| K3CN |
Rating:      |
2008-10-13 | |
| Works great in this shack |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have used the West Mountain Radio RIGrunner 4008 with Anderson Powerpoles for five years now with no problems. In the shack I have 3 HF radios a scanner and VHF/UHF rig plus other equipment and a backup battery all equipment connected to the Rigrunner. Keeps things well organized and simple. I can't imagine operating without this setup. Highly Recommend! |
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| VE6XL |
Rating:      |
2006-04-16 | |
| Very well made |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This power panel is very practical.
The individual outlets and fuses work great. The indicator lights and alarm function as described.
This is a great safety measure and allows multiple connections to a power supply.
VE6XL
www.ve6xl.ca |
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| K4GLU |
Rating:      |
2006-02-27 | |
| Excellent! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| The units are great. Not only do I have a 4008 I also have a 4005 & 4012. Well built and far better than anything from MFJ. Anderson Power Poles are also excellent and while I'll have to admit it took doing a few to catch on they are now easy. You're better off soldering these instead of crimping. If you solder and run short they can be used over again - I've already done it. As far as I'm concerned you can't go wrong with any of the RIGrunners or the Anderson Power Poles! |
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| K2GW |
Rating:      |
2006-02-27 | |
| Working Great for 3 Years! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
The RigRunner is incredible. We've been using 4008's in our club shack, EOC and Red Cross chapter for three years and have never had a problem. Makes it real easy to pull a rig for maintenance or to add in emergency power. Sold my MFJ binding post bus and will never go back. You plug in 110 VAC devices, don't you? Then why put up with random hunks of wire for 12 VDC?
Not only does it use the ARES/RACES standard Anderson Powerpoles, it also uses commonly available ATO automotive blade fuses. Mouser Electronics carries the more difficult to find 35 and 40 Amp ones, but the lower values are in any auto parts store.
By having everything on a common 12VDC bus, you can easily switch to emergency power or even float a 12VDC gel cell (with adequate blocking diodes or other mods to the power supply) on the bus for automatic standby power.
Finally, one club member reports since he installed the 4005 in his car, he's finally able to get full power out of his rig.
If you're not using one, get one today!
73
Gary, K2GW
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| AH6FC |
Rating:    |
2005-05-08 | |
| RIGrunner good/power poles JUNK |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| The rigrunner works fine. Seems to be well built, does what it's suposed to. The "power poles," i.e. connectors, are not so hot. After a little work I got the connections made, everything "clicked" like it was suposed to. But I'm still having some difficulty keeping the power poles inserted into the Rigrunner. The Rigrunner is mounted horizontally on the end of my operating desk. I almost need to tape the power poles in to keep them in place. Even the screw-down banana plugs would be better. Had I known of this problem, I would not have purchased the unit. It's too bad. Looks good, sounds good, but doesn't work so great. |
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| AE6OX |
Rating:     |
2004-04-17 | |
| Nice product, but ... |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| The Rigrunner is an excellent concept and well made. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Anderson Power Poles (I know, I know, there're the RACES/ARES standard, etc.). Wish West Mountain Radio would make a Rigrunner equipped with standard lug connectors instead of the power poles. |
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| K0KAV |
Rating:      |
2004-01-11 | |
| They work great |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I wouldn't be without these distribution panels. They work great. I have never had ANY problem crimping 10 guage wire in the 30A PowerPoles with the $10 crimper from WestMountain Radio. The directions are detailed and accurate. Can't go wrong with this equipment. |
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| W5EI |
Rating:      |
2003-12-31 | |
| Great shack accessory |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I became acquainted with the RIGrunner when a ham friend brought one to Field Day. The idea seemed pretty good, so I ordered one for my shack. It has worked out very well, but I do not care much for the idea of crimping connectors. I used the 30 amp powerpole connectors without any trouble by soldering each one instead of crimping them. They work much better that way. All my radios, accessories, power supplies, etc. now have interchangeable connectors which sure is an improvement over the assortment of plugs, lugs, barrels connectors and other connectors I had before. |
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| N3SKO |
Rating:      |
2003-12-31 | |
| Use the good crimpers |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have used hundreds of Powerpole connectors in the past year with no difficulties whatsoever, even on 10 gauge wire. The key is to purchase the good (expensive) full-cycle crimp tool. You will always get a good crimp, as you can not release the tool without it! Granted, they are over a $100, but if you are going to use a lot of these connectors, it is worthwhile.
