[rayjaycleoful]

Originally Posted by AtheK

Works like a charm, i have already used it to bring back around 7 cars to life in the apartment, and have been rewarded with few beers by respective owners goodwill (atleast the basic cost of cable has been covered) .

Wow! Full paisa vasool

Originally Posted by Jeroen

How can a jumper cable not work? At worse, admittedly, it melts, but still, what is not working?

Jeroen, like AtheK has mentioned, the wires probably have very less copper content in them, and whatever the mystery replacement material is, cannot take the amperage load.

Originally Posted by R2D2

Buy a set of clamps and 4 meters (or more) of 4/3/2 AWG ( 5-6 sq. mm in metric, depending on the load i.e. size of engine to be jump started) **stranded** cable and make the jumper cables yourself. This is assuming you know soldering and/or clamping and have the tools to do it.

Thanks for the suggestion! I, unfortunately do not have the knowledge to do this but this post should be a good starting point for someone who does!

Originally Posted by Reinhard

Lower gauge & longer length = more chances of the wire heating up & melting.

I use this one - 10 Gauge 12 feet Jumper cable

I have used it twice for starting 2 large cars (Jetta & Innova) with totally dead batteries. It worked absolutely fine & the wire was only mildly warm after usage. Not hot at all. So if you want to try from Amazon, use this one I'd suggest.

Thanks. I thought less gauge=more strength?
The lesser gauge Amazon Basics one are more expensive.
The one you've mentioned is the cheapest and lowest amperage one. But if it's worked on these big cars, will most probably go in for this.

Originally Posted by Aroy

I suggest that you make your own cable.

Go to a radiator repair shop, they have facility to solder the cables to the clamps.

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Thanks Aroy! Will definitely take up this experiment post pandemic and get back. For now, Amazon ones will suffice.

Meanwhile l'm confused about which Amazon basic one to go for. You've suggested the highest power rated + longest one (my choice too) but BHPian Reinhard says longer=more chance of heating.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by rayjaycleoful

Thanks. I thought less gauge=more strength?
The lesser gauge Amazon Basics one are more expensive.
The one you've mentioned is the cheapest and lowest amperage one. But if it's worked on these big cars, will most probably go in for this.

Yes - lower the gauge, more the diameter of the wire. So theoretically it allows for more current. However it is significantly dependent on the quality (purity) of copper used. I assumed that an economy grade product from Amazon will not use any good quality stuff! 10 gauge is somewhere around 5 sqmm which is good enough for the current in question for a quick jump start (of course, more the merrier. But for reference most of our homes run on 0.5 or 1 sqmm wires altogether).

So the first thing I looked at was the wire length. I preferred to pick a shorter wire to reduce the amount of "travel time" for the current. Its only now you mention that I realized that I have the cheapest of them! But yes - I have first hand experience of using it and it worked.

One thing to remember - NEVER connect the + & - terminals of the 2 batteries to each other directly. This is how most people manage to melt their jumpers or even cause nice scary arcing at the terminals.

+ve of donor car to +ve of dead battery
-ve of donor car to unpainted part of the engine on dead car (or some other unpainted part of the chassis).

^ This is the ONLY correct way to jump start.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

Y I preferred to pick a shorter wire to reduce the amount of "travel time" for the current. l

Do you think the travel time for the current is noticeable with longer cables?

Jeroen

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Do you think the travel time for the current is noticeable with longer cables?

Jeroen

No - hence the " " around the time in OP. I meant lower the length, lower the overall resistance that the electrons/current would have to overcome to reach the dead battery.
More the resistance offered by the cable - more the heat generated. Hence I preferred the shortest practically usable length.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

Hence I preferred the shortest practically usable length.

Sure, in all honesty I have never had a jumper cable melt on me. Though, I have had this problem with the odd extension cable. eEspecially if you leave it partly on the reel and put some heavy load through it. A spool will heat up quickly.

When it comes to jumper cables, I will always go for the thickest diameter I can get, but I do want decent length too. Don’t want to have to park the cars next to each other with no room to spare.

I have not come across cases where the copper itself was a problem as such. Live and learn.

Jeroen

[srini1785]

^^

When starting , a battery can give out as much as 400 - 450A @7-9V. Its called cold cranking amps (CCA) and that's too much for a normal gauge wire to handle. Thicker the better. Lesson learnt the hard way some years back.

[s4ch]

With the lockdown on, I haven't really had a chance to use my Polo GT and now the battery is completely dead.

