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Recommended Electrical Install Tools & Accessories E-150 Van Build Project
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May 3, 2025
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View Video Transcript
0:01
[Music]
0:26
he
0:28
[Music]
0:52
hey guys welcome back to the live stream
0:54
tonight we are doing a little bit of
0:55
wiring on this uh E150 Acron line van
1:01
umbly only be on here for about 45
1:04
minutes or so I got to hop over off of
1:06
here at 9: but uh let's just Dive Right
1:09
into this so what we have here is uh
1:14
what we were working with yesterday um
1:16
I've been finishing all the wiring up at
1:17
the front and that simply just entailed
1:20
taking these uh crimped ends from
1:25
whoever installed this prior and just
1:28
making them safe
1:30
as you can see this is not contacted
1:33
very very well so that's a that's a nogo
1:37
um going to show you a couple tools here
1:40
uh that I use
1:42
for doing electrical in a van
1:45
and these tools right here are
1:50
everything you need if you're doing van
1:52
electrical um the
1:56
DIY
1:58
uh cheat sheet van build cheat sheet
2:01
that
2:02
is these are uh listed on that sheet
2:07
it's a free download in the link in the
2:09
description um it's just an Excel
2:11
document that I put together with a
2:13
bunch of Van Parts on it that I buy off
2:15
of Amazon and it's just a cool cheat
2:18
sheet for you guys to use it's free so
2:21
just hop on over there vuer hq.com
2:24
get the DIY vanu cheat sheet and uh I
2:28
think it'll help you out okay what do I
2:30
use the first thing I use is uh this is
2:34
a crimper
2:35
cutter now I don't crimp like this
2:39
person does any
2:40
anything that
2:42
is six gauge and up I use a hydraulic
2:46
crimper I'll show you that in a second
2:48
but this is just a pair of
2:50
uh uh low gauge wire cutters with a
2:54
non-insulated and insulated crimper
2:56
inside got a lot of Leverage good
2:58
grip got to have that the other cutter
3:01
that I use is this right here so this is
3:04
from Amazon it's called HD cable
3:08
cutter
3:10
um this guy has like a shearing action
3:13
so you actually have to open up really
3:15
wide to get uh it'll go up
3:18
to I think two o um will go through here
3:23
but 4 o you have to push it through here
3:25
it won't come through the teeth so it
3:27
might be a little inconvenient but um
3:29
this is this shearing action I'll show
3:31
you in just a minute it does a really
3:34
good
3:35
job and let me make sure I'm in focus to
3:37
be
3:39
honest can't remember if I did or
3:43
not okay yeah we should be
3:45
good um the next thing is this right
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here it's called Uh jonard tools
3:52
cst-1900 what this does is you can dial
3:56
in this little uh blade right here and
4:00
it's uh the depth you can control the
4:03
depth and then what you'll do is you'll
4:05
wrap it around the wire I've already
4:07
done this one but you wrap it around the
4:10
wire um and actually I'll do it on this
4:15
one so this wire I wouldn't cut with
4:18
this I would use this big one just
4:21
because uh it cuts it ex very very clean
4:25
and then so I want to actually
4:30
see this is so bad so watch this you
4:32
don't want to be able to do that that's
4:35
that that's how this was when I got it I
4:38
I really can't believe it um very very
4:42
dangerous
4:44
so
4:46
uh as long as these are nice and clean
4:49
you can just go ahead and use that
4:52
um I was going to crimp that but I use
4:55
this but I I don't need to but anyway
4:57
you take this and I'll just show you an
4:58
example you take it and then when you
5:00
let go let me spin this
5:04
down so imagine this goes around it like
5:07
that and then you're just going to spin
5:10
it and you spin it and you only get it
5:13
deep enough by dialing this in to that
5:15
it just cuts the rubber sleeve and it
5:16
doesn't cut the wires and once you have
5:18
it set on the standard gauge that you're
5:20
working with you can just do this do
5:22
about two runs and then just pull it
5:24
right off it's really
5:27
awesome so
5:30
these three um the next one is for lower
5:33
gauge
5:35
wires
5:38
and so it looks
5:40
like this right
5:44
here and it does this motion so it grabs
5:48
the wire and then it strips it like
5:52
that so if we had a
6:02
so you put the wire in it like
6:05
that comes down and then it'll strip
6:11
it so that is the next other tool that I
6:15
would have and then the final one
6:19
is the hydraulic
6:27
crimper and so that comes with a bunch
6:29
of different
6:32
dyes it's going to come with metric
6:34
dieses and then you can go in and
6:38
um set it up for something that
6:41
something that you're working
6:57
with so right here we have
7:00
a
7:03
um it says a six gauge
7:07
516 so we want to make sure we're
7:10
putting this onto this Renegy DC todc
7:13
combo charger and we just wanted to be
7:16
the size of the stud I think this is an
7:18
M8
7:19
stud so that is the size so we're going
7:23
to do
7:25
that um we'll take that off because it's
7:27
going to go here
7:29
and then what we want to do is uh we got
7:32
a heat shrink sleeve it will fit on here
7:35
after I do it but if you have bigger
7:37
gauge wire sometimes you want to put the
7:38
heat shrink on before it's it's always
7:40
actually a good practice to put on
7:42
before you crimp
7:43
it um but I'm going to make sure that I
7:47
want that end of the wire just go all
7:50
the way down into here and sometimes if
7:52
you just push it and twist you can get
7:54
it
7:55
really seated in there well
8:03
and then when you're happy with that go
8:05
ahead and get your hydraulic
8:08
crimper and then all you got to do is
8:10
