A great place to find welding cable is out of Dodge Magnums, chargers, and Chrysler 300s. The battery is in the trunk on these vehicles, and they (no kidding) use a long section of legit welding cable as a positive lead . Found one at the junkyard today after watching another guy's youtube vid. It wasn't 5 bucks like his was, though. His channel is called martinbuilt. Took me about 10 minutes to get out of the vehicle to use as crossover cable for my Cummins. I still have half of it left over.
I remember learning about this but I’ve totally forgot about it! Haha When I did look, pretty much every LX chassis Chrysler (I think that’s what they called it?) had the cable already ripped out 😅 This is a great tip for others on a budget though, that’s like a good 20 feet of cable for cheap
Good stuff. I just broke 275K on my 07.5, and I promised myself I would start treating it better this year. That being said, my FACTORY aternator finally crapped out. Along with a new alternator, I think I'll take some time and make some nice, sexy cables like yours. Great video.
I work with electronics and to stop the end wires from fraying like on the 2/0 cable end where it's tight in the cable eye, you can solder the end of the wire before soldering to the eye. Gives a nice connection with no risk of wires fraying out, assuming you weren't smashing it in a vice after lol
Doing this tomorrow first thing. Thanks for being very detailed for me. Most videos jsut assume you know what they’re talking about. I’m trying to learn about my Cummins idk much about owning a diesel, my first one so we’ll see how it goes
My truck is in the dealership right now because it won’t start. They say the cables are bad and want $2100 to replace them. I think I’ll do it myself after watching your video
Great video. These good clean connections on a dodge 2500 is absolutely necessary especially when you get in to the 2002 and above models. Just a slight bit of corrosion or terminal being slightly loose on either battery Will cause the ECM/TCM to go nuts.
Definitely! My buddy had a bad connection for his crossover cable and because the alternator wire charges the passenger battery but reads voltage off the drivers it boiled the passenger battery!
@@Hazardous-Hotrod-Knowledge When I get home I think I’m gonna redo all my battery connections. Just a simple issue is a bad connection with calls shifting problems in an automatic. Mine is a 2002 dodge ram with a Cummins diesel.
Been following you on instagram for years. Im gonna be doing this on my 3rd gen soon. Pulling batterys out to start tractors have taken a toll on my battery ends. Great video man.
It’s even more important to have good connections on the 3rd gen because your alternator charge wire goes to the passenger side battery but your truck reads volts off the drivers side, so with a bad crossover connection it will boil the passenger battery trying to charge the drivers Found that out the hard way with a buddies truck
I just did this on my 2009 3500 and it made a tremendous difference on everything from start up to charging I thought in the beginning that I might need a new alternator turns out mine is perfectly fine just oxidized cables
The common rail trucks really don’t tolerate bad connections vs the older dodges, I feel like a lot of the electrical problems they hav rare caused by poor connections
Thank you. Could you please do an installation of a battery and show exactly what wires attach to the positive cables, on driver's side, that attach to the battery terminal and the order the extra wires have or if they have a specific order they need to be in. For instance the cable that goes from One battery to the other I see you have them separated by nuts in between but the wire like that and the other wire on the other side with the blue how many is there supposed to be cuz my mom has a bunch of them because she has her wires for her camper attached to it but her camper is not on the back of her truck right now. So i don't know what's what. video
Audio amp wire is often made out aluminum. Using aluminum for a battery cable is not a good idea. It's conductivity is substantially lower than copper and it melts at about 1200f.
Do you think it would ever get to 1200*F though? The only time I can think of it getting to something like that is a really poor connection and like 3 wires only making contact
@@Hazardous-Hotrod-Knowledge IDK....I would think you would melt the lead battery terminal first. Though if you ground out the cable you have the potential to flow 2,200 amps to ground. That's 26 kilowatts of heat. Which should be more than enough to melt the cable. The main issue is aluminum can only carry probably not half the amps of copper. They use aluminum wire in car amps because it's cheap and having crazy thick wires look cools. Copper cost 4x the price of aluminum, If auto manufacturers could substitute aluminum for copper in battery cables they would already be doing it.
This is super helpful. Will be doing this soon for my 3rd gen. Quick question though. Grote sells a pack of solder slugs for $85 😳. Where did you get your solder slugs? Did the clamps already come with them? Thanks!
