Electrical Work Time Dilation

[carbon60]

Why does doing quality electrical work on a rig take 4x the time I expect?!?

Having actually been in a rather remote area with a friend who's truck caught fire, I'm paranoid about wiring. Careful cable routing, extra-cautious wear prevention, proper securing to prevent movement, extra attention on the terminals to ensure no corrosion will increase resistance, etc, etc, etc.

It took me nearly four hours to install a Blue Sea voltmeter, yesterday!

 

[Hillbilly Heaven]

What printer do you use for your labels? Nice work.

 

[tanuki.himself]

Quality takes time and costs money, but saves both in the long run as stuff actually keeps working. Nice to see someone else using proper crimp connectors and then cover/shrink wrap. Do you solder your crimps as well? or is that just my own nerdish level of attention to detail?

 

[Hillbilly Heaven]

Solder or Crimp never both

 

[NatersXJ6]

I really wanted one of those heat shrink printers, until I realized that every printed label is about $1.25. I still want it, I've just decided to live without.

However, it saves us thousands in troubleshooting time at work.

Doing quality work helps you understand why wiring harnesses are so expensive.

 

[john61ct]

Doing a slopjar job is quick.

Doing it right, that last 10% of quality takes 90% of the time.

Why so few Professionals actually do a good job.

Of course the 50th repetition you do get a bit faster, especially specializing in the one line.

 

[s.e.charles]

obviously it would be much quicker to do it on the workbench where you could reach everything and not have to contort doing it.

but if it only took 2 hours, you'd probably just find another project to do. look at it this way: you saved yourself $$$ twice!

 

[llamalander]

Routing wires through an auto is an almighty pain, especially if you work to minimize chafing, extra heat or waterproofing issues.
Heavy gauge wires almost demand to be run first and the devices they connect bolted down afterwards when you find out how much you can move the wires.
Trying to do all that where there isn't quite enough room is even harder. Trying to work with 120v equipment or enclosures gets extra fiddly.
Pulling panels, guessing how much room you have & need then making holes in dash is always worth a second look too.
Imagining how often you would regret doing a crap job can slow you down a bit as well...

 

[luthj]

Yeah, its freaking hard to do it right. But fewer problems are harder to diagnose and correct that crappy wiring. And most wont cause a deadly fire...
In the aviation field we have intense wiring protection rules. Can you imagine visually inspection 400 wires in 5 bundles? With a mirror, behind a bulkhead, upside down, without nicking the insulation...

Soldering and crimping is acceptable in some situations. Proper solder jobs require more skill, and are not as repeatable as a quality crimp. Soldered joints need good support nearby, or stress cracking can result. Personally I just crimp for most everything. Faster, and fewer burnt fingers!

 

[carbon60]

What printer do you use for your labels? Nice work.

It is a Dymo RhinoPRO 3000, which will accept some heat-shrink label tapes.

Quality takes time and costs money, but saves both in the long run as stuff actually keeps working. Nice to see someone else using proper crimp connectors and then cover/shrink wrap. Do you solder your crimps as well? or is that just my own nerdish level of attention to detail?

I never solder in automotive applications.

My preferred technique is to use uninsulated terminals, which allow me to see clearly examine my crimp before I cover with quality heat shrink. But they seem difficult to find, so I'm often using the regular insulated terminals.

I really wanted one of those heat shrink printers, until I realized that every printed label is about $1.25. I still want it, I've just decided to live without.
(…)
Doing quality work helps you understand why wiring harnesses are so expensive.

I don't think my labels are that much, pretty sure I paid about $20 for the roll of heat-shrink label tape, and it seems to handle a lot of labels.

And yeah, quality wiring harnesses, like the factory stuff, must be seriously expensive.

A.

 

[Hillbilly Heaven]

Thank you

 

[carbon60]

It is a Dymo RhinoPRO 3000, which will accept some heat-shrink label tapes.
(…)
I don't think my labels are that much, pretty sure I paid about $20 for the roll of heat-shrink label tape, and it seems to handle a lot of labels.

Note that you can use much less tape if you specify label length and cut with scissors. This minimizes wasted space on the ends of the labels.

 

[ducktapeguy]

I've pulled engines and torn them down in less time than it's taken me to run a few wires. I'm adding an Aux fuse box on one of my cars for some added circuits, worked on it for 4 hours last night and I barely got the box and circuit breaker installed, haven't even run wires yet.

It's taken me years to figure this out, but proper tools make the job go a lot easier. I finally have a good set of wire strippers and crimpers. I wish I had known that 20 years ago so I wouldn't have to deal with crappy tools. If you plan on doing any wiring get a pair of these strippers. I have 2 now, so I have the entire range from 10ga to 28ga covered.

 

[s.e.charles]

good adviCe.
do you have a crimper (link) that works well? crimpers seem to be $14 or $400, and while I could spend a bit more than the former, but not do enough work to justify the latter.

thanks

 

[ducktapeguy]

I bought these ratcheting crimpers on Amazon for about $90. I doubt i'll ever use all the dies it comes with, but it's cheaper to buy them up front than have to purchase one later. So far I like it, the crimps have the factory look to them and feel a more secure than just crushing the sleeve with cheap crimpers. Even a small wiring job like adding a lightbar can be dozens of crimps, adding a aux fuse/relay box probably has over 100 crimped ends, so the time saved and quality can easily justify the price.

I also have a hydraulic crimper from Temco to do winch and battery cables. Even though I don't use it a whole lot, the hammer style crimpers or soldered connections don't really look too secure and I don't want to take the risk with high amperage wires.