set this and I go ahead and just kind of
8:11
work it
8:13
in just enough to where I
8:15
can get this through
8:35
and a perfect world you can sit it down
8:37
somewhere and go ahead and bite
8:40
the uh what you're
8:43
crimping and then right before you
8:46
compress it all the way then you can go
8:49
ahead and stuff the
8:51
wire uh down on the
8:56
inside so when you have like that now we
8:59
just G
9:01
to push it on
9:03
down until it
9:06
stops and then I just double check that
9:08
it's in there and I I just let it set
9:11
for about two seconds and then I relieve
9:13
the
9:15
pressure and so now you have a hydraulic
9:22
crimp and um that thing is not coming
9:24
off thing is great um you know you've
9:27
done a great job on this in right here
9:29
is kind of bulging a little bit that
9:30
means the wire inside has been squeezed
9:33
so much it's uh kind of flaring right
9:35
here at the end so this is not going
9:38
anywhere and then finally we'll go ahead
9:40
and get some heat shrink
10:00
and then we got a just
10:02
a cheapo heat gun from haror Freight
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that's all you need nothing fancy I got
10:07
a uh nice the Walt battery powered heat
10:11
gun but
10:13
um unless you have like a 4 amp hour
10:17
battery to connect to it really is kind
10:20
of uh
10:23
worthless you might be able to do two
10:25
wires so if you're doing a whole entire
10:27
van um just get this Warrior brand or
10:32
Bower or whatever the Cheapo is
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um
10:41
okay so this I have a a kit so you can
10:44
buy these kit let me go ahead and get
10:45
some
10:47
examples you might these kits off Amazon
11:00
[Applause]
11:17
and I've got all kinds of stuff we
11:19
talked about the terminals
11:21
yesterday this is a terminal repair kit
11:25
so what you have is you have these
11:27
little barrels these uh C
11:30
uh brass barrels and then if you goof
11:34
and you can't rerun a long
11:37
wire um and you have to make a cut and
11:40
then join two this is the safest way to
11:43
do it it's this little uh barrel with
11:47
some set screws and then some heat
11:49
shrink and so this little kit if you
11:51
make a mistake um this is the kit that I
11:54
like to use
12:00
this is a whole kit of different sized
12:03
um so this is a whole kit of
12:05
516 and
12:07
38 uh
12:10
terminals uh and we got everything from
12:13
one a to eight gauge four gauge with
12:19
some heat shrinks I'm just robbing one
12:20
of these heat shrinks from here
12:32
and then you can go on Amazon and for
12:34
your lower gauge uh
12:38
wires you can get this heat shrink
12:44
kit or low
12:47
voltage uh this is for the big chunky
12:49
like 4 a cable so we're going to use
12:52
this for our battery cable
12:56
later this stuff is really hard to size
12:59
bought it off my Amazon multiple times
13:01
and one vendor same specs will give me
13:04
one size and one will give me other one
13:06
it's cheap enough to wear I don't really
13:07
worry I'll just use it for something
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else but just a heads up when you order
13:11
this um you might not get what you
13:13
ordered
13:15
which uh it's just kind of a pain to
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return
13:19
so I just uh I just keep
13:22
it now this one um I don't have any
13:26
that's perfect for this uh so this one
13:30
will get me really
13:43
close and I like to coming up from the
13:46
top wherever the creases are I like to
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do the creases first
13:53
[Applause]
14:40
and you'll find that
14:42
the the copper uh portion of the
14:47
uh terminal lug battery lug uh end is
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the copper will really absorb the heat
14:54
so you got to keep the heat there longer
14:56
and then try not to keep it on the wire
14:58
as much um you know so it doesn't
15:01
melt but once you get that done let it
15:04
cool off and we go ahead and attach it
15:08
so this one is going to go right
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here just like
15:14
that and this is our ignition positive
15:18
from the
15:19
alternator um technically it's from the
15:22
positive battery terminal uh in the
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engine bay that's where you hook it to
15:28
but the alter cable is coming from there
15:31
as well so that's why it's identified as
15:45
that all right so that one's going to go
15:47
there and that's pretty much uh that
15:50
coming into the box so the next one
15:53
we'll do here um this is a good example
15:56
of using this because this is a two a
16:01
cable for the ground um this was already
16:05
installed in the van it's bolted to the
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chassis so I'm not going to redo that
16:09
whole thing so I'm just going to reuse
16:10
this but it's uh mushroomed out here at
16:13
the end too much to where I can't really
16:15
get to it so I'm going to go ahead and
16:17
show you how to use
16:20
this so I just open it
16:23
up and
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then it's self-explanatory but the
16:27
reason I'm explaining it is
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I'll show you in a
16:31
second um if you can get it right before
16:35
it mushrooms and I know all this is kind
16:37
of obvious but for those that it's not
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um the shearing motion is what getes you
16:42
a nice flat cut and it makes it to where
16:44
it's really easy to put the wire in here
16:47
if it's flared out it's almost
16:48
impossible to stuff it in here and you
16:50
don't want any spare wire frayed wires
16:53