So I totally forgot I had music in the background of this video, I don’t do it anymore as I could get copyright strikes I went through the video and picked out the songs, you’re right on black sabbath and bolt thrower! These are the songs in the order they’re playing: “The IVth Crusade” by Bolt Thrower “Play with me” by Extreme “Singled Out” by Diecast “Nobody Like You” by Limp Bizkit “Still Counting” by Volbeat “A National Acrobat” by Black Sabbath Kinda surprised a Pantera song didn’t sneak in lol Thanks for the comments! It was fun going through the video and finding the songs
I’ve had my buddy leave his grid heaters on for so long that it broke the grid heater metal pieces so I’m not entirely sure what the ampage requirement is to break them haha You’d have to probably straight bolt the grid heater wire to the engine block and near light the wires on fire to trip them
The worst thing is the crossover on them from the passenger battery to the drivers and how the alternator charge wire goes to the passenger battery. If the crossover is bad then the PCM reads low voltage on the drivers battery and boils over the passenger side battery trying to bring voltage up. Had it happen to a buddy
@@Hazardous-Hotrod-Knowledge It happened to me, spent so much time chasing it down, the cable looked fine but it wasn't. Eventually it destroyed the alternator but putting so much h strain on it
No way you got Bolt Thrower playing in the background! You are a bad ass man.
Hah! You’ve got a good ear and better taste!
Great video. Right to the point and no B.S. about unrelated things or fake enthusiasm. Just what I needed to know. Thanks.
Thank you! I try to keep every video along the same lines, just straight facts and what you’ve gotta know! Glad you noticed it
This was the most straight-forward video I found. Tackling this job soon. Thanks1
Glad it was helpful for you! Thanks for watching!
It’s like you know exactly what’s wrong with my Cummins 😅🤣
It’s only as if I’ve had so many that they all have the same dang problems 🤣
A great place to find welding cable is out of Dodge Magnums, chargers, and Chrysler 300s. The battery is in the trunk on these vehicles, and they (no kidding) use a long section of legit welding cable as a positive lead . Found one at the junkyard today after watching another guy's youtube vid. It wasn't 5 bucks like his was, though. His channel is called martinbuilt. Took me about 10 minutes to get out of the vehicle to use as crossover cable for my Cummins. I still have half of it left over.
I remember learning about this but I’ve totally forgot about it! Haha
When I did look, pretty much every LX chassis Chrysler (I think that’s what they called it?) had the cable already ripped out 😅
This is a great tip for others on a budget though, that’s like a good 20 feet of cable for cheap
Appreciate the walk through and tips.
Happy to help! Thanks!
Good stuff. I just broke 275K on my 07.5, and I promised myself I would start treating it better this year. That being said, my FACTORY aternator finally crapped out. Along with a new alternator, I think I'll take some time and make some nice, sexy cables like yours. Great video.
I work with electronics and to stop the end wires from fraying like on the 2/0 cable end where it's tight in the cable eye, you can solder the end of the wire before soldering to the eye. Gives a nice connection with no risk of wires fraying out, assuming you weren't smashing it in a vice after lol
Great advice!
Doing this tomorrow first thing. Thanks for being very detailed for me. Most videos jsut assume you know what they’re talking about. I’m trying to learn about my Cummins idk much about owning a diesel, my first one so we’ll see how it goes
Great video, definitely doing mine when I’m able to get back home 👍🏼 nice work 👍🏼
Helped me figure out what the hell I was doing! Thank you!!
Glad I could help!
My truck is in the dealership right now because it won’t start. They say the cables are bad and want $2100 to replace them. I think I’ll do it myself after watching your video
Holy SHIT that’s insane!! Glad to have saved you a couple bucks man!
Fantastic job sir. 👍🏼🇺🇸
Great video. These good clean connections on a dodge 2500 is absolutely necessary especially when you get in to the 2002 and above models. Just a slight bit of corrosion or terminal being slightly loose on either battery Will cause the ECM/TCM to go nuts.
Definitely! My buddy had a bad connection for his crossover cable and because the alternator wire charges the passenger battery but reads voltage off the drivers it boiled the passenger battery!
@@Hazardous-Hotrod-Knowledge
When I get home I think I’m gonna redo all my battery connections. Just a simple issue is a bad connection with calls shifting problems in an automatic. Mine is a 2002 dodge ram with a Cummins diesel.
Been following you on instagram for years. Im gonna be doing this on my 3rd gen soon. Pulling batterys out to start tractors have taken a toll on my battery ends. Great video man.
It’s even more important to have good connections on the 3rd gen because your alternator charge wire goes to the passenger side battery but your truck reads volts off the drivers side, so with a bad crossover connection it will boil the passenger battery trying to charge the drivers
Found that out the hard way with a buddies truck
thats true happen to my 3rd gen HHk
Great video man.
Thanks for watching! Happy it was helpful
Thanks for the video, guess I can get rid of nail I have wedged between the post and the terminal.🤣
Hah! Never thought of doing that! My go-to has been vice grips with a welding glove overtop 🤣
You should have heated the wire along with the terminal. Doing it your way can cause a cold solder joint, causing unwanted resistance.
