Making up new rear lift cable

[SmilinSam]

Would sleeves and crimpers for high tension electric fence wire work to make up rear lift cables? IE making a clevis end and putting a cable through it and crimping a sleeve on the end of it to hold in place

[Roy]

Al Eden had a post a long time ago on how he does it. Drills a piece of 3/8" round rod for the cable, inserts the cable, and crimps it. A good compression crimper would be best but I made one that way and staked the round rod several places with a center punch. Has been working to date. Don't know what material electric fence sleeves are made of but think steel is needed. Let us know how you wind up doing it.

[SmilinSam]

Thats a neat idea. I'll look at the fence crimpers today and see what that is all about come back here later with what I find.

[wilm169]

Sam at the local true value store here they have repair parts for over head garage door cables that crimp, that might work.

[HubbardRA]

Sam, The only problem with using a crimp is the size of the loop and the length of the sleeve. I had a friend to crimp one end of the cable I used, but had some interference problems with the sleeve he used. Part of the problem is that he made the loop a little too big when he crimped the cable. I used "U" clamps on the rear end of the cable so that I could adjust the length. Since I have switched the rockershaft rotation and eliminated the pulley, I no longer have an interference problem and it all works great.

[SmilinSam]

What I found at the farm stor gave me ideas too. Barbed wire sleeves are made of steel in different diameters. Those would work for simply splicing cable or forming a loop in the end of a cable. The crimping tool is basically just a set of bolt cutters that when closed do not close down all the way. There is a gap about 3/32 wide when the jaws are fully closed. Roy related above that Al suggested using 3/8 round rod with a hole drilled in it endwise. Using this as sleeves to crmp. I have used a punch before to "crimp" like roy said. What I think I will try is using a bolt , cut the head off and drill a hole in the end. Then used a set of bolt cutters for a crimper and crimp without cutting all the way through. That way you would have the threads to use to thread on a new adjustable end which can easily be made with some narrow flat stock and a nut. Right now the cable I am working on is for a WHeel Horse. So no fancy end is needed. Just a loop on one end and a stop sleeve on the other. Lots of good ideas here from everyone

[Roy]

Good idea Sam. Post a picture when you're done.

[msiebern]

I was just browsing through the specialty fastener boxes at Tractor Supply today looking for some caged nuts and thumb screws and found a box with cable ferrules in it. They are very similar to what Levi was referring to in the garage door repair area of any True Value or Ace hardware and should just about be ideal for this job. The package with 2 ferrules and the stops is under $2.

[ghwrenchit]

Probably quite the "cob", but I used the above as msiebern mentioned, and bought a dog "tie-out" cable from Low~s and cut in half. I used the "factory" end at the hydro lift arm, and the crimped fittings at the rear hitch. At the crimp I used a large center punch in three locations on each side (6 total punches) and it has not slipped a bit. Just a thought Greg

[firefoxz1]

I use what Mike pointed out and used a rounded chisel down the center not accross the ferrules. I made cables over ten years ago for a pop up camper to lift the top and they are still holding.