[Jon Stratis]

We crimp and solder our leads into the compression lugs. After that, we attach with a lock nut, bolt, and star washer to help prevent twisting. Cover the whole thing with heat shrink.

In our 7 years, we've only had a couple of batteries come loose (we check them a few times each year - at kick off, before each competition, and before our fall program starts)... when that does happen, we take off the heat shrink and check all the hardware. If anything isn't working like it should, it gets replaced and we get everything tight and reapply heat shrink.

It's also extremely important NOT to pick up the battery by the leads! This can cause internal damage to the battery that will stop it from working properly, and kill the battery! This isn't something that should be "people not paying attention"... this should be pounded into everyone's heads so much that if anyone even sees someone else do it warning bells go off.