Noobish "Jump Start" Question

The times that I've had to give someone a jump, I've always been in a truck. I'm not sure why that matters, but I'm hoping someone will answer my question or tell me I'm full of it.

I walked out of school this evening and found a couple of my colleagues trying to jump-start a car. Suzie had left her lights on all day and her car was dead ("wouldn't even pop the trunk" dead) and Jill had pulled her little-bitty PT Cruiser along side and opened her hood. Jane was there and said she knew how to jump a car and hooked up the cables (in the right places) and told Suzie to crank it over.

No luck. They let it sit a few minutes, still hooked up. No luck.

These were competent and intelligent people...but just to be sure I sneaked over and peeked to make sure everything was in order: it was.

By now, 20 minutes have passed and the car still won't start. With no other ideas I decided to pull the Tacoma over and hook it up.

You see, I thought maybe since the truck has the larger 130A tow-package alternator that maybe it would have a little more "oomph" to get Suzie's car started up.

I pulled over, hooked it up, and it started...first try.

So my question is this:

When jump-starting a car, does the size of the alternator on the running vehicle actually matter? I mean...12v is 12v out of a battery so the only thing that could make the difference is the amperage of the alternator, right?

OR

Was it coincidence and the fact that they had "trickle charged" the battery for 20 minutes and I just HAPPENED to hook it up when I did what actually mattered?

I've never had a reason to question it before as the times I've had to give someone a jump I've always been in a truck with a heavy duty alternator. I can't imagine the little PT cruiser had a big one though.

Genuinely curious, and sorry for asking what I'm sure is a stupid question.

 

that is quite interesting. I know that some vehicles may require more amperage to get a starter to turn at the correct speed but the pt I would think to be able to juice up another car.

my guess is that though they may have had the polarity correct, there may have been a bad connection.

 

92 was mostly there.

Basically, amps matter too, not just volts. The PT Cruiser may have eventually gotten the other car charged enough to start, but the truck's alternator is much better designed for it.

 

I would hedge a good bet that after 20 minutes of charging, with no change at all in trying to crank that it was a crap connection.

I have jumped some large vehicles with little hondas, it does take longer but it is more than capable of doing the task.

 

more importantly, pics of suzie and jill???

 

Battery acid on the connection? Not a good connection on the jumper cables?

 

My friend went to jumpstart a pt using his celica, and it wouldn't. Had to use the tacoma..

I think the pt would start to crank or something with the celica, but wouldn't start

 

I thought it might be the connection but it seemed to be okay. When the PT was hooked up to the Jetta, the Jetta's dome light would illuminate so the connection was good, no?

I had a feeling this was part of the answer. Thanks!

lol

There's one (or a dozen) in every crowd.

 

I had my truck die, I was too lazy to push start it, so I and had to have one of my colleagues, we will call her colleen, jump me in her focus. She had to rev her engine to get me jumped.

 

Our trucks, almost every truck/car alternator will not put out its maximum amps at idle. You really need to be into the skinny peddle to get the amps up.

So if you were idling when you jumped her, it was more than likely a bad connection on the first vehicle.