How to Hook up Jumper Cables to a Car Battery
If you operate a vehicle long enough chances are the time will come that you are faced with the dilemma of a dead battery. There is never a convenient time or place for a car battery to die and for this reason you should keep a good set of jumper cables in your trunk or travel tool kit.
Many people have the misconception that jumping a car battery is both easy and safe but nothing could be further from the truth. There are a tremendous number of accidents each year attributed to attaching and using jumper cables. For this reason you need to know the safe and proper way to hook jumper cables to your car.
As is the case with performing any task on your car or truck safety should be your first concern. If possible personal protective equipment such as gloves and safety glasses should be worn.
The vehicle being used to jump the car with the dead battery should be positioned with room to move between the two if possible but also close enough for the jumper cables to reach. Before attaching either end of the jumper cables to either vehicle make sure that the cables are tangle free and the ends are not touching together.
Almost all jumper cables sold today are color coded red and black with the red cable ends being meant to be attached to the positive side of the battery and the black to be attached to the ground or negative side. Battery cables on your vehicle are also usually color coded the same way, red and black, but if for some reason they are not the battery is marked with a plus (+) by the positive post and a minus (-) by the negative post.
The first vehicle you should attach the jumper cables to will always be the car or truck being used to jump the dead battery. This vehicle should have the engine running so the alternator can keep the battery at maximum charge. The person who is helping you to jump your car should be holding the opposite end of the cables insuring the two ends don’t touch.
After making sure the jumper cables are securely attached to the vehicle that is giving you a jump start it is time to attach the other ends of the jumper cables to your car. You will always want to attach the positive (red) cable end first and you will attach it to the positive post on your battery. Next you will need to attach the negative (black) cable end to a ground. When jumping a dead battery the ground should never ever be the negative post on the battery. Lead/acid batteries (car batteries) emit a hydrogen gas when they are discharged and the spark almost always cause when connecting the ground can ignite this gas causing an explosion. For this reason you need to attach the negative end of the jumper cables to an exposed bolt attached to the body of the vehicle. Since the battery’s negative cable is grounded to the body of the car attaching the cable end to a bolt screwed into the body will provide the needed circuit.
When you have completed attaching the cables to both vehicles it will be beneficial to let the good battery car run for a few minutes to charge the dead battery a little. This will help start your car easier. When your vehicle starts you can then remove the cables in the exact opposite order in which you put them on.
