea to do the big 3. which involves changing out the main power run from the cheap crap to good 1/0.

also to cut it a set of bolt cutters will usually do the trick if you have to go redneck about it. but it would be best to get a nice set of cable cutters. they will come in handy in the long run.

 

[nateberrier 10+ year member]

I get my terminals from napa. they screw down and make for easy replacement. you can order 1/0 cutters for cheap too if you dont wanna knife through

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

I got some terminals at the local VIP and they work great. They come with a set of bolts on the end to attach terminals to and are painted red/black accordingly. They cost $10 a pair I think, and they have held up well. I have some pictures of them in my build log

 

[TheUnderFighter 10+ year member]

I used a pipe cutter to cut through my 1/0, worked pretty well. Since the only other wire cutter I had was the tiny ones that came with my beginner soldering kit.

 

[Atlanta007 10+ year member]

"and what youll need to do to upgrade the electrical system depends on what setup your going to be running. which im assuming since you have a 1/0 wiring kit that it would probably be a good idea to do the big 3. which involves changing out the main power run from the cheap crap to good 1/0."

Thanks for the responses guys. How critical would you say the big 3 is if my setup is going to be: a single amp (4 x150 rms) powering a set of coaxs up front and bridging the real channels to an 8" sub box? The alternator is 115 amps. I plan to upgrade, or just add, new 1/0 wire runs from battery neg to chassis and from engine block to chassis. But I was hoping to avoid upgrading or replacing the battery to alt wire since the battery is in the trunk and I believe it will be a pita to run it to the engine bay. I was also planning on using 4 gauge power wire - the distance from battery pos to amp will probably be less than 2 feet.