Jump starting tractors

[K5lwq]

Ok I will share a funny story. My uncle had a VW bug. My aunt a Pontiac. He had a dead battery and was running a little late to work. So he pushed the VW into the street and asked my aunt to use her Pontiac to push him off.

He gave her the instructions. He told her to get behind him and get up to 20mph then back off. He would take it from there.

So she backs out and drives around him and thinks where in the world is she going? She goes around the block and he sees she is coming up behind. He thinks she just went around the block to line up better.

He watches her coming up on him in the rear view mirror and realized very quickly she was not slowing down. Then Boom! She nails him. He gets out and says what the heck! She said you told me I had to get up to 20MPH!

 

[zzvyb6]

The 'problem' is that dead tractor batteries have HUGE capacitance. So, not only are you trying to feed the high current starter, but also trying to feed the dead battery. So, disconnect the dead battery before jumping from any other source.

 

[hube2]

As someone else said, invest in a jump start pack, some of the best investments I've ever made. I have one in each car. Don't have a separate one for the tractor since my car is always where I am. You just gotta remember to charge them regularly and you keep them in the car in the winter you need to do this more often than they recommend. Mine have USB ports, car lighter type sockets, AC power sockets, and air compressor and an LED light.

Amazon.com: DieHard 71688 1150 Peak Amp 12V Jump Starter with USB/12V Portable Power Ports and 100PSI Air Compressor : Everything Else

Amazon.com: DieHard 71688 1150 Peak Amp 12V Jump Starter with USB/12V Portable Power Ports and 100PSI Air Compressor : Everything Else

www.amazon.com

 

[deserteagle71]

Damn! Can't believe I've been doing this all wrong for the past 60 years!

 

[WranglerX]

The 'problem' is that dead tractor batteries have HUGE capacitance. So, not only are you trying to feed the high current starter, but also trying to feed the dead battery. So, disconnect the dead battery before jumping from any other source.

Where is "Myth Busters" when you need them....

 

[grsthegreat]

Say what..... I never disconnect a dead battery....ever. Never had any issues

 

[Cougsfan]

I too have not been following any of these hallowed procedures for the last 60 years. I just connect the jumper cables from whatever has a good battery to start whatever has a bad battery. Never had a problem yet. Either I am extremely lucky or this thread is overthinking jump starting. I saw my son jump start his Honda car using a 20 volt portable drill motor battery. Probably not the proper thing to do, but it worked.

 

[Jstpssng]

Last year I jumped a Honda using a piece of wire from a portable battery charger. Rather than boost it, I used my alternator to charge his battery. Like many others, I'm dismayed to learn that I've been doing it wrong all of this time; in my case though, it's only been 40 years or so. I did manage to burn up the starter in my snowsled though, trying to boost it with my pickup. That battery had been dead for years, I just wanted to see if the starter worked.

 

[Fallon]

The 'problem' is that dead tractor batteries have HUGE capacitance. So, not only are you trying to feed the high current starter, but also trying to feed the dead battery. So, disconnect the dead battery before jumping from any other source.

Yes batteries have lots of capacitance. Alternators (voltage regulatirs) rely on that capacitance to function properly & smooth out voltage output. Spinning an alternator without a battery attached is a great way to fry them very quickly.

 

[DutchInNZ]

The 'problem' is that dead tractor batteries have HUGE capacitance. So, not only are you trying to feed the high current starter, but also trying to feed the dead battery. So, disconnect the dead battery before jumping from any other source.

If you then have the jumped engine running and you disconnect the cable, you may fry the rectifying diodes and the electronic circuitry in the alternator because those are made for low voltages while an alternator without the tension limitation of a battery can easily go over 60 Volts. Have the jumping engine running for a few minutes to start charging the empty battery a bit before you start the jumped engine.

 

[Frankenkubota]

Ok I will share a funny story. My uncle had a VW bug. My aunt a Pontiac. He had a dead battery and was running a little late to work. So he pushed the VW into the street and asked my aunt to use her Pontiac to push him off.

