Options
Hi all,
Nice discussion! Getting back to the original question, properly installed Sta-Loks are better than swages; they are reusable, inspectable, more likely to be corrosion-resistant, and you can invert the wire at its half-corrosion-life, extending total wire life (corrosion tends to concentrate at the bottom).
As noted above, one often sees swages aloft, Sta-Lok's alow, but this (a) precludes that half-life inversion, (b) is more expensive in the long run, as you can't reuse the swage, and (c) assumes that water can't wick uphill. Most often it seems that people take this path just so they can turn up the bottom ends in place, after stepping.
I recommend a serious look at Dynex. Properly scaled, creep is a non-issue. Chafe is easy to avoid. The covered version is basically immortal. At the very least, carry a piece as your spare.
At the moment we are preparing to do some destruction tests on all the major swageless terminals. Stand by for results.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss
|