[time-nuts] How to love your Power Poles.

[James Robbins]

I’ve used Power Poles for some years.  I have a proper crimper intended for PP.  Color coding is very useful.  

I think the complaints about them are due to two things:  (1) improper crimping of the contacts and (2) heavy gauge wire.  

The PP15/30/45 use the same plastic housing while changing the size of the contact.  A wire gauge suitable for 30 to 45 amps is quite large physically and puts a great deal of mechanical strain on the plastic connectors.  So, when such a gauge of wire moves (or doesn’t move), it tends to disconnect the plastic housings.  If the connections are from one set of wires to another, a two prong plastic jumper plug can successfully hold the four connectors together through the mating holes in the pair during movement.  

The problem is that when one set of connectors is mounted in a chassis, it is often not really possible to use a two prong plug (or Ty-Wrap) to physically hold them together.  Move the chassis and if the wire doesn’t want to follow, you get disconnected.

Two solder lugs mounted to the chassis and a few small Ty-Wraps will fix most of this “heavy wire” issue.

Jim Robbins
N1JR

PS:  Make up a pair of PP with an LED to test your future PP builds.