The ultimate jumper cable setup

[MikeIA]

We have 7 vehicles at work...two airport tugs, two forklifts, two skid-steers, and a Cushman utility truck...and, thanks to Murphy's law, the batteries always seem to die at the worst time. We have some 2/0 welding cable salvaged from an old project, so I decided to add a power connector to all of the vehicles, and have some B.F. jumper cables to go between them. I ordered battery connectors from Mcmaster-Carr:

McMaster-Carr

and made some jumper cables.

 

[MikeIA]

I also made a set of "adapters" that will clamp onto the baterry of a "non-compatible" vehicle.

 

[MikeIA]

Here is a picture of the connector on one of our airport tugs...I tucked it up out of the way, sorta under the "dashboard."

 

[MikeIA]

And here is the connector on one of the forklifts...hidden behind the seat.

 

[GerardC]

Neat idea. Nothing like recycling to save a few bucks and the landfills.

 

[Egon]

Nothin I'd like better than some welding cable for boosting. Most of ones you buy just aren't large enough.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[have_blue]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( between them. I ordered battery connectors from Mcmaster-Carr and made some jumper cables. )</font>

There you go! Git 'er done!

Fudd! I knew I would run across some commercial connectors... after spending 2 hours cobbling together some home-made ones.

I recently got fed up with my riding mower eating a battery every year, and yanked it out of the battery box and put it on my tractor shed floor. I keep it charged with a solar panel and controller I have been using for some time.

I added a home made connector a lot like your MC units (I used 4ga because the mower battery cables are only ~6ga) I bolted the other connector under the seat in an existing bolt hole.

My ghetto connector was made from a pair of 2ga connectors used as the female, and a pair of 4ga used as the male. I mounted them on little slabs of oak, and they fit like a glove. I now start my riding mower by rolling it up to the battery, momentarily plugging in the connector, and starting it. It runs fine with no battery in the circuit.

I also bought me some good booster cables. They are 4ga, have nice flexible insulation, and beefy clamps. At least, I THOUGHT 4ga was good until I read about your BF booster cables! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Origially, I was looking for coaxial connectors. That would be neat.

 

[slowzuki]

Most tow trucks have the same setup in the great white north for boosting cars easily. A company called awdirect sells them premade for some $$$.

 

[have_blue]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Most tow trucks have the same setup in the great white north for boosting cars easily. A company called awdirect sells them premade for some $$$. )</font>

Talk about some $$$!

That's where I got the idea from. When I was a kid, I used to work for a service station. Our service truck had a plugin set.

 

[PILOON]

FYI those connectors are ANDERSON brand.

Very commonly used on electric fork lift trucks and larger size is rated at about 300 amps.

I also set up my jumper cables that way.

 

[oc3crwler]

Both napa and car quest sell the anderson mining product's connectors, If they don't have them in stock they can order them. They come in many size's, shapes and colors. The gray ones most people get are rated as industral. There is a set made of blue plastic that is harry home owner rated, and they are cheap and will melt under a long load.

There also good for your ship to shore connection on your gen set. ****, I've got them on everything at home and at work. Made up adaptors to go between the diffrent sizes, and other adaptors to run winches, inverters, etc.

 

[Junkman]

I made up a set of jumper cables out of welders cable about 35 years ago when I was on the emergency squad. We were always having to jump start the ambulance at the hospital emergency entrance since the generator couldn't keep up with the electrical draw of all the emergency lighting. I made them about 30' long so I could just pull up to the rear of the rig and run them along the side to till I could hook them up under the hood. Worked great and the only downside was the weight. When I retired from the squad, I kept them since the newer vehicles had better alternators and there was no need for them any longer. Besides that, I was the one that spent the $$$ to purchase the materials. Just keep them out of the sun, because the rubber coating will crack from the exposure.

 

[BearKiller]

When I worked for Norfolk-Southern, we were forever more having to "jump" locomotives; they usually idled all the time, but when one was shut down for whatever reason, you may as well expect to have to jump it.

The Southern engines all had those huge jumper connections at each end of the engine, right alongside the big M.U. cord.

By plugging the connector-cables between each unit, one could jump-start for instance the fifth unit from the first unit, so long as no "foreign" units were in the mix.



