Here is an example of what I consider a Mickey Mouse version of soldering but I see it. In this case I crimped first then soldered the exposed wire to the crimp barrel. If you get good at soldering this is not difficult but it does take practice to do on a boat and it does require a quality soldering iron.


It should be noted that the NASA, Military and Aerospace wiring standards specifically prohibit crimping terminals to solid conductor wire or to solder-tinned wire.


This is NASA's take on soldering solder-tinned wire:


"NASA 4.3.4 Crimping - Stranded wire shall be used for crimping (Requirement). Crimping of solid wire is prohibited. Crimping of solder tinned wire is prohibited."


"Solder tinned" wire is different than tinned STRANDING where each individual strand is tinned. Solder tinned means you pre-tinned the end of the wire before you made a crimp. DO NOT DO THIS.


If you insist on soldering the the quasi optimal way to do this (really there is no optimal way because you don't need to solder crimped terminals) is to crimp first then solder.


As can be seen with the right tools and technique you can solder the end of the terminal and not melt the insulator or wire. You won't achieve this with a $5.00 Radio Shack soldering iron.