I have wired several large radio rooms, military and amateur, with the RIGrunner used for all of the 12 volt power. I have also retrofitted several mobile installations. These panels are a god-send, especially compared with the MFJ power strips (which are AWFUL) or some of my home-brew solutions. The blown-fuse indicator is especially nice, as is the fact that the fuses used in the RIGrunner are common automotive blade fuses/
If you have a problem with the connectors slipping loose, I have found that a small piece of heat shrink tubing slipped over the connectors and heated with a heat gun solve the problem. It is easy enough to remove, if needed, with a sharp penknife.
Proper tools make all of the difference in using Powerpoles, as in many other fields of endeavour. They certainly reduce frustration. :-)
73,
john
N3SKO/AAT3BF/AAM3O/AAA3DE/AAA9AC |
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| N4UZZ |
Rating:   |
2003-12-31 | |
| Rigrunner great - power poles awful! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
The Rigrunner 4008 and the Rigrunner 4005 are fine and high quality pieces of equipment. The problem is with the Anderson power poles.
The Rigrunner comes with an assortment of 30 Amp power poles. The poles have to be assembled. There is an indented shoe that must be crimped to the wire and then inserted into the power pole housing.
The 30 amp power poles are actually a little too small to connect to 10 gauge wire. That was surprising to me, because I did not want to connect 25 amp equipment with 12 gauge wire. But the highly detailed and extensive, illustrated instructions on the Rigrunner website said to go ahead and to be careful not to leave out any strands. When you are careful, the wire will insert into the round tube fine, but it fills the tube so tightly that it becomes impossible to make a good, deep crimp no matter how hard you try. When you do crimp it down, the crimping results in the tube widening. If it widens, it won't fit into the power pole housing. So, the instructions are to rotate the tube in the crimp tool, go to another die, and squeeze the sides so that the tube is no wider than it was before the crimp. Theoretically, if you have a good deep crimp in the center, then this additional narrowing procedure will simply fold up the sides of the crimp to narrow it all up. However, since the tube is too full for a good deep crimp, squeezing the crimped tube on the side simply opens the crimp up again. As a result, connections that I thought I had crimped strongly and fixed exactly as instructed, wound up pulling loose. The wire pulled right out.
The power pole housings are so narrow that if the crimping widens the tube at all, then the shoe cannot be inserted into the power pole housing. If you narrow the crimp to fit it in, you then start getting loose wire and a crimp that opens back up. You see the dilemma.
This is less of a problem when you crimp 30 amp power poles onto 12 gauge wire. But then, another problem happens. When you crimp down hard, the shoe bends down, again making it impossible to get it into the housing. Then you have to bend the shoe back. If you work with wire that is 14 gauge or more, the wires simply are not stiff enough to push the shoe and the attached crimp into the power pole housing. You then have to set the housing on the table and perform the following procedure: with one hand hold the housing; with the second hand hold the wire and the shoe and crimped tube into the housing; with the third hand hold a small screw driver and set it on the crimped metal; and with your fourth hand use a hammer to push the crimped metal down into the housing of the power pole. When it goes into the housing, you will hear a click.
Once you have your power poles assembled, it is time to (1) attach the positive and negative together side by side, and (2) plug them into the Rigrunner. You will attach many power poles side by side before you discover that you did some of them wrong. Sliding them apart requires the edge of a table that is not an heirloom; a hammer; and prayer. The prayer is needed to know if the black or the red one is supposed to slide down. If you guess wrong, the whacks will make things worse rather than better.
Okay, so now ... are you still with me? ... you have a red and a black power pole, correctly assembled and attached to each other, ready to plug into the rig runner. Whoops, not this way. Whoops, not that way, either. It takes experience, it takes the school of hard knocks, to figure out that tiny indents and grooves in the power pole housing need to be used as clues to the mystery of how to plug these suckers in. Alas, when you plug them in, there is no click and there is no restraint to keep the plugs from being pulled out. But you have the reward of knowing that you have connected your equipment through connectors that have the lowest loss this side of superconductors at minus 273 degrees Celcius.
The next time I rewire my station, I am going to wrap wire around bolts and hold them with nuts and washers, insultate them with electrical tape, and put them in a plastic school lunch box that costs 99 cents. At best I will terminate the wires with round eye type ends that you can pick up at any automotive shop. And those things don't care if you squash the daylights out of them when you crimp them. |
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