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Mon Mar 30, 2020 5:37 pm

Hook both ends of your positive jumper up to the positive posts on the two batteries and then hook one end of your negative jumper up to the ground side of the weak battery, if you have a bare ground strap, that typically makes a good place to put your clamp. Now make the final connection to the ground on the vehicle you are using for the jump, if you can make your connection to a good ground (like a hoisting eye) a foot or more away from the battery that will mean any sparking is very unlikely to set off an explosion. Power steering mounts, framer bolts, etc will work as connection points as well.

It is always a good idea to "test" the polarity before making the last hook up. Just quickly tap the last cable clamp to where you intend to attach it and see how much spark you get. If you have the cables crossed you will typically get a pretty good sized spark even if the one battery is pretty dead.

Mon Mar 30, 2020 8:26 pm

[quote="Steve M."] Vantropy wrote: One other thing I thought about was jumpstarting the starter battery with the Aux battery. /quote]

Where is your Aux. Battery?
...
You said you disconnected everything from the Aux. Battery. Did you disconnect the ground?

Aux battery is in cabinet behind driver's seat. The ground from the Aux battery was disconnected. Starter battery ground was connected.

Mon Mar 30, 2020 9:47 pm

attach flat battery positive terminal first, then the negative, then positive terminal on the vehicle you jump from, then the ground to a door catch, the door closing constantly keeps it clean.
next time i need to make some jumper cables, i'll be mounting some BIG anderson connectors, mounting one half under the headlamp grill, so i don't need to go anywhere near the battery, to jump another car.

Mon Mar 30, 2020 9:54 pm

There's now 2 pages of this...
Pos. to Pos., Neg. to Neg.
Start the car!

Has anyone asked why you need to jump start it?

Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:00 pm

i wouldn't, leaky batteries can explode, been there done that, not a fun job to clean up :(

Steve M. wrote: There's now 2 pages of this...
Pos. to Pos., Neg. to Neg.
Start the car!

Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:03 pm

markswagen wrote: i wouldn't, leaky batteries can explode, been there done that, not a fun job to clean up :(

Steve M. wrote: There's now 2 pages of this...
Pos. to Pos., Neg. to Neg.
Start the car!

WHERE HAD HE SAID HE HAS A LEAKY BATTERY?
He has gotten enough warnings and cautions about doing this in this thread and while he doesn't have experience doing this he is has asked enough questions to figure it out safely.

It's the ongoing presumptions of doom relating to this that are over complicating this. Perhaps this will get the thread to up to 5, 10 pages.

Tue Mar 31, 2020 12:53 am

Steve M. wrote: markswagen wrote: i wouldn't, leaky batteries can explode, been there done that, not a fun job to clean up :(

Steve M. wrote: There's now 2 pages of this...
Pos. to Pos., Neg. to Neg.
Start the car!

WHERE HAD HE SAID HE HAS A LEAKY BATTERY?
He has gotten enough warnings and cautions about doing this in this thread and while he doesn't have experience doing this he is has asked enough questions to figure it out safely.

It's the ongoing presumptions of doom relating to this that are over complicating this. Perhaps this will get the thread to up to 5, 10 pages.

Honestly, we do NOT know what he has.
How bad would you feel if he were to clip the final jumper end to the battery only to have an eruption of battery acid in his Van?
Then the OP is off to the Covid-19 jammed hospital ER.

Unlikely occurrence with low odds of happening?
Yep, sure is, but the kicker is that the worst can and does happen.

We more experienced folk get careless, I know that I sure do.
I just jumped my backhoe on Friday, plus to plus, minus to minus..... I'm alive and kicking. No explosions.
But for an inexperienced person, please, do err on the side of caution.

Dave

Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:42 am

Wolfram wrote: Dont ground to the negative. That will cause a spark right next to a hydrogen gas producing item. BANG!

You ground to any solid, preferably bare. metal and beefy item. The body, the seat belt bolt, pretty much anything around there.
Haha ridiculous, well don't smoke when driving your vanagons, your battery is being charged permanently drr.. :lol: And while you are at it don't park your vanagon anywhere else then in a tunnel or a reinforced concrete bunker in case a meteorite rock goes through the gas tank and something goes bang in the night. :lol: :D :lol:

Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:10 am

Nitramrebrab72 wrote: Wolfram wrote: Dont ground to the negative. That will cause a spark right next to a hydrogen gas producing item. BANG!

You ground to any solid, preferably bare. metal and beefy item. The body, the seat belt bolt, pretty much anything around there.
Haha ridiculous, well don't smoke when driving your vanagons, your battery is being charged permanently drr.. :lol: And while you are at it don't park your vanagon anywhere else then in a tunnel or a reinforced concrete bunker in case a meteorite rock goes through the gas tank and something goes bang in the night. :lol: :D :lol:

It always makes me sad when people choose to ignore very real facts and mock them instead.
Thinking that smoking a cigarette while driving could cause an explosion? Oh cone on! You obviously do not understand the how or why flooded lead acid battery explosions happen.

