Was waiting for a trailer to be loaded earlier today when I heard the unmistakable sounds of a driver attempting to start a lorry with a flat(ish) battery. He had several goes, but the thing wasn’t having it. Long story short I ended up assisting him with a jump start from my unit.
So to my question(s):
If both lorries had Anderson connectors, would jump-starting simply involve connecting one to the other with the appropriate lead? (With the usual caveats about connecting the vehicles “engine off”, then starting the one with a good battery and letting it charge the dud one for a while before attempting to start it)
The other driver said he’d had the same problem previously and his battery had been given enough charge to start by using an ABS lead connected between them. I didn’t want to try this as I had visions of frying some electronics or blowing fuses etc, resulting in both lorries requiring breakdown assistance (with me having to explain to our lot how come I’d fried said systems on my unit). Is the ABS lead a valid way of getting some charge from one lorry to another?
We ended up using traditional jump leads direct from one set of batteries to the other.
All of our lorries have Anderson connectors and this is our preferred method of jump starting. On the odd occasion that jump leads have been involved I’ve always left it to a fitter 'cos I’m an idiot and would undoubtedly connect them wrong if it was down to me.
The ABS lead is actually a good cheat but you’ve got to get the units bloody close to be able to do it. Apparently the power transfer is very low so you’re better off plugging it in, upping the revs on the donor vehicle and going off for a coffee before trying to start the casualty.
As long as Anderson leads are wired the same way!
Also on the vehicle being started,turn the side lights on,it prevent a power spike going to ECU’s When cranking it over. Also put lights on once it’s running,this makes alternator up the amps being produced.
I’ve heard of drivers jump starting via anderson leads, i’ve also had and given jump starts over the years via good quality jump leads direct from battery to battery.
However these days the vehicles are so complicated, and given the amount of electronic aftermarket jiggery pokery that goes in via the various spyware/trackers/satnav/camera systems companies now regularly fit, the vehicles are now more fragile than they have ever been, to the tune of £thousands worth of damage can be done easily, so yes whilst jump starts are possible of course there’s no way i’d be taking it upon myself to do the honours, or to have someone else do the same for me.
The only proviso is a jump to or from another company vehicle, preferably via the jump pack kept for that purpose, and only upon instruction from a supervisor or above.
This is an area i believe best to act these days as if you know nothing and let a mechanic sort it out, so it doesn’t come back and bite you in the arse.
To be fair our vehicles seldom if ever have this issue, age and usage dictates they seldom get cold let alone parked up long enough to go flat.
Juddian:
these days the vehicles are so complicated, and given the amount of electronic aftermarket jiggery pokery that goes in via the various spyware/trackers/satnav/camera systems companies now regularly fit, the vehicles are now more fragile than they have ever been, to the tune of £thousands worth of damage can be done easily, so yes whilst jump starts are possible of course there’s no way i’d be taking it upon myself to do the honours, or to have someone else do the same for me.
^ This.
It’s obvious that the vehicle being jumped is going to be dragging current from the the good vehicle.You don’t want that current being dragged through anywhere other than from the good vehicle’s battery and alternator to the jumped vehicle’s battery.The bad vehicle’s systems obviously have to be fooled that nothing has changed in that regard and you don’t want that current being dragged through anywhere that it shouldn’t be on the good vehicle either.Who wants to be responsible for getting all that right when that’s not the driver’s job or pay grade.
As a slight side question - do trucks have negative via the bodywork like a car and if do, should they be jumped using that rather than battery to battery to avoid the hydrogen explosion risk?
Theres also the problem of 12v vs 24v. If my understanding is correct, the batteries are 12v but on our DAFs there’s two terminal connectors off the backend. I have no idea if that’s running at 12 or combined to 24v. Not sure I’d want to get it wrong.
Think I’d be “better call DAFaid or similar”. All for helping drivers where I can, but its an expense of running commercial vehicles and their bosses problem (and liability when it goes bang).
The Actros has easily accessible jump-lead connection points on the passenger side at the back of the cab.
Not sure what that tells us about Mercs!
Anderson lead is the best and safest method.
It’s most unlikely that the plugs will be cross wired. There is also much less risk of arcing and terminal damage compared to using jump leads.
Many trucks now have external terminals for jump leads if they need to be used.
Ignition off on both vehicles until correct connection is assured.
trevHCS:
As a slight side question - do trucks have negative via the bodywork like a car and if do, should they be jumped using that rather than battery to battery to avoid the hydrogen explosion risk?
Theres also the problem of 12v vs 24v. If my understanding is correct, the batteries are 12v but on our DAFs there’s two terminal connectors off the backend. I have no idea if that’s running at 12 or combined to 24v. Not sure I’d want to get it wrong.
Think I’d be “better call DAFaid or similar”. All for helping drivers where I can, but its an expense of running commercial vehicles and their bosses problem (and liability when it goes bang).
The terminals on the back of the chassis of a daf are 24v same on all trucks