Beeman,

Thanks for the heads up on a better quality product out there for the DRL. I'll bookmark them in my BOM and refer back when I'm ready to purchase.

On the topic of closed barrel splices versus soldering for end to end connections, or any soldering for that matter, you are essentially taking a multi-strand wire and once soldered you are making it a single solid core solid wire. When you do this you are essentially making a flexible wire brittle as you have now taken away all the strain relief that comes with a multi strand wire. Over time the vibration in the car will cause the solder joint to fail where the closed barrel splice will survive.

When it comes to cost, those little closed barrel splices are pricy compared to other connection options out there. If purchased separately the Red size in the pic above are $2.00 each (depending where you get them). I picked up a large variety kit of splices for around $300, link below. This was a better start for me as I didn't know exactly how many and of what size I would need. You are spot on for the crimpers, expensive as all can be, but when done right its the best connection available. I think all told I spent about $400 for three crimpers to do everything from these mini-splices, to the larger Molex splices, and all the way up to 1/0 battery cable. I will say I think the investment is worth it, at least for me, being able to use the proper tooling to make large 1/0 battery cables and then switch up to splicing 5 x 20ga wires to 1 x 12 ga wire is an absolute pleasure.

https://racespeconline.com/collectio...ve-starter-kit