Jump starting tractors

[taem]

I have a couple of older JD 2750 and 2240 used for haying bucket work, etc. In the last year, both have needed the alternator rebuilt and in both cases it was the burned out voltage regulator. One is 55 amp and the other is 35 amp. the rebuild guy said that it was because i had jump started one tractor from the other or had jumped from a pickup truck. basically he said never jump start only charge in the field. This is new to me and frankly, I don't have a half mile extension cord So what is the deal? can you safely jump start one tractor from another, or from a booster pack (which usually doesn't have enough grunt to do the job)? Any thoughts?

 

[bearthebruce]

Scratching my head... why would the tractor be different than a car?

Connect (+) on the dead battery to (+) on the donor tractor battery
Connect (-) on the dead battery to the donor tractor frame
Start...

Color me confused as to why they would say this.. I can't see how the voltage regulator or any other part of the system would be damaged.

 

[CH4Ohio]

I have a spare marine battery that I keep charged. It's easy to haul it out to a piece of equipment and jump from it instead of another vehicle. Wonder what your mechanic would think about that?

 

[bearthebruce]

Donor battery would be best.. no chance of drawing too high a current from one tractor to the other.. I suppose that could be the mechanics concern.

Do you check the dead battery with a volt meter? If the voltage on the dead battery is too far gone, you can do damage to the working tractor electrical system by trying to draw too much..

If the dead battery is shorted... for sure you could damage another tractor's electrical system.

 

[MESSMAKER]

Donor battery would be best.. no chance of drawing too high a current from one tractor to the other.. I suppose that could be the mechanics concern.

Do you check the dead battery with a volt meter? If the voltage on the dead battery is too far gone, you can do damage to the working tractor electrical system by trying to draw too much..

If the dead battery is shorted... for sure you could damage another tractor's electrical system.

I have heard this before but I have seen dead batteries jumped dozens if not hundreds of times. Does this ever happen?

 

[Keoke]

Hi,
When jumping from the vehicle with a good battery make sure to keep the ENGINE OFF. Because, when you hit the starter on the dead battery unit the booster battery will drop down to about 9.5 to 10.5 volts depending on it's starter draw. This will force the regulator on the booster unit to signal full charge. In addition, when the dead unit starts it too will go to full charge since it also is looking at two low battery voltages now in parallel. This combination may result in very high charge voltages on both vehicles. These high-charge voltages are not necessarily friendly to sensitive electronic components. Bottom line, most of the time you can get away with having the boost vehicle running while jumping. But why chance it.

cheers,

 

[Jstpssng]

This only happened to me once and it was a long time ago. I had run the battery down in my pickup and borrowed another to jump it. Although the key was off, as soon as I made the last connection the engine of the dead pickup started turning over. My truck had a manual transmission but luckily I had left it in neutral, as I was standing between the two vehicles.

Now I have a booster pack.

 

[newbury]

<snip>basically he said never jump start only charge in the field. <snip>

Did he seem to think it made a difference if you were in a garage?

 

[workinonit]

Silly question. Of course it makes a difference.

 

[Doughknob]

"Typically" note again "typically" no problem jumping a tractor with a car or other tractor. Problems "CAN" arise when larger alternator vehicle charges smaller alternator/battery tractor.

So in the compact tractor world this could happen. But on large battery tractors with corresponding higer output alternators, using a car with smaller or equal size system, no problems.

nothing special about tractors - just a battery/charging system matching thing.