Jump starting using battery tender cables

[GreyGoose]

We had a battery die on us during our last trip. We luckily found a cager with a set of cables that got us on our way. I now carry the set of small jumper cables that come with the batter tender. Problem is that there really not suppose to be used as "jumper cables". There really there as another means of hooking your battery tender up to another battery (not your battery to another battery). So heres the issue.

i've got the battery tender connector coming off my battery leads so i can quickly connect the tender during the winter months. If i connect the "jumper style" connectors to the battery tender connector and then connect to another battery, will the polarity be switched (i.e. should i be connecting the red to the negative and the black to positive).?

Its obviouse what would happen if i was trying to jump from the tender, but trying to jump from bike to bike using these connectors is a different story (or is it?)....

BTW - i did try the search before posting

GreyGoose

 

[timk]

Yeah, you have to hook donor battery up backwards, or you'll get a BIG surprise. I have two sets of leads hooked to the battery. 1 switched and 1 unswitched. Bigger wire/fuse for unswitched.

 

[GreyGoose]

Yeah, you have to hook donor battery up backwards, or you'll get a BIG surprise. I have two sets of leads hooked to the battery. 1 switched and 1 unswitched. Bigger wire/fuse for unswitched.

there is no switching on the donor. the donor is in my bike and has the battery tender connector hooked to it with quick connect at the other end. it sounds to me like all i need to do is switch the leads at the other end (the recipient would have red on negative and black on positive). Is that correct?

thanx

GreyGoose

 

[RossKean]

Yeah, you have to hook donor battery up backwards, or you'll get a BIG surprise. I have two sets of leads hooked to the battery. 1 switched and 1 unswitched. Bigger wire/fuse for unswitched.

there is no switching on the donor. the donor is in my bike and has the battery tender connector hooked to it with quick connect at the other end. it sounds to me like all i need to do is switch the leads at the other end (the recipient would have red on negative and black on positive). Is that correct?

thanx

GreyGoose

If there is ANY doubt, check it with a meter before you hook anything up!! Positive to positive and negative to negative or you may find out how quickly you can melt wire (or blow up a battery). How heavy are your leads? You might find that although you can run a tender or charge at a very low rate, there may not be enough carrying capacity to jump start a bike. At best, it may not start because of voltage drop; at worst, you might cook the insulation off the wires.

Ross

 

[mcatrophy]

Red to positive, black to negative ALWAYS. You are connecting plus to plus, minus to minus whether from a charger or another battery.

Also, when using "thin" leads, connect the leads up, then leave for a few minutes with the ignition off. This allows the doner put some charge into your battery so that it can provide most of the starting power. It is then much less likely to draw too much current through the leads while you are operating the starter motor. But if you see smoke, stop churning! In fact, if the bike is reluctant to start, allow the doner to charge your battery for as long as you can. If the doner engine is running, it will charge faster, but there is a small risk of too high a charge rate.

 

[wfooshee]

I wouldn't use tender cables to jump. Keep in mind the starter will draw as much as 85 amps while cranking, with an even higher momentary draw before it's up to speed. Maybe not all of that is coming from the jump battery, but a significant portion will be. Tender cables aren't meant for that load.

And NEVER reverse the polarity. The jump battery goes in parallel to the bike's battery, plus to plus, minus to minus.

Even a moderate slope will give you room to bump start it. Put it second, turn the key on, coast downhill on the clutch, let out the clutch once you've got a bit of momentum, and boom! Engine running.

On flat ground one healthy American can push the bike quickly enough for a bump start.

 

[Joe2Lmaker]

On flat ground one healthy American can push the bike quickly enough for a bump start.

That's true. I once had a Heath American push me. I had left my key in the bike and my lights on while I ate breakfast. Bike was left unattended, fully loaded with all my gear. :fool:

 

[GreyGoose]

I wouldn't use tender cables to jump. Keep in mind the starter will draw as much as 85 amps while cranking, with an even higher momentary draw before it's up to speed. Maybe not all of that is coming from the jump battery, but a significant portion will be. Tender cables aren't meant for that load.
And NEVER reverse the polarity. The jump battery goes in parallel to the bike's battery, plus to plus, minus to minus.

Even a moderate slope will give you room to bump start it. Put it second, turn the key on, coast downhill on the clutch, let out the clutch once you've got a bit of momentum, and boom! Engine running.

On flat ground one healthy American can push the bike quickly enough for a bump start.

We were jumping suzuki bergman. it cant be jump started.

GreyGoose

 

[user 213]

Spend ~$20 and get some real mini jumper cables so you can do it safely w/o the risk of frying wiring. Search list

Note that the cheaper ones are often 10 Ga wire, the better ones are 8 Ga. 8' is common length, 20' is available too.

 

[k7lvo]

Yeah, you have to hook donor battery up backwards, or you'll get a BIG surprise. I have two sets of leads hooked to the battery. 1 switched and 1 unswitched. Bigger wire/fuse for unswitched.

there is no switching on the donor. the donor is in my bike and has the battery tender connector hooked to it with quick connect at the other end. it sounds to me like all i need to do is switch the leads at the other end (the recipient would have red on negative and black on positive). Is that correct?

thanx

GreyGoose

If there is ANY doubt, check it with a meter before you hook anything up!! Positive to positive and negative to negative or you may find out how quickly you can melt wire (or blow up a battery). How heavy are your leads? You might find that although you can run a tender or charge at a very low rate, there may not be enough carrying capacity to jump start a bike. At best, it may not start because of voltage drop; at worst, you might cook the insulation off the wires.

