Marine vs. Automotive Electrical Terminals
Does it really matter what kind of terminals you use on your boat?
When things look the same but are different then it is common for poor choices to be made. One of those items in the marine chandlery space is electrical terminals which look the same as those in the automotive distribution. In actual fact they are very different.
Terminals consist of the metal bit and the plastic covering where you squeeze to keep the wire in place. The real marine product has the metal being tinned and the plastic part being made from nylon instead of pvc. The tinned metal will have greater resistance to corrosion and the plastic will not become brittle and split.
Many of these terminals are critical to the functioning of the vessel and are often hidden in cable ducts where it is difficult to trace a fault and bundled up with a hundred cable clamps that you need to break and replace.
This is not a good product to make errors on!
Please send in Questions for the Experts to answer in a future issue to [email protected]
