DIY-GearLab
5 Reasons I Stopped Buying Butt Crimps After 22 Years Wiring Trailers, Boats, and Trucks
I've been wiring trailers, boats, and trucks since the late 90s. I've redone harnesses because the crimps backed out. I've spent a Saturday under a dash with a soldering iron, dropping it twice. The Scotch locks I pulled out were green inside a year.
Last year I switched to SolderStick and stopped fighting all of it. No iron, no crimper, no third hand — one pass with a heat gun and the connection's done. It holds like a factory splice and it doesn't care if it's sitting in water.
Here are the five reasons I'm not going back.
Note: Read this BEFORE you rewire anything.
1. One Pass With a Heat Gun. That's the Whole Skill.
1. One Pass With a Heat Gun. That's the Whole Skill.
Hand soldering takes two hands, a steady one, and room to swing an iron. Half the spots I work in — behind a dash, under a fender, deep in an engine bay — don’t give you any of that.
With SolderStick, you strip the wire, slide the connector on, and run a heat gun over it.
The solder flows, the tube shrinks, done. One hand, one pass, about ten seconds.
I’ve soldered for twenty-two years and don’t miss it. And the guy who never learned to solder? He doesn’t have to. If you can hold a heat gun, the connector does the rest.
2. It Bonds the Wire. A Crimp Just Squeezes It.
2. It Bonds the Wire. A Crimp Just Squeezes It.
A crimp is a metal sleeve pinched around bare copper. It holds until vibration works it loose or moisture creeps under it — and then you're chasing a dead circuit you can't see.
SolderStick melts actual solder into the strands. The two wires fuse into one piece of metal, sealed inside adhesive-lined tube. It isn't clamped together. It's bonded.
First one I did, I let it cool, then grabbed both ends and pulled as hard as I could. Nothing moved. The wire breaks before the joint does. I've tested that more than once.
3. Six Months Underwater. Still Sealed.
3. Six Months Underwater. Still Sealed.
I put these on a boat stereo install — wires running through the bilge, sitting in standing water half the season.
Pulled the panel six months later expecting green corrosion. Nothing. Wires looked like the day I put them in. The glue inside the tube melts down and seals around the jacket, so water never reaches copper.
Electrical tape in that spot turns to goo and falls off in a season. Scotch locks corrode inside a year. These don't.
4. One Box Does the Trailer, the Boat, and the Truck Bed.
4. One Box Does the Trailer, the Boat, and the Truck Bed.
Truck, utility trailer, bass boat, side-by-side, the lights out in the garage. Different gauges, different access, different conditions — one connector handles all of it. The kit runs from 26-gauge speaker wire up to 10-gauge battery feed.
I used to keep a drawer of crimps, T-taps, and butt splices, and half of them never fit the job in front of me. Now there's one box in the truck and I pull from that. Same result every time.
5. A Box of Crimps Looks Cheap. Until You Redo the Job.
5. A Box of Crimps Looks Cheap. Until You Redo the Job.
I've redone the same trailer-light connections four times in three years with crimps — wire, connector, heat shrink, half a day each time.
One trip I lost a brake light 200 miles from home and paid a shop to splice it. Marine and trailer electrical runs $85–150 an hour.
SolderStick works out to about $0.20 a connector, and one box covers a whole season with zero repeat repairs.
Cheap isn't the box that costs less. It's the one you end up buying twice.
Why 135,500+ People Are Choosing Solderstick
Mike R.
✓ Verified Buyer
★★★★★
“I kept having trailer light issues every time it rained. Turned out a crimp connector had corroded inside the wiring. Switched everything over to SolderStick and haven’t had a single problem since. Super solid connection and way easier than soldering.”
Chris M.
✓ Verified Buyer
★★★★★
“Used these while installing fog lights on my truck and honestly they worked way better than regular crimp connectors. Heat it up, solder flows, shrink tube seals tight. Clean, professional connection in seconds.”
Jason T.
✓ Verified Buyer
★★★★★
“Rewired my boat trailer with SolderStick after dealing with constant wiring failures from water getting into old connectors. These sealed everything tight and have held up perfectly through rain, vibration, and salt water.”
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