swageless vs swaged terminals

[Ryan]

I have read bits and pieces about swaged versus swageless terminals for standing rigging, but I was hoping that someone here could give me and unbiased pros and cons of the two, if there are any name brands to watch out for. I like the convenience that the swageless terminals seem to provide, but I don't want to use a substandard part. Thanks in advance!

Ryan Haley

[TomP]

Ryan,

I think you will find that most of the mechanical terminals (Norseman, StaLok, and Hayn) all function very well. Though the Hayn models are more astheticaly pleasing. They all work well.

Some pros for using mechanicals are the terminal is re-usable (in but the extreme cases), ease of replacement, and field replaceable.
Cons would be initial cost (about 1 to 2 times a swaged fitting)

Pros for swaged fitting would be cost.
Cons would be if the wire is condemmed so is the terminal.

Tom

[Ryan]

Thanks Tom. The higher cost is fine because it is balanced out by the convenience, at least for me. I just wanted to make sure that I was not giving up and strength to pay for that ease of use. Thanks again.

[Brian Duff]

just follow the instrucions on those mechanical fittings exactly and you should get fine strength. Oh, the hayn fitting doesn't let you use an adjustable wrench becasue they didn't make the slot on the outer piece wide enough. That and assembling the hayn on right hand lay wire are my two complaints. the sta loc and norseman are great though.

Is the jury out on the "Quick Attach" Terminals? It says it's similar to Norseman and Sta-Lok, and it looks a lot easier and keeps 98% of wire strength. It's the first time I came across "Quick Attach" on the internet after seeing only comments regarding Norseman and Sta-lok as a suitable replacement to swages.

Does anybody have any experience with "Quick Attach?"

Thanks.

[MikeR]

I've used StaLok, Norseman, and Hayn. My personal favorite is StaLok, I like the separate former. Seems to make the turning of the strands more uniform. I've also had galling problems with Norseman.

The Hayn compression fittings are very nice and the crown inside does make is somewhat easier to align the strands, but I guess that, over time, I'm biased towords the StaLoks.

Cheers,

MikeR