Need Jumper Cable Education

I need to buy some jumper cables to put in my daughter’s car before she goes off to college next year. She is driving a 4 cylinder Toyota Corolla but I would like to buy her a set that will work on a V8 gas pickup. I am confused looking on eBay and Amazon with the different gauge wires and amp ratings:
0 gauge 3000 amp
1 gauge 1200 amp
2 gauge 600 amp
4 gauge 500 amp
10 gauge 150 amp

Is there a rule of thumb of what size cables to use to jump an X amp dead battery?
Is there a down side to buying the 0 gauge/3000 amp jumper cables?

Get her one of the NOCO Genius portable charger packs then she is not looking for someone to jump off of if needed.

No drawback to the 0 vs 3000 amp, just overkill

Agree with Steve, except I'd add, if you can afford it, do both. Pick any except the 10g.

The 1 gage should work.

Other than cost and the space 0 gauge would take up, no.
The widely available jumper cables are usually 8 gauge, but the nicer ones are six and four

Length is important. Especially knowing that college kids can end up parking in smaller spaces at odd angles.

A quality portable jump starter is a good idea also. Remind her to charge the battery charger (and all her other battery chargers and portable flashlights, etc) once a month.

I don’t want to give her one of those battery jump boxes. All of her friends would call her every time their battery died.
Jumper cables will be sufficient. What guy is going to drive by a college coed with her hood up while holding a set of jumper cables?

Access with jumper cables can be a major problem when you are by yourself. Many of the college parking lots and parking garages have your car so surrounded it is not accessible without moving vehicles. Jumper cables are fine, but a jump box is the answer for a single college girl.

True, but sometimes the need to start the car is early in the morning while everyone else is still passed out.

The top rated one in the video above is/was $80. Makes for a nice Christmas gift
Think you can also charge your phone and other things off of it.

I have a jump starter pack with an air compressor in my truck. A little large but it works great.

Getting a teen to charge one of these units from time-to-time. Good luck with that.

2 or 4 gauge wire will be plenty, the smaller the gauge number, the more amperage it will carry.. ask yourself this before you buy the portable battery jump starters, will she remember to keep it charged? You can always find someone to jump your car off but I highly doubt a college kid will keep portable jumper charged.

Forget the jumper cables. Buy a jumper box with a lithium battery.

Again, I am not buying her a jump box as she will not keep it charged and if she does, she will turn into AAA car service.
I plan to send her off with jumper cables and a small cigarette lighter powered air compressor. If she needs more than that, she can call Uber or a tow truck.

Probably right but not all guys that would stop can be trusted. Just my .02 here from already raised a daughter thru college age

Get her a Noco 70. It’s strong enough for almost any gas motor and very safe. No chances of blowing up batteries, etc. plus, no other car needed.

Also, I have Allstate insurance. Pay them $6.95 a month for road side assistance--jump starts, tire repair, belts etc.... Have used that several times also. The firs tow I needed made it totally worth it.

I have an older truck. Even keeping up with the scheduled maintenance, it can be cantankerous at times.

The NOCO GB40 is on sale at Academy for $79.99 and there is 12% Cash Back on Rakuten.

I have bought one for every vehicle we have and I keep on in my boat.

I bought everyone of them from Academy for $63.99 (1) and $69.99 (3) at different times.

They are better and safer than jumper cables and do not weigh what a good set of jumper cable weigh.

Using your flawed logic then everyone of her friends will be calling her every time their batteries die wanting her to jump them off.

That is not something I would ever want my daughter doing at any time.

Not every guy that would be driving by will be a "good guy" by any means.

There is also the issue with the technology in newer cars. Have some noob with jumper cables melt down any electronic system in a car and the cost of a Noco would be pennies on the dollar. Also buy the best new battery you can get before she leaves and it will last 4 years.

How long does a NOCO GB40 last before it no longer holds a charge and needs to be thrown away?
I have a pair of jumper cables that is over 30 years old.

Most universities have their own police force and they will give your daughter's car a jump start... make certain she has both the non-emergency and emergency numbers memorized and programmed into her phone.

31 years.

That makes zero sense. How would her friends even know she has one? It's not like a jump box is something you go around bragging about.
As stated about get both, that way if she is around people she can trust they can help, if not, she's not relying on a stranger to help.

I have the portable jumper in my daughter's, wife's and my car.

I will never go back to jumper cables..........there are too many instances where trying to string the cables between 2 vehicles is problematic,
The charge on our unit's hold for months at a time, and we have been able to quickly and efficiently help others out when they need it.

This reminds me to call my daughter and remind her to check her chg status

The lithium jumper I have allows you to charge it in your car. No excuse not to keep it charged, even for a college student. They are safe, convenient, and efficient.

I just bought her a new NAPA battery.


Very good idea. She never goes anywhere without her phone.


LOL.



My daughter would use it to charge her phone and then her laptop. When her car battery dies, she would be calling a friend to go by her dorm room and look in her backpack for her NOCO unit.

powerlizard, 6 gauge is good. 4 gauge will be even better. just go over in detail the hook up

In my experience (if you buy her a lithium jump starter then she won't need to rely on a stranger) and if you buy one rated for a 4 cylinder it will work only if the battery is barely dead or just died....if the battery is super old and super dead it probably won't jump it off anyway....get a bigger jump starter rated for a V-8 and a new battery then you won't have to worry about it....also grease your lead poles with a light coat of marine grade gear grease like used for your bearing buddies and it will decrease the corrosion build up and likely hood of not getting connection...also carry jumper cables of course just make sure clamps connections are good and not rusty or add grease on them as well and they will work....