Ross

And that melted wire will probably be in that little thing called a "WIRING HARNE$$$$$$!"

 

[wfooshee]

We were jumping suzuki bergman. it cant be jump bump started.
GreyGoose

Useful bit of info, that . . . .

 

[BobOdenweller]

If I understand the situation correctly, yes, if you connect the two pigtails up that come with the tender then you will be reversing the polarity. I, like you, have a pigtail permanently connected to the battery. I bought a 12 guage cable with the SAE connector from Eastern Beaver and added a couple alligator clips to the other end. I used a multimeter to be sure the pos end had a red clip and the neg end had a black clip. Came in very handy on one occasion. With my battery dead I hooked up to a friends bike and let his bike run for a few minutes then my bike started up without a problem. Not ideal, but it works. I cary it with me wherever I go.

 

[ShinyPartsUp]

I wouldn't use tender cables to jump. Keep in mind the starter will draw as much as 85 amps while cranking, with an even higher momentary draw before it's up to speed. Maybe not all of that is coming from the jump battery, but a significant portion will be. Tender cables aren't meant for that load.
And NEVER reverse the polarity. The jump battery goes in parallel to the bike's battery, plus to plus, minus to minus.

Even a moderate slope will give you room to bump start it. Put it second, turn the key on, coast downhill on the clutch, let out the clutch once you've got a bit of momentum, and boom! Engine running.

On flat ground one healthy American can push the bike quickly enough for a bump start.

I agree with the above. A bumpstart is preferable is possible. And reversing the polarity did not melt wires on my KLR650. I inadvertently hooked up my leads to the FJR instead of the battery tender by mistake. The in-line fuse on the tender leads blew immediately. Stain remover cleaned my shorts. YMMV.

 

[timk]

Yeah, you have to hook donor battery up backwards, or you'll get a BIG surprise. I have two sets of leads hooked to the battery. 1 switched and 1 unswitched. Bigger wire/fuse for unswitched.

there is no switching on the donor. the donor is in my bike and has the battery tender connector hooked to it with quick connect at the other end. it sounds to me like all i need to do is switch the leads at the other end (the recipient would have red on negative and black on positive). Is that correct?

thanx

GreyGoose

We have donor and recip mixed up, but yes to the statment red on negative of battery giving the jump.

 

[Geezer]

The SAE connector for a Battery Tender connected to your battery always has the negative side on the exposed pin of the SAE connector. This prevents you from shorting to ground that would happen if you had a hot positive pin exposed.

So, as said above, you can not connect one bike to another via the SAE connectors becaue both will have ground on the exposed pin. You could make a jumper by building a short cable with an SAE on each end with the wires crossed, but I suggest you mark it well so you don't use it for anything else.

Also, as said above, you can't jump the engine through the thin Battery Tender wires. Once you get the terminal connected correctly, plus to plus and negative to negative, you can probably hook them up and let the battery charge up for a while, but if you hit the starter button you will blow the in-line fuse on one of the bikes.

The bottom line is that if you want to jump start bike-to-bike, you need to expose both batteries so you can clip a jumper cable directly to the positive side of each battery. And, of course, you need a good ground connection across the bikes.

 

[GreyGoose]

thanx for everyones input, i just ordered a set of miniture jumper cables for my upcoming trip to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the blue ridge parkway. Glad i checked with the forum first.

GreyGoose

 

[FJRGuy]

This question has been well covered But I thought I'd share this:

Due to my bike often losing battery power, sometime losing enough overnight to not start, (suspected ground fault somewhere but that's a different thread,) and having been unsuccessful attempting to boost through the battery tender leads, and having blown the fuse as well (despite having the tender accessory clamps CORRECTLY connected Red to negative and Black to positive (due to the reversal at the SAE connector,)) I have now wired in an SAE connector with 10AWG wire ($2) directly to the battery. I used the battery tender connection to make a fused 'link' that use with a tender. I am now equipped to boost or be boosted, as well as charge with fused protection, without opening Panel D. :yahoo:

Just a note too, that better quality tenders tend to come with better cables. Still not really big enough for boosting, but better. I even avoid bike to bike charging if you have cables from a 'bargain' tender.

 

[Tanhands]

I understand what he is saying about the leads.

Because both the one that is installed on you bike and the extra Clamp type were labeled thinking they would be going on your bike they would be opposite on whatever you were going to connect the Clamps to.

The way you can always make sure is lay the plug on top of the one coming out of your bike. Not the way they would just plug into each other. To do this you have to line the plug up in a way that they would not plug into each other.

You will find that on the Clamps you will need to put the Red Clamp onto the Black Post and the Black Clamp onto the Red Post.

That being said I am looking at my Clamps and I don't think I would want to use them as Jumper Cables.

I would get some thicker wire and make the same type of leads as you Tender. Hook it up the same way and run it to a spot you can get to. Then keep a set of cables with a plug on one end and Clamps on the other. Same as you are doing but bigger wire.