Dave

Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:13 am

Nitramrebrab72 wrote: Wolfram wrote: Dont ground to the negative. That will cause a spark right next to a hydrogen gas producing item. BANG!

You ground to any solid, preferably bare. metal and beefy item. The body, the seat belt bolt, pretty much anything around there.
Haha ridiculous, well don't smoke when driving your vanagons, your battery is being charged permanently drr.. :lol: And while you are at it don't park your vanagon anywhere else then in a tunnel or a reinforced concrete bunker in case a meteorite rock goes through the gas tank and something goes bang in the night. :lol: :D :lol:

Know people that have gotten a face full of acid, I don't think they would find you funny. It takes little effort to do this job a bit more safely by avoid creating sparks right at the battery.

Tue Mar 31, 2020 3:33 am

What’s the relative incidence of meteors vs meteorites?

If a meteorite hits a Vanagon in a forest, does it make a sound?

Tue Mar 31, 2020 4:55 am

Abscate wrote: What’s the relative incidence of meteors vs meteorites?

If a meteorite hits a Vanagon in a forest, does it make a sound?

Only if you are in it!

Tue Mar 31, 2020 5:09 am

djkeev wrote: Steve M. wrote: markswagen wrote: i wouldn't, leaky batteries can explode, been there done that, not a fun job to clean up :(

Steve M. wrote: There's now 2 pages of this...
Pos. to Pos., Neg. to Neg.
Start the car!

WHERE HAD HE SAID HE HAS A LEAKY BATTERY?
He has gotten enough warnings and cautions about doing this in this thread and while he doesn't have experience doing this he is has asked enough questions to figure it out safely.

It's the ongoing presumptions of doom relating to this that are over complicating this. Perhaps this will get the thread to up to 5, 10 pages.

Honestly, we do NOT know what he has.
How bad would you feel if he were to clip the final jumper end to the battery only to have an eruption of battery acid in his Van?
Then the OP is off to the Covid-19 jammed hospital ER.

Unlikely occurrence with low odds of happening?
Yep, sure is, but the kicker is that the worst can and does happen.

We more experienced folk get careless, I know that I sure do.
I just jumped my backhoe on Friday, plus to plus, minus to minus..... I'm alive and kicking. No explosions.
But for an inexperienced person, please, do err on the side of caution.

Dave

i'd feel bad of course, but I am not going to feel guilty like you're trying to make me feel.
Why?
"He has gotten enough warnings and cautions about doing this in this thread and while he doesn't have experience doing this he is has asked enough questions to figure it out safely."

Tue Mar 31, 2020 5:25 am

Ideally you would have a two piece jumper cable.

Two lengths with terminal clips and joined in the center by an Anderson connector.

Hook up both batteries correctly, plug the Anderson together.
Any sparks are well away from the batteries.

Dave

Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:08 am

djkeev wrote: Ideally you would have a two piece jumper cable.

Two lengths with terminal clips and joined in the center by an Anderson connector.

Hook up both batteries correctly, plug the Anderson together.
Any sparks are well away from the batteries.

Dave

35'ish years ago, I set up a couple of pickup trucks where I worked to have plug in polarized connectors coming out through the grill. Made it that much easier to jump a customers (or employee's) vehicle during the chaos of hundreds of vehicles starting up and leaving at the same time. Used connectors off of an arc welder.

Tue Mar 31, 2020 11:30 am

To sum up this thread so far:

1. There are a few options for grounding off the battery on a jumpstart: seatbelt bolt, protruding bolt in passenger wheel well, and a bolt head in battery compartment (accessible if you swivel chair around).

2. Jumpstarting to the negative terminal of dead battery may or may not be okay. This is a highly charged issue.

3. My second question was why I got a spark with only a pos to pos connection from a bare (no ground) aux battery. The extra cable I mentioned goes to an aux fuse box to power USB & 12V connectors, and that box _is_ grounded, so that's probably why the spark is happening. If I wanted to try jumping from the aux battery in the future, I would disconnect that aux circuit. But instead, I would probably just jump the solenoid and direct connect aux to dead battery first.

Thanks everybody for all your help!
Be well.

Tue Mar 31, 2020 12:12 pm

markswagen wrote: i wouldn't, leaky batteries can explode, been there done that, not a fun job to clean up :(

Steve M. wrote: There's now 2 pages of this...
Pos. to Pos., Neg. to Neg.
Start the car! yeahhhh, that DOES suck in terms of cleanup work. And the battery in question blew solely to being mounted very close to the Altn. by the factory, while outgassing more than normal due to sulfated condition. Customer swore we caused the battery to blow up even through she had gotten in the vehicle and started it herself after refusing a new battery and new atln. bushings that helped lean the Altn. closer to that battery... :P .... Hood had a nice transfer of the imprint from the battery case impact.....I've also watched someone blow up a large 6 volt battery on an old Forklift by grinding metal too close to the Forklift... :roll:

Tue Mar 31, 2020 12:24 pm

Why don't you just charge the battery or replace it? Both are simple tasks.