Along the same line of thought, the local Ford garage has their service truck permanently hard-wired with a set of jumper-cables.

The portion of the cables that connect to the service truck battery have copper lug-terminals crimped on and are bolted on to the battery terminals.

The cables are routed through the grille and are neatly wound around a purpose-built bracket.

The "alligator" ends are clamped onto an insulated rod when not in use.

 

[BearKiller]

I got tired of buying a lawn-mower battery every year, so I got one of these :

- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

I clipped off the "alligators" and spliced on a simple two-wire pig-tail.

I made up a matching pig-tail that connects to the mower battery, with the "tail" hanging out behind the seat.

Any time the mower is not running, it is connected to that charger.

It has now been over five years on the same battery, believe it or not.


Having such good success with the first one, I now probably have at least a dozen.

No longer is it a half-a-day's job to jump-start all the seldom used trucks/tractors around here just to be able to mow around them.

They can sit for six months on one of these tiny chargers and the battery whirl them over like they were driven fifteen minutes ago.

 

[Kays Supply]

My son used those connectors to run a built in jumper to the rear of his 1 ton truck and connect to his dump trailor. It was always running out of charge in the middle of a dump.

 

[GATC35]

Mike,

Did you solder or crimp your conections? I just bought a winch last week and I'm trying to set it up so I can move it from my trucks to my equipment trailer. I have the connectors, but don't know what to crimp them with. I also plan to make a set of jumper cables.

thanks..........

 

[PILOON]

Mike,

Did you solder or crimp your conections? I just bought a winch last week and I'm trying to set it up so I can move it from my trucks to my equipment trailer. I have the connectors, but don't know what to crimp them with. I also plan to make a set of jumper cables.

thanks..........

I have both soldered and crimped the andersons but soldering is better as you can re-use them if the application changes.
The contacts are brass so soldering is a snap.
Real quality product!

I first discovered these when I was selling 72 volt electric fork lifts that sported huge 8 hour duty batteries. The operators would have 3 batteries, one for each shift and change them out at each shift.
Now those batteries would make the best 'silent' welders ever!

 

[BearKiller]

Mike,

Did you solder or crimp your conections?

soldering is better as you can re-use them if the application changes.

I was fixing to jump in and say "always CRIMP anything bigger than a #6AWG and CRIMP-then-SOLDER anything smaller"; but then I read PILOON's response and I agree on the soldering only when it is something expensive that you might want to re-use later, as you can apply a little heat and salvage the connectors.



On anything that is intended to be permanent and not likely to ever be taken apart, the following applies :

On the small stuff, crimping-then-soldering is absolutely the best way to go; the crimp provides a strong mechanical connection and the solder seals everything up against moisture and corrosion.

On big stuff, vibrations and occassional high heat will soon weaken a soldered bond and therefore a good strong crimp is by far best.

For a crimped-only connection, the absolute best stuff I have ever used to keep the strands nice and shiny over the long haul is plain old Vaseline.

Saturate the bare strands and work the Vaseline deeply into the cable; pack the opening of whatever connector also with the Vaseline; put the connector on the cable and CRIMP, then THREE layers of heat-shrink.

Thirty years later, when you cut away the connector and examine the cable, the strands will look like it was done yesterday.

 

[GATC35]

Thanks for the replies.

What are you using to solder something this big? That is one huge heat sink. I solder on PC boards quite often. Is there an electric iron large enough to do this? -OR- are you using a propane torch with rosin core solder?

So a #2/0 cable size should be large enough for a winch or jump starting other vehicles? Winch is a 9000 lb Ramsey.

thanks again.

 

[BearKiller]

YES, a 2/0 cable is plenty big for any electric winch.

Think about it this way, anything that draws more than a 2/0 can carry is too big to be supported electrically by even big Leece-Neville alternators and multiple batteries.

Definitely go BIG on the cable, but I have seen many 8- 9- and 10,000-lb winches with no more than 4-AWG cable; not big enough in my book, but it seemed to do the job.


You can use a plain old "bottle" propane torch or one of those really neat Butane torches to solder the big stuff.

I use the same solder on the big stuff that I use on the small; but, as already stated, on permanent connections, I always crimp.