Jumper Cables

Because the donor battery is fully charged, the donor alternator is making 12.9ish volts. The dead battery, Chevy's, alternator is kicking out maximum volts, around 14 volts, maybe I mean it is a Chevy. So, the donor alternator may have current going through it in reverse and that could harm things starting with the alternator diodes. I wouldn't loose any sleep over it, however.

 

I’ve done it at work 30ish times . No problem.

 

Nope. The concern is connecting the negative directly to the battery could cause a spark that could ignite any hydrogen gas escaping the battery, just like he said on the video. Actually happened to me and a friend when we were teenagers, the battery exploded and we were lucky not to be hit by anything. We had the polarity right, but the spark at the battery was all it took. Batteries weren’t well sealed back in those days like they are now, but I always fan around the battery to disperse any gasses before connecting, though it’s best to connect to the frame for the negative of the donor car as stated in the video.
Electrically, connecting the negative to the frame is no different than connecting to the battery negative, since the negative terminal of the battery is already connected to the frame. Any spark would be away from the battery, thus safer.

 

Im with you on that, in all my years of jumpering or being jumpered I’ve never seen or even heard of having both cars running temporarily blowing electronics. Not to say it hasn’t happened just never heard a first hand report of it. You are connecting battery to battery the alternators are not directly connected, the battery with the higher voltage will charge the one with the lower voltage. Additionally a reverse polarity on a diode doesn’t let current pass, they have very high resistance in the reverse direction and low resistance forward biased, that’s what makes it a diode. Electrical and electronic circuits have diodes that have reverse voltage at times and that’s what an alternator does as well to convert the alternating current to a direct current (actually positive sine waves) to the voltage regulator for charging the battery.
I play an electrical engineer on tv, and in real life as well. Well maybe not on tv

 

I play an electrical engineer on TV and I’m certain you are correct. I don’t really believe anything Scotty says.

 

Yeah his advice often doesn’t hit the mark. This video does give some generally good advice overall I think. It may prevent someone from experiencing what I did as a teenager haha.

 

Good luck using that to start a dead battery after you’ve used up the reserve for lighting
I have medium duty jumper cables that don’t take up too much space, work every time. I did get A jump pack as a gift but never charged or used it, still in the garage. Old school I guess. I have seen reviews of the jump packs and some are pretty good, others not so much.

 

How do you blow an electronic that is in line with a fuse?

I have jumped several cars and trucks with my Tacos. Even a dumbass like me never broke anything.
Red to dead, red to donor, black to dead, black to donor (unpainted) metal.
Ain't there a grounding bolt next to our battery?

 

20,000mAh and 800w jump. Not a single worry. It has been great for jumping, QC phone charging, and mood lighting. I am happy and trust it.

 

Yeah I don't trust the ratings on any of those without seeing tests that validate the ratings (especially made in China). I trust jump start testing for what it is, and a few have done pretty well in the few jump start tests I've seen. Your first hand experience is something I would trust too.

 

I understand where you're coming from. There's some real unknown stuff getting dumped on the market.

I grabbed this one based on solid reviews and had it for a couple years now. It doesn't seem to be available (iClever brand). The USB-C QC was a big feature for me beyond the boost stats.

We recently bought a second one for our daughter. Tacklife brand. Those and the Noco brand seem to have a good following. The Tacklife are more reasonably priced.

 

I don't know if you ever watch Project Farm reviews on youtube, but that guy is awesome, he does some really good testing on all kinds of products that TW folks would be interested in, I save a lot of links to his videos to my Tacoma file, lol. I saw this one he did on some brands of Jump Starters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN8A2nIMUWA

Later my friend!

 

I will take a look. I generally stick with AvE and This Old Tony. AvE mentioned Project Farm a few times.

Thanks!

 

Good sources you have there for reviews. I also make a point to read the lowest ratings reviews on Amazon and other sites, often can find common problems there to be wary of. And I like for the 5 star and 4 star reviews to total around 90% or close thereof, if not better lol.

 

Same here. The low ratings are very informative.

 

I know this has been argued at nauseam but to start a truck, you should have a starting battery. If you have disco lights, and a sound stage, you should have a AGM battery (second battery) with a isolator. I've seen master ASE guys screw up a jump with cables. A GB40 jump pack will not let you do that. Just my 23 cents.
Zim

 

23 cents? I only put in 2 cents but thats ok haha. You should really look at the starter pack test video I posted above, you might find it interesting. I'm good with jumper cables, a proven product. I may look at a starter pack at some point, nice to have if no one else is around. The one i was given as a gift is probably 3 years old, old style and I've never tried it.

 

Don't tell anyone, but I don't jump anyone's car or truck anymore with my vehicle. I retired from the automotive repair and service industry and have decades experience of blowing up batteries, burning up alternators, exploding batteries, and with Chrysler, destroying ECU's. I'm done. LMAO...
Zim

 

Here's my setup.
Zim

 

lol totally understand, if you see one of my earlier posts you can see where a friend and I blew up a car battery. That was a serious lesson learned, and through the years I have jumped and been jumped many times, and never blew up another one. But your experience is valid, so worth listening to. I do have some experience with lithium ion batteries in my engineering world, and I can tell you that I have concerns with those as well under extreme conditions such as starting a car in cold weather, or storing in your vehicle. It's imperative you get a known, well proven product with any high power device using those batteries. The risk is typically highest when charging, and I would never charge one overnight in my house. I charge my lion batteries in my garage in a metal container during the day. https://abcnews4.com/news/local/jump-starter-recalled-for-overheating-melting-and-fire-risk