Looking at getting a powerbank type jump starting kit. Have narrowed in on the following 2 and would appreciate if anyone has any feedback on these types of jumpstarters or even on any one of these in particular (Amazon and YouTube reviews are very positive):

1. 70mai Jump Starter for Car Battery 12V, 600A Peak Current, 11100mAH, For Petrol Engines upto 4.0L and Diesel Engines upto 2.0L

2. ROAV By Anker Jump Starter Pro 800A Peak 12V for Petrol Engines up to 6.0L or Diesel Engines up to 3.0L

Appreciate any help. Many thanks.

[mithun]

Can I use a car to jump start a bike? Any issues?

[vigsom]

^^ absolutely no issues.

Just that the jump start cable clamps cannot connect to the puny terminals on the bike; a jugaad would be needed.

The car is preferably kept off to prevent a high flow of current to the dead battery.

Connections as follows :

1. Positive of bike battery to positive of car battery.
2. Negative of car battery to metallic unpainted part on the bike chassis.

[Wanderers]

I have found that in modern cars, you are better off connecting to the (-) terminal of the dead car instead of connecting to exposed metal body. It seems heavy amperage shorts circuits the car as there is some amount of battery strength flowing through the terminal connection.

Ford Endeavour is prone to jump start, so much so that it drained off after service guy brought it out and it was stopped for 10 minutes for final wipe before I tried to start it. Even when the car was an year old, l had to call RSA for jump start and they do not connect to body and told not to do so for said reason.
RSA was not ford exclusive and was talking for all modern cars. Second time RSA (different guy) also told similar.

Also they never switched off their car before connecting.

So what is the best practice now, I remain confused.

[Amrik Singh]

Refer to my post on the Jumper Cable
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/inter...-decade-3.html (My Automotive Life in Dubai - Memoirs of a Decade)

Quote :
Jump Start Cables - Off the shelf Jump Start Cables are of length just sufficient to connect Batteries when both the Cars are parked next to each other (Correct me if I am wrong). The Cable usually bears a thick Insulator that appears to be good, but with Conductor cable of low cross-sectional area. This tends to heat up when ignition is switched 'ON' for a longer time. I had made this set using a 4 Core Cable of good cross-sectional area, twisting bare ends of all 4 Cables to form a single Cable firmly tightened to the Clamps. The length of the Cables was sufficiently long for difficult situations.

[bblost]

Originally Posted by Wanderers

So what is the best practice now, I remain confused.

I have a pair of Jumper Cables that I got from Amazon Basics.

So since the time the lockdown started, I have been jump starting cars for my neighbors.
Now with lockdown easing up and cars running, the demand for this has come down. But at one time I was jump starting 2 cars a day.

I think in the past 2 months I have jump started over 60 cars.

The method that works for me is:
1. Park my car as close as possible to the other car.
2. Both cars are off and parking brake engaged.
3. Open Bonnets.
4. Connect the positive and then the negative cable to my (good) car.
5. Holding the other ends as far away as possible from eachother, I walk over to the car with the dead battery.
6. Connect positive wire to positive terminal of the dead battery.
7. Immediately Connect negative wire to negative terminal of the dead battery.
8. Switch on my car.
9. Try to switch on the dead car.
10. If car does not switch on, give it 5-10 mins. Then try again.
11. If it still does not start, check with multimeter.
12. Once car starts, remove the positive and negative from the dead car at the same time.
13. Remove it from my car.


This method has helped me start all kinds of cars from Nano's to Isuzu Vcross using my petrol Chevy Sail U-Va.

[Amrik Singh]

Originally Posted by bblost

4. Connect the positive and then the negative cable to my (good) car.
5. Holding the other ends as far away as possible from each other, I walk over to the car with the dead battery.

I would prefer Connecting Positive Terminals of both Batteries First to avoid the possibility of mistakenly letting the Clamps (connected to positive and negative terminals) touch each other. Once clamps grip the terminals firmly, proceed with the other cable, connecting the Negative terminals.
Remember, it is not merely putting clamps on to the Terminal, it is to be ensured that the Clamp makes a firm connection to the terminal. Often the Terminals are corroded or smeared with Vaseline / grease. This requires use of both hands to apply pressure / turn the Clamp , which is not possible while holding the Clamps of other charge (unless assisted by the driver of other Car involved).

[bblost]

Originally Posted by Amrik Singh

I would prefer Connecting Positive Terminals of both Batteries First to avoid the possibility of mistakenly letting the Clamps (connected to positive and negative terminals) touch each other. Once clamps grip the terminals firmly, proceed with the other cable, connecting the Negative terminals.

I agree that is the best way to do it.
But once you start doing so so many cars in a day, its just quicker this way.

[Amrik Singh]

We are all learning from each other here. I prefer working with no chance of making error