He gave her the instructions. He told her to get behind him and get up to 20mph then back off. He would take it from there.

So she backs out and drives around him and thinks where in the world is she going? She goes around the block and he sees she is coming up behind. He thinks she just went around the block to line up better.

He watches her coming up on him in the rear view mirror and realized very quickly she was not slowing down. Then Boom! She nails him. He gets out and says what the heck! She said you told me I had to get up to 20MPH!

why doesn't that surprise me?

 

[LouNY]

I have both booster packs and jumper cables and both have been used numerous times with no issues.
The most common issue that I have seen is jumper cables failing to start the intended vehicle because so
many jumper cables are garbage being built with #10 wire or smaller and huge plastic jacket.
Good cables made with #1 wire or heavier work good, in several decades I can't recall jumping a vehicle
damaging anything even though I have heard many stories of it happening.
Heck I've even started 6 volt systems using 12 volt vehicles, just by jumping straight to the starter, NOT the battery.

 

[PILOON]

HA, I've jump started cars with but one cable but that was back when cars had metal bumpers.
You'd just butt the bumpers to complete the grounding and then just the one cable was needed.

Even did that once with a mere light weight extension but had to wait while the low battery got charged up otherwise the high current would have melted that extension.

LOL, you do what you have to do in a pinch.

 

[LouNY]

HA, I've jump started cars with but one cable but that was back when cars had metal bumpers.
You'd just butt the bumpers to complete the grounding and then just the one cable was needed.

Even did that once with a mere light weight extension but had to wait while the low battery got charged up otherwise the high current would have melted that extension.

LOL, you do what you have to do in a pinch.

I tried that one time using some steel electric fence wire, mistake.
The first try the wire got hot and burned itself in two in a matter of seconds.
The dead battery was so low that it took us a half hour of just making a connection for a couple of seconds and then pulling it with a pair of pliers and repeating numerous times before the solenoid would even click, gave up drove out a half hour got cables and a spare battery and drove back in, 10 minutes later up and running, when we got back we found 3 shorted cells in the old battery.
Good booster cables and a lawn mower battery got that truck started and running to get home.

 

[Flad]

I have the same problems with two tractors sitting for weeks or even months at a time un used , had a regulator give up on me but it was old age and a faulty alternator and not jump starting, still I got sick of walking back to get a jumper battery so I mounted a 20 amp solar panel on the top of the cab with a charging regulator that is turned off or isolated by a relay when the ignition is on, so far it has worked ok, so I will do the same to the other one, both tractors live out in the open most of the time.
I have also looked in to replacing the batteries with 16v super capacitors with a 20ah lithium battery to keep the capacitors charged, the solar panels keep the lithium battery fully charged, these are supposed to last for at least 10 years and are virtually the same cost as a 450cca battery, these things are said to be capable of starting a v12 diesel and once the engine starts will re charge in 3 to 5 seconds, I would have already tried these capacitors except for the covid lock downs, we have had 3 so far this year Hopefully some time next month I go to the place where they are made and talk to the engineers first hand they have a couple of different options in size and configuration.

 

[Beeenvenue]

I’m another vote for the rechargeable packs. Two reasons:
SIMPLICITY/SAFETY - short small cords, easy to hook up, and you hook directly to the battery (never do that with jumper cables as the spark can cause explosions in certain cases). No hunting for a frame bolt, etc. And all of them are reverse polarity protected so if you make a mistake they just won’t supply the boost. And no need to haul a spare battery to the tractor, or drive a truck through the field, these units only weigh a couple of pounds. Just hook up, push a button on the side, and start the dead vehicle normally. And no spark removing.
TONS OF POWER - even the smallest cheapest will jump a partially charged battery on an f350. If your battery is totally dead then you may need the bigger unit - but even those are less than $100.

