Originally Posted by
gauvins
Probably a very good idea. Connectors are typically rust-proof, so you problem would likely be (1) poor connection between wires and terminals; (2) the wire themselves corrode.
You may want to tin the tips of your cables, and properly crimp your connectors (essential on blue-water boats). Heat-shrink tubing sounds like a good idea as well. If there's a boat store/marina in your area, you could pay them a visit.
Originally Posted by
gauvins
Marine cables/wires are typically tinned in order to prevent corrosion. Lead is a very ductile metal (more than copper) that crimping will easily mold. See
here for West Marine advisor on electrical cables. Notice that the label
"Marine grade cable" applies to tinned cables.
Originally Posted by
grizzly59
If you rarely need to take the connection apart this lasts about forever. Tin the copper stranded wire end with solder, 6mm or so. Find some small gray or blue wire nuts. Get some dielectric / silicone grease. Grease the inside of a wire nut, insert wires, twist together. Clean off grease, wrap sparingly with electrical tape. If you don't have to take connection apart the solder the wires, grease and nut.
One of the stupid things in electrical - tinning stranded wire and tinned wire are 2 different things.
Tinned wire has a tin coating on the copper conductors to help prevent corrosion. But tinning the end of a stranded wire means applying solder to keep the wire strands together. Marine grade cable, per the link, typically uses tinned copper, meaning the copper conductors have a tin coating. They are not soldering the ends.
If you are making a crimped connection the design of the contacts assumes there are gaps between the individual wire strands in cable. If you "tin" the wire by adding solder you fill these gaps, and the connector crimp will be over-stressed, will not provide the designed compression, and will likely crack.
In addition "tinning" the wire is likely to create a stress riser that will crack and cause the conductor to open when exposed to vibration. Few people are skilled enough to properly solder wires. On our engineering vehicles we only allow a few, select technicians who have been properly trained and certified to solder wires, otherwise we see wiring failures at solder connections. Even our trained technicians have a joint fail, although far less frequently. 30+ years of experience has shown me time and again that crimp connections are far more reliable than soldered connections.