I just did this on my 2009 3500 and it made a tremendous difference on everything from start up to charging I thought in the beginning that I might need a new alternator turns out mine is perfectly fine just oxidized cables
The common rail trucks really don’t tolerate bad connections vs the older dodges, I feel like a lot of the electrical problems they hav rare caused by poor connections
You can get a full battery cable replacement set from Diesel Power Products for around $300.
Thank you. Could you please do an installation of a battery and show exactly what wires attach to the positive cables, on driver's side, that attach to the battery terminal and the order the extra wires have or if they have a specific order they need to be in. For instance the cable that goes from One battery to the other I see you have them separated by nuts in between but the wire like that and the other wire on the other side with the blue how many is there supposed to be cuz my mom has a bunch of them because she has her wires for her camper attached to it but her camper is not on the back of her truck right now. So i don't know what's what. video
Feeling your pain...Mom
Good Job!!!.....Nice and Neat!!
Thank you! Drives me UP THE WALL when the battery terminal ends are a mess, just doing my part to keep engine bays clean :)
Audio amp wire is often made out aluminum. Using aluminum for a battery cable is not a good idea. It's conductivity is substantially lower than copper and it melts at about 1200f.
Do you think it would ever get to 1200*F though? The only time I can think of it getting to something like that is a really poor connection and like 3 wires only making contact
@@Hazardous-Hotrod-Knowledge IDK....I would think you would melt the lead battery terminal first. Though if you ground out the cable you have the potential to flow 2,200 amps to ground. That's 26 kilowatts of heat. Which should be more than enough to melt the cable.
The main issue is aluminum can only carry probably not half the amps of copper. They use aluminum wire in car amps because it's cheap and having crazy thick wires look cools. Copper cost 4x the price of aluminum, If auto manufacturers could substitute aluminum for copper in battery cables they would already be doing it.
Can you do a indepth video on the grounds and the (W-T) mod?
This is super helpful. Will be doing this soon for my 3rd gen. Quick question though. Grote sells a pack of solder slugs for $85 😳. Where did you get your solder slugs? Did the clamps already come with them? Thanks!
Ya it’s ridiculous what they want! I believe I got mine from traction truck parts but maybe there’s some you could get online for cheaper?
Get a proper crimper for those ends. Temco makes a great one for not a lot of money. That vise smashing looks ghetto as hell.
You aren’t wrong haha! I’ll put it in my notes to pick one up, was kinda working with what I had haha!
Happen to know what gauge the original wire from the positive cable to the fuse box was?
Dropping some motor oil on it all helps
And sounded like Danzing, Misfits and Black Sabbath at the end...
So I totally forgot I had music in the background of this video, I don’t do it anymore as I could get copyright strikes
I went through the video and picked out the songs, you’re right on black sabbath and bolt thrower!
These are the songs in the order they’re playing:
“The IVth Crusade” by Bolt Thrower
“Play with me” by Extreme
“Singled Out” by Diecast
“Nobody Like You” by Limp Bizkit
“Still Counting” by Volbeat
“A National Acrobat” by Black Sabbath
Kinda surprised a Pantera song didn’t sneak in lol
Thanks for the comments! It was fun going through the video and finding the songs
Great content!
Great video
did this for a customer on a 2006 ram 2500.
Where are you located?
up in edmonton alberta
I put group 31 batteries in my Dodge no more automotive crap fittings just have to cut the front of the battery tray out.
Gotta watch out with them, some are pretty tall and I’ve had a buddy’s truck arc out on his hood 🤣
THANKS
No need for fuzable links?
I’ve had my buddy leave his grid heaters on for so long that it broke the grid heater metal pieces so I’m not entirely sure what the ampage requirement is to break them haha
You’d have to probably straight bolt the grid heater wire to the engine block and near light the wires on fire to trip them
3rd gen cables are the worst. They will throw so many codes and give off so many flase flags when they go bad
The worst thing is the crossover on them from the passenger battery to the drivers and how the alternator charge wire goes to the passenger battery. If the crossover is bad then the PCM reads low voltage on the drivers battery and boils over the passenger side battery trying to bring voltage up. Had it happen to a buddy
@@Hazardous-Hotrod-Knowledge It happened to me, spent so much time chasing it down, the cable looked fine but it wasn't. Eventually it destroyed the alternator but putting so much h strain on it
TURN OFF THE MUSIC!
HAHAH....that's actually what I loved about the video....go on now.
Welding cable has a built in resistance to it
How would the copper cable know that ?
Suuuuure it does....😂
Thanks
Happy to help!