[Rhodes22-list] Harbor Freight connectors - caution

[PBR]

I thought I would drop a note of caution about using harbor  freight
materials.  I have had a couple of electrical failures of butt joints using
their connectors.

When I lived in Denver I drove past a HF store everyday so I picked up a
lot of cheap stuff there.

1) After wiring a new hitch wire harness to my utility trailer using HF but
joint connectors I wrapped the joints with electrical tape to seal it.
About a year later the lights weren't working properly and I narrowed the
failure down to an open circuit in that area under my tape.  Upon removal
of the tape the wires were just falling off, breaking at 90 angle to then
ends of  the connector body.  Visible was a lot of corrosion white and
green material.  I don't think there was any significant water intrusion
and it's pretty dry in Denver.  I chalked it up to some sort of galvanic
corrosion between the seemingly aluminum connectors and the copper.

2) Meanwhile I had used the HF stuff in other areas too.  LIke my R22 bilge
pump.  I recently returned to check on my Rhodes after about a 2 month
absence to find that storms in Kitty Hawk had shredded part of my tarp,
clogged the drains with tree parts of all nature, and filled the laz with
water which found its way into the bilge.  Water up to the floor boards -
why wasn't my automatic bilge pump working?  Traced it to a butt connector
down at the pump being basically open circuit.  This time I had
waterproofed the joints with liquid electrical tape or something like it
and all that was good.  On the outside everything looked water tight and
this joint was in an area where it never saw stress or chafing.  After
cutting into it, I again found white and green signs of corrosion.

Lesson learned.
1) don't buy harbor freight (but the only non-chinese made connectors I
have found are Taiwanese, please advise if you have a north american source)
2) I will make sure any butt joints have full copper to copper contact in
the middle (but that may not help much).