As a bonus you can find them on sale at HomeDepot deal of the day rotating through every couple of months, and get the smaller units for $30-35 (large ones for $70-80 that can jump a 6L diesel). Yes you have to keep them charged but they will store and keep at least 1/2 power (good for 2-3 jumps) for months.

 

[hube2]

I’m another vote for the rechargeable packs. Two reasons:
SIMPLICITY/SAFETY - short small cords, easy to hook up, and you hook directly to the battery (never do that with jumper cables as the spark can cause explosions in certain cases). No hunting for a frame bolt, etc. And all of them are reverse polarity protected so if you make a mistake they just won’t supply the boost. And no need to haul a spare battery to the tractor, or drive a truck through the field, these units only weigh a couple of pounds. Just hook up, push a button on the side, and start the dead vehicle normally. And no spark removing.
TONS OF POWER - even the smallest cheapest will jump a partially charged battery on an f350. If your battery is totally dead then you may need the bigger unit - but even those are less than $100.

As a bonus you can find them on sale at HomeDepot deal of the day rotating through every couple of months, and get the smaller units for $30-35 (large ones for $70-80 that can jump a 6L diesel). Yes you have to keep them charged but they will store and keep at least 1/2 power (good for 2-3 jumps) for months.

I can remember a time when I couldn't walk through a busy parking lot without someone asking me if I could give them a jump or asking if I had a set of jumper cables. This was at a time when these rechargeable packs were relatively new. Lot's of surprised people when instead of starting my car and moving it over to theirs I instead open my trunk and pulled out one of these, and then more surprised looks when I tell them to start the car without waiting for the battery to "charge" like you usually need to do with cables.

I also had to use it routinely with my old tractor after it sat for several weeks, but now I keep a battery tender on the tractor.

 

[kthompson]

There is no "I" in team, but there is a "Me" if you want to jumble it up a bit...

I have a sticky note on my desk by a previous employee who proved there is an i in team. The line is between the opening in the legs of the A and the dot is in the hole of the A. Sorry I don't know how to show that but print you a capital A and color it in. She also pointed out there is an "A hole" in there if you just color in the hole in the top of the capitalized A.

Now have passed along her wisdom, I agree in life there is no room for a "I" in team.

 

[greenerdreams]

to avoid the alternator issue, just jump without the jumping vehicle started, if you are not getting enough amps, double up your jumper cables. Has always worked for me. You can even jump a diesel truck from a smaller vehicle often this way. unless you have extremely good cables they usually can't supply the amps needed for a big load. I still think it's weird to worry about vehicles compatibility. Wreckers have huge alternators and don't seem to have a problem jumping tiny cars with low amp alternators, if it blew things tow companies would be getting sued left and right.

 

[Keoke]

I'm having a hard time visualizing this. When you connect your jumper wires, regardless of whether the jump vehicle is running or not, those two batteries are indeed in parallel. Electrically speaking they are one unit (the jumpers connect them together). Certainly there is going to be a large charging current drawn when you start but isn't that the regulator's job to limit the charging voltage? I don't see how the voltage would get any higher than normal.

As I said in my original post, having a jumper vehicle running while boosting dead battery, will most times, cause no problems. Alternator charging voltage, but not amperage, is controlled by a zenner diode (voltage relief valve) in the voltage regulator. There is no current limiter as in the old DC voltage regulators. Amperage is limited by the design of the stator and its inductance reactance. Also, there is a good chance that the battery on the dead vehicle is sulfated which means it has hi internal resistance to current flow. This battery then is not in a good position to accept a high charge rate from two alternators now charging a high voltage in parallel. If the booster vehicle has a fully charged battery it too is not likely to suck up all the dual output amperage put out by both units either.
This will cause the overall voltage to rise to zenner diode clip level. If all goes well, the zenner in each VR unit, which is designed to handle one alternator, not two in parallel, will hold voltage in check most of the time and this will cause no problems.
My point in the first post is that if you don't need the booster vehicle to be running why take a chance voltage spike damage caused by running two alternators in parallel if you don't need to.