If you want people to help you jump your car...

[Bignate603]

...make sure your cables aren't junk and don't be stupid.

I went to help a guy in my office parking lot who had a bad battery. He made three very big mistakes.

1. Don't put your side of cables on by yourself and leave the other side in a pile on the ground. Especially don't do it with the jaws of the other side touching. Wait until the other person is there and can hold the jaws of the other end apart.
2. Make sure your cables are safe. For example, make sure that all the jaws have their little insulating covers on their handles.
3. If you happen to be missing an insulating cover, make sure you tell the other person that before you start. Don't just hand them their end of the cable, with jaws dangling and sparking, then expect them to figure it out.

I didn't look closely enough at the jaws (I was more interested in getting the jaws apart so they would stop sparking) and missed the fact that the red one was missing a handle cover.

I should have just drove off when I saw him hook on to a battery with the rest of the cables just piled on the ground, second degree burns on your finger tips HURT.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Wow...talk about stupid.

The only thing I would add is never buy cheap cables.

 

[punjabiplaya]

I guess you could say

<puts on sunglasses>

his stupidity was shocking

 

[Bignate603]

I guess you could say

<puts on sunglasses>

his stupidity was shocking

I don't know if I got zapped or it the jaw just got really hot from sitting on the ground, sparking with almost no resistance. Man that hurt...

 

[Eli]

12V won't shock you.

 

[punjabiplaya]

12V won't shock you.

yes it will, it just won't hurt

 

[the DRIZZLE]

12V won't shock you.

Yup, it's possible you got burned by a spark if they were arcing against each other right as you picked them up but you did not get shocked.

 

[FuzzyDunlop]

12V won't shock you.

but the sparks will still be hot.

EDIT: ^^LOL: too slow.

 

[foghorn67]

I carry these awfully overbuilt jumper cables in my Focus. Way too bulky and they take up too much space. However the clamps are awesome, I won't give them up.
And I always take over no matter what v

 

[Bignate603]

Yup, it's possible you got burned by a spark if they were arcing against each other right as you picked them up but you did not get shocked.

I don't think I got burned by a spark, I would suspect that a burn from a spark would be relatively small in area. The burn caused a blister that covers my whole index finger tip.

What I think happened is that as the wires sat on the ground sparking a huge amount of current was flowing through them, he was basically short circuiting the battery. Even if it wasn't enough to start the car, that battery still probably had enough juice to make that cable quite hot if it was short circuited, easily enough to give me a nasty burn when I grabbed it.

 

[thescreensavers]

my friend and I went to jump this girls car, she had corrosion all over her battery terminals. Like stacked I never seen something like that before.

 

[Eli]

I don't think I got burned by a spark, I would suspect that a burn from a spark would be relatively small in area. The burn caused a blister that covers my whole index finger tip.

What I think happened is that as the wires sat on the ground sparking a huge amount of current was flowing through them, he was basically short circuiting the battery. Even if it wasn't enough to start the car, that battery still probably had enough juice to make that cable quite hot if it was short circuited, easily enough to give me a nasty burn when I grabbed it.

Yeah, that's what happened.

Electrical sparks aren't "hot" in my experience unless they contain fairly large amounts of molten metal, lol.

 

[ShawnD1]

Electrical sparks aren't "hot" in my experience unless they contain fairly large amounts of molten metal, lol.

Sparks are where you expect fires to start because it's always the hottest point in the circuit. Power can be written as current squared multiplied by resistance. Which part of the circuit has the highest resistance? The air gap is the highest resistance. This is why stick welding only melts the stick. The air gap is between the stick and the piece being welded. The rest of the circuit (wires, clamps) has ~0 resistance and generates very little heat.

When you're shorting a car battery and it's pumping 1000W of power through some jumper cables, almost all of that heat will show up where they are arcing. The cables might be fine but the clamps can get hot enough to melt.

 

[DarkWarrior2]

OP, kudos to you for helping someone out, despite their ignorance.

Around here, (NYC) no one will give you a jump start unless you pay. Had to wait hours for roadside assistance. (Free with my insurance)

 

[Turin39789]

Wow...talk about stupid.

The only thing I would add is never buy cheap cables.

I got some very nice heavy gauge 20 ft long cables from sears almost a decade ago when I was driving an old VW and needed something that could reach from my backseat to someone elses car.

Sadly the insulation is starting to tear. I swear the tag on them said something about a warranty back in the day but it is gone too.

 

[ShawnD1]

I got some very nice heavy gauge 20 ft long cables from sears almost a decade ago when I was driving an old VW and needed something that could reach from my backseat to someone elses car.

Because you were trying to jumper your testicles?

I just have shitty cables. They were $10 and I think the wire size is only rated for about 30A continuous when used in a house. Might be able to put 100A through them before they eat too much voltage.
If you have anything bigger than a compact car, make sure you get big cables. Also, longer cables need to be bigger cables. Don't cheap out; little cables can't carry enough current to start your truck.

 

[Evadman]

This is why I make my own cables. They are almost impossible to hook up wrong, and it is impossible to get the ends to touch when connected to a battery. One end is an Anderson connector for my vehicle. The other end is some heavy duty jumper cable ends. The table is made out of 4 gauge wire with several thousand strands. Super durable, super flexible, and almost impossible to screw up.