you want all the strands in there
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because that is how you maintain your
16:58
current rating of The Wire
17:01
so not that a few strands broken is
17:03
going to really make that big of a deal
17:05
but it's just good practice to if you
17:07
can do it right every time um that's the
17:10
best way to do it so if I take it and I
17:12
just go ahead and start shearing this
17:15
off you'll see that the end is perfectly
17:19
flat so it's nice and cleanly cut and
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that way when I take this I can actually
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uh put it on the end now this is too
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short see so I want it to I always uh
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wherever this little uh Crown is right
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here that's where I want my wires to end
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so I put my finger at the back so the
17:43
back of this is like where my thumb
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is and I just take my fingernail and
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make a little Mark and that little Mark
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is where I'll take this
17:53
tool and dialing into how however I
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think that the
17:59
R plastic is or Rubber and then I just
18:02
kind of let it find its spot and I go
18:05
ahead and go ahead and cut
18:12
this and then you can see how it just
18:15
breaks I can break the other side and
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watch this I'm going pull it straight
18:22
off and you'll see we don't have any
18:26
wires we only cut the
18:29
the rubber we didn't cut the wires which
18:31
is perfect so now we can take
18:35
this right
18:37
there and we can put it over the
18:42
end go ahead and slide this on
19:02
and then really push it down in
19:08
there and so once you get about right
19:11
there and you know the wires are all the
19:13
way stuffed in here you can go ahead and
19:15
we're going to get our two a
19:17
die um usually I get it a little bit
19:20
closer
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but let's see that's pretty
19:25
good so we got our two a die
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so all we do is take this and we unscrew
19:32
this
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end so these dyes come out so this is
19:37
what I use for six and eight
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gauge we'll go get the
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two so here's a case you got a bunch of
19:58
dyes
19:59
um I went through with a marker and just
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marked all mine so we got four six
20:09
gauge let's see where is our so here's
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our
20:13
two two so here we
20:22
go fit them on down in
20:27
there and this is a metric one it's
20:31
not uh eight like uh the size is not two
20:35
o so you do have that's why I go in with
20:37
a marker and I find the one that crimps
20:39
the
20:40
best so I use an eight for a six gauge
20:44
but it's a 10 in metric so if you buy
20:48
the kit you'll understand what I'm
20:50
talking
20:54
about so where this flares in the end
20:56
that's kind of where you want it to stop
20:57
in the D on the back
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side and just get it started uh go easy
21:07
that way your wire doesn't fall
21:10
out and all we're doing is just getting
21:12
it tight enough to barely
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hold the
21:18
copper
21:22
lug and then we're going to
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just make sure wires nicely worked in
21:30
there and then when we're
21:33
ready just keep force on it and go for
21:54
it and so now we've got a really
21:58
excellent crimp
22:06
here and if you think you've got the
22:08
wire too far back you've actually
22:10
probably just pulled it
22:13
um so like if I do this to the wire and
22:15
move it
22:16
down you see we've got it's right there
22:20
where it's supposed to be so next we'll
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go
22:26
find some a heat shrink
22:38
and I always go 50/50 so this
22:48
one and this one's probably going to be
22:50
like
22:51
2/3 um it doesn't really matter in the
22:53
end but you just want to cover up that
22:55
Gap so I've got about third here and 23
23:02
here then we'll just put some heat on it
23:17
[Applause]
23:26
[Applause]
23:39
[Applause]
23:42
okay so that's it for our ground and our
23:44
ground is going to go to the Ground
23:47
Terminal on the output and then we're
23:49
going to do one more lug you only want
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to do about two lugs
23:54
per uh terminal here um just because the
23:59
thickness of
24:00
these uh this is overkill but um
24:05
technically you want your ground wire to
24:07
be the same size as your biggest
24:10
wire if you uh are able to do that so
24:13
this one is going to go on the negative
24:16
and
24:17
then we will
24:20
uh yeah we'll finish this up
24:25
um see here
24:32
[Music]
24:58
for
25:21
[Applause]
27:24
all right guys that was just a short
27:26
Suite on those two wires um
27:28
we'll get back to some other stuff later
27:30
I've just got to head out of the shop
27:32
and um yeah if you guys have any
27:33
questions put those in the comments
27:34
below get subscribed and we'll see you
27:38
guys in the next live stream
27:44
[Music]
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