is it really necescary to wire a tractor using aircraft standards? I suspect it would not be practical...
soundguy
Of course it is not necessary (or typically particularly practical or cost effective) to wire a tractor to aircraft standards. Whether or not it is practical to do so in some repair or mod situation as a particular instance is a separate issue to be judged on its own merits. In general it does no harm to work to a higher standard than the "norm" (lowest common denominator) except a little more $ and time which may be well invested or excessive depending on the degree to which it is taken and any "return" on the investment.
Take for example the widespread use of insulation displacement splices, typically crimped on with pliers or a hammer, that are widely used in automotive after-market installations as well as new construction in trailers. It is not uncommon to see these used on tractor wiring (not typically OEM.) It is not a question of whether or not they will fail but when will they fail.
There are solder joints and then there are good solder joints and then there are NASA quality solder joints. Doing more than the bare minimum is not a bad thing. You and I may tend to use solder joints where proper crimped connections are as good or better. I have had experience with crimped connections that failed: wires that fell out of the splice after crimping, cut conductors, damaged insulation on insulated splices and terminals and on and on... mostly preventable with proper use of proper tools. With a modicum of care I (and I'm sure your soldering technique is adequate given your long term success) have high confidence in my solder joints.
After the praise of our soldering I still like crimped connections in many applications. There are now readily available crimp-on insulated butt splices that are designed for underwater use such as in wiring a submerged well pump. These are good for automotive and tractor use and are impervious to Immersion in mud and water or road salt. They look like and are applied like regular insulated butt splices but there is a heat liquefying sealant on the inside of the plastic insulation. The plastic insulation itself is shrink plastic.
So, after crimping these on you heat the splice and the insulation shrinks down and the inner sealant liquefies and oozes out the ends forming a hermetic seal. If you damage the insulation during crimping you still get water tight integrity as the sealant flows out through the holes you have made in the plastic and seals them (in all cases I have observed.) These are way faster to install than to make a proper solder joint and then insulate with shrink. DIY heat shrinked solder joints are NOT typically water proof just fairly water resistant unless you do something like inject silicone seal inside the shrink before heating which is a lot more hassle than the water proof shrink covered butt splices. There is shrink tubing with sealant inside and this is better than regular shrink but not as handy as the water proof splices.
I don't think the poster was arguing in favor of A/C standards for all tractor wiring or even for all DIY mods and repairs. His comments regarding crimped connections being superior to soldered connections in a high vibration environment are correct. Given the skill of the average DIY repair person I'd expect their crimping ability to exceed their soldering ability and make crimping a better choice. For old pros like ourselves with good soldering skills, we have the option to get a high quality joint either way.
++++ Oh by the way... I have exercised my new HF hydraulic wire splice crimper (12 through 00 ga including AWG 7) and I am impressed with it.
Pat