20' 4 ga. are what I have carried for decades, make my own out of welding leads also when I can find used leads.

be sure she knows how to hook up and do it safely.



https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-2...AQTbEAQYASABEgJQWvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

and always hook ground last

Power Lizard, it’s your choice. Don’t let these guys buffalo you. You definitely don’t want your daughter to be the one that every one calls for a jump. Don’t get her a car either; they’ll be calling her every time they need a ride. And if you get her a cellular phone, they’ll be coming around every time their cell phone dies. And whatever you do, don’t give her any money; they’ll be coming around every time they’re broke............

Go get her, and the family, a AAA membership and pay for it. They will come out and get her car started and if they can't they will get it towed.

NOCO GB40

second the triple A membership

My wife got a flat tire on a Sunday at Surfside beach just south of Galveston
AAA said they would be there in 90minutes to two hours.

I walked from the hotel to where she was (at a restaurant down the road) and took off the flat and put on the spare tire in under 20min.

And she still didn't have to do a thing other than call someone, did she? And what if you were 200 miles, or 2 states away?

Here you go. Home Depot for 19.95. Four gauge and 20' long. They come in a nice carrying case.
In any case once you hook up the batteries run the rpm's in the charging car up a little, 12-1300 rpm's to allow the alternator to add amps. If it does not start right away it will after 2 minutes with the engine running.

There are many places where that AAA membership is useless. Havung to wait six hours for a wrecker is not what most folks had in mind when they signed up. Before doing the AAA thingy, find out if their service is up to snuff in the areas you’re likely to need it. They have a great presence in some areas. But not in others.

A lot of people refuse to give anyone a jump for this very reason. Also, jumper cables can be dangerous if hooked up wrong. I've heard of batteries blowing up. And if you loan someone a set of jumper cables, I'll guarantee you you'll never see them again.

There is a relatively newer option with jump capacitors.
Apparently, they are safer and more reliable.

The 2 gauge would be enough to jump any vehicle in the parking lot. You'd need the 1 gauge for a HD diesel, and the 0 gauge to crank a B-52.

Get a set with a nice compact case or bag that can easily be re-stowed.

My son is at Baylor and was having battery issues. He had to wait for the spot next to his car to be clear. Jump box is the way to go. Also cables in case they don’t keep it charged.

Thanks. I will print this out and put it in the jumper cable bag.


We are considering a membership. I need to check and see what kind of plan our insurance company offers. The big issue is the long wait times for someone to show up.


Thanks. That is the info I was looking for. i will be looking for 2 gauge jumper cables that are pretty long.

Jumper cables are cheaper.

True, but it takes a physics major to get them back in the package. Do you know the cost of physics classes?

At Grayson County Community College or at MIT?

a set of 2 ga. will jump any vehicle on the road including a semi, let the dead battery charge at least 5 mins. before trying to crank it over, 10 min. if it won't even make noise when key turned.

The more expensive cables require MIT.

Buy her a car with a manual transmission and teach her to pop that clutch.

But, the ladies are better looking at GCCC.

Mine are made from T-33 aircraft battery cable 4 ga. stranded wire. We all made sets of these for our cars back in the day, in our slack time in the avionics shop. Mine are 20' long and have lasted me 46 years.

I appreciate all of the jumper cable input.
Jumper boxes have come a long way in capability, size and cost.
Daughter safety at college can be a whole discussion on its own.

I’m really disappointed in you. I figured with a name like PowerLizard that you would not need to ask anything about power, or jumper cables or whatnot. I would have expected more power knowledge from you. From here on out, I consider you to be a standard lizard.

perhaps his emphasis was on lizard when he created his screen name, ever think of that?

That's when you need a set like I have. Made from 2 AWG welding cable, 30 feet long. I can pull up behind a crew cab pickup and still reach the battery with no problem. Heavy, but never fail.

I have a 20' or so set from the same, leads got messed up on a job so 3-4 of us made jumpers when they trashed them. probably 30 yrs. on mine.

DaveDave, some people change. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

There are lizard people that walk among us. Do not anger the lizard people.

They are kin to The Big Foot people. Don’t anger them either.

I am The PowerLizard! I come from the Berkley PowerBait family or at least when I joined the TFF back in 2003.
Yes, I used to bump start my cars in high school and college and thought jumper cables were for automatic transmissions only.
I have no electrical skills. Decades ago, I managed to shock myself twice trying to install a garage door opener in a new house before I gave up and called a garage door company.
If pushing the GFCI button doesn’t fix the problem, my wife will call an electrician.

I am the CCTX! I come from a Brit family or at least until 1999.
Yes, I’ve been jump starting cars since high school.
I can run a voltmeter and an amp meter to diagnose an electrical issue.
If pushing the GFCi button doesn’t fix the problem, my wife now calls an electrician.

Those new batteries don't need jumping.