A friend of mine tried to boost his car with these cables and thought that something was wrong with them because his car, a Lexus SUV, would not crank over.
https://www.homedepot.ca/product/husky-12-ft-8-gauge-ul-listed-booster-cable/1000807592
He asked me to test them out. I used the cables to hook up a 225 amp load tester to a fully charged battery and the current measured at 130 amps, voltage dropped 5v across both pos and neg cables combined (2.5v across each cable). My conclusion - nothing wrong with the cables, they are working as designed. The cables are a thrifted product, made to a price point. The 8ga copper clad aluminium is equivalent to 10ga copper wire
What caught my eye was the plastic washers used when riveting the cable ends to the clamp jaws. Plastic washers are used when the jaws need to be isolated from the clamp body, as in Kelvin clamps. It is the wrong washer to use here because isolation is not needed, but, more inportantly, the plastic is going to compress over time and lead to a poor electrical bond between the cable end and the jaw. What a poor choice!
https://www.homedepot.ca/product/husky-12-ft-8-gauge-ul-listed-booster-cable/1000807592
He asked me to test them out. I used the cables to hook up a 225 amp load tester to a fully charged battery and the current measured at 130 amps, voltage dropped 5v across both pos and neg cables combined (2.5v across each cable). My conclusion - nothing wrong with the cables, they are working as designed. The cables are a thrifted product, made to a price point. The 8ga copper clad aluminium is equivalent to 10ga copper wire
What caught my eye was the plastic washers used when riveting the cable ends to the clamp jaws. Plastic washers are used when the jaws need to be isolated from the clamp body, as in Kelvin clamps. It is the wrong washer to use here because isolation is not needed, but, more inportantly, the plastic is going to compress over time and lead to a poor electrical bond between the cable end and the jaw. What a poor choice!
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