Making your own Anderson connected jump leads - what amps?

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the_wolf

the_wolf

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I was quite keen to do the above and bought some cheap anderson connectors off ebay. Upon getting them in though i realised that theyre quite small and are rated for 50 amps. I know you can get 175 amp ones, would the higher ampage (sp?) be a much better idea or could i get away with the 50? Both are roughly the same price.

Forgive my mongness but knowledge of electrickery isnt my thing.
 
Anderson SB50 connectors are rated at 50 amps continuous and are capable of taking maximum 13mm2 cable.

Anderson SB175 connectors are rated at 175 amp continuous, can take a 1000 amps for about 8 seconds and can be fitted with 50mm2 cable.

Now on ebay you will find all sorts of shall we say 'inflated' claims about the capabilities of jump leads etc.

For a good pair of jump leads you will require a minimum of 25mm2 cable and a decent set of FULLY insulated crocodile clips with a braided connector rated at 300 amps.

We use SB175 with 35mm2 cable and fully insulated 300 amp croc clips.

There are some cheap copies of Anderson connectors around, inferior plastic and the terminals are nice and rough so you get poor electrical connection.


Brendan
 
Cheers for the replies. They are genuine Andersons that i have but i reckon ill send them back and opt for the 175 amp version instead.

Any advice on where to source decent cable and croc connectors? All the ready made jump leads which i have seen so far look cheap to me.
 
Not all welding cable is as flexible or as capable of carrying current.

CM35 conductor specification 455/0.30 nominal current 240 amps 35mm2

W35 conductor specification 1107/0.20 nominal current 290 amps 35mm2


Same cross sectional area, different current carrying capacity



Brendan
 
leeds said:
Not all welding cable is as flexible or as capable of carrying current.

CM35 conductor specification 455/0.30 nominal current 240 amps 35mm2

W35 conductor specification 1107/0.20 nominal current 290 amps 35mm2

Same cross sectional area, different current carrying capacity

Brendan
Click to expand...

Agreed however the OP was talking about "normal" shop bought jump leads. Compared with them, welding wire is immensely better.
 
Too true!

Some copper cable has strands 0.4 mm or larger. As strand diameter goes up, flexibility goes down.

A lot of cheap jump leads only use 8mm2 cable. Some jump leads use copper coated aluminium cable. IIRC aluminium has 2/3 of the conductivity of copper but only weighs 1/3 of copper.

If jump leads are cheap then normally it is because lower CSA if copper or using aluminium conductors.

Brendan
 
One of the things ive been looking at when pricing shop bought jump leads is the ID of the cable and trying to steer clear of smaller sizes. I would much rather use a good quality set of jump leads than welding cable, purely due to the fact that it would save me cash. I priced some welding cable and at about 3 quid a metre it wasnt going to be cheap.

Are these any good or are they cheap chinese tat?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-456956-Heavy-Duty-Leads/dp/B000LFXQ6E

Though id much rather have a longer set.
 
Are they TAT?????

Simple answer is a big YES


Rated at 600 Amps. Excuse me whilst I pick myself up off the floor from ROFLMA



Clamps rated at 600 Amps:eek:

First off they are not insulated fully and there is a serious risk on a Defender of shorting battery positive to earth i.e. battery box.

300 amp rated clips are bigger and normally have a flexible braid between the arms.


Note no mention of cable material. Copper? Aluminium or bronze. Copper has the highest conductivity of non precious materials.

No mention of size or construction of the cables.

However weight is 850gms. Allow 50 gms/clamp then weight of cable is about 750 gms for 7.2m of cable tha works out as 104kg/1000km

Now

35mm2 welding cable weighs 400kg/km

25mm2 welding cable weighs 305kg/km

16mm2 welding cable weighs 215kg/km


Being generous that cable is a MAXIMUM of 8mm2 cable

Rough rule of thumb 8 amps/mm2 continuous current rating gives about 64 amps.

For jump/boost factor they have used a factor of about 10 that is a hell of a large factor for boost rate. Twin 50mm2 cable has a 3 minute boost rate of 600 amps!!!


What is the expression ? You get what you pay for?????



Brendan
 
leeds said:
Are they TAT?????

Simple answer is a big YES


Rated at 600 Amps. Excuse me whilst I pick myself up off the floor from ROFLMA



Clamps rated at 600 Amps:eek:

First off they are not insulated fully and there is a serious risk on a Defender of shorting battery positive to earth i.e. battery box.

300 amp rated clips are bigger and normally have a flexible braid between the arms.


Note no mention of cable material. Copper? Aluminium or bronze. Copper has the highest conductivity of non precious materials.

No mention of size or construction of the cables.

However weight is 850gms. Allow 50 gms/clamp then weight of cable is about 750 gms for 7.2m of cable tha works out as 104kg/1000km

Now

35mm2 welding cable weighs 400kg/km

25mm2 welding cable weighs 305kg/km

16mm2 welding cable weighs 215kg/km


Being generous that cable is a MAXIMUM of 8mm2 cable

Rough rule of thumb 8 amps/mm2 continuous current rating gives about 64 amps.

For jump/boost factor they have used a factor of about 10 that is a hell of a large factor for boost rate. Twin 50mm2 cable has a 3 minute boost rate of 600 amps!!!


What is the expression ? You get what you pay for?????



Brendan
Click to expand...

I did say i was an electrickery mong :rolleyes: cheers for that though
 
What's the point in Anderson connectors? Just to save lifting the lid? I must be missing something.
 
KSLB said:
What's the point in Anderson connectors? Just to save lifting the lid? I must be missing something.
Click to expand...

you must be lol.

It annoys the **** out of me! :lol:

Especially for those with non standard seats in and also for those with say 2 batteries(depending how there mounted) it can be difficult to get to the points.
 
KSLB said:
What's the point in Anderson connectors? Just to save lifting the lid? I must be missing something.
Click to expand...

Deffinatly missing something, sat at the side of the road in the ****ing rain, with traffic flying past... what would you rather do? spend 2 or 3 mins taking the seat off and then putitng it outside (i own a truck cab) then faffing with the lid, then another min or two conencting the leads being carful of accessory cables. OR secondly, open the passanger door and snap together the two connectors, taking 10 seconds, i know which i would rather do.
 
abcdedd said:
Deffinatly missing something, sat at the side of the road in the ****ing rain, with traffic flying past... what would you rather do? spend 2 or 3 mins taking the seat off and then putitng it outside (i own a truck cab) then faffing with the lid, then another min or two conencting the leads being carful of accessory cables. OR secondly, open the passanger door and snap together the two connectors, taking 10 seconds, i know which i would rather do.
Click to expand...

I keep my leads in the car so could connect them inside without getting out, passenger would have to I suppose but they could just jump in the back (110CSW) but I suppose I can see the point in certain circumstances. I would imagine that Anderson connectors would save me less than 30 seconds in reality as it would take seconds few for me to remove the seat base and the lid and clip on a couple of crocs! Just seems a lot of work for minimal reward considering how many times the average LR driver uses jump leads. I can see their value if you have aftermarket seats with fixed bases. Thanks for the info.
 
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