Witz,
No one should fault that method as you have both crimped and soldered PROPERLY. Properly is the key word! The reason solder is verboten on boats is not the fact that it won't work, when properly crimped, soldered and strain relieved, but rather that perhaps 99.5% of the boaters out there have no clue how to do this properly. You are in that .5% who does. Hell perhaps 95% of boaters don't know how to crimp properly. Even "professionals" sometimes don't know how to crimp properly, as evidenced by the refrigeration crimp that was made on the wrong side of the connector, and with the wrong tool for the connector.
Nearly every solder joint I have come across on boats, lots of them over the years, has been improperly done which lends further creedence to the ABYC standards that suggest that solder not be used unless there is also a mechanical bond eg: crimp.. The PO of my boat was an EE and still messed this stuff up in a bad way. just because he was an EE does not mean he knew how to solder. The solder creep you see above was because this was done improperly and the solder creeped up the wire because it was heated beyond the insulation or where the terminal will be enough sot hat the soldered continued to flow beyond where it should have. The outer strands were ok, for some reason, but the solder crept up the inner stranding causing a hard spot. I suspect the outer strands flexing around the hard inner lump cause the fractures? I tried to peel them away somewhat to show the inner hard lump of solid wire. You are right of course that solder does not "creep" at room temp, obviously, it does however creep during a bad or improper application as I have witnessed many times. and as what happened to the termination above.
A well made adhesive lined heat shrink crimp connection will last many, many years and done correctly will be 100% water tight, no chlorine atoms. I have yet to see one I've made go bad.
My buddy is the customer service manager for a big luxury jet company. He runs a massive facility in Arizona where maintenance, warranty work etc. is performed. Nearly every connection is a crimp. Though these crimps are different than the ones I make with a hand tool they are still crimps, just done with a very, very expensive machine. Jets rely on them so I am comfortable with them on my own boat, and more comfortable with them when I know I was the one to have made them.
Even cheaper open style crimps can last for years, as evidenced by the many 30 year old ones on our boat, and the many others I have worked on, that are still working fine. I still won't use open style crimp connectors on my boat even with tinned wire. I also won't solder becuse I can admit that I just don't have the skill or time necessary to do it properly. Could I learn and become proficient with this? Sure, but a well made crimp, with the right tools is one that will last a good long time, pass the needed current, and be strong. I don't have hundreds of extra hours to do the type of connection you talk about, perhaps when I retire, but when my re-wire will have hundreds of crimps, I will crimp and heat shrink.
The adhesive lined terminals are certainly more expensive but in the whole scheme it will cost me about $55.00 +/- more, on a full re-wire, to use the adhesive lined crimp connectors. Considering this will run me over 2k, with free labor, the extra $55.00 is worth it to me in the long run.
