Boom! I jumped your girlfriend!(And she thanked me)

Yesterday I had to go to Target. I pull into the parking lot and drive around til I find a good spot. As I hop out of my truck a cute girl gets in her explorer in the spot diagonally across from the front of my truck. She puts here keys in and I hear that all too familiar "ClickClickClick ClickClickClick" I waited a second for her to go through the denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance phase. She opened her door and I calmly said "That's not a happy sound." She just looked at me as if she was about to cry. I asked if she needed a jump and she said she said did. In hindsight I should have just left my truck parked where it was, as the batteries were maybe 5' apart. I wasn't sure where her battery was located under her hood, so I pulled around to the parking spot beside hers, but that put the batteries about 8' apart. Not a problem in the long run, just further to stretch the cables. Back when I first started driving, in about 1987, my parents gave me a set of jumper cables and made me promise to always have it in the car. Parents are wise like that. That set of jumper cables has gone from my Pinto to my Nissan pick-up to my Dynasty, and now to my Toyota pick up. Over the years I have never used it to jump start my car but have jumped probably 30 other people's cars. I'd never bad mouth someone for having a dead battery. I have narrowly escaped dead batteries on one or two occasions myself. However, not having jumper cables simply makes no sense to me. In all those times I have jump started someone's car, I'd say half of them did not have their own cables. If you have a spare tire, why not have jumper cables? If you have your own cables then 100% of the cars in the lot can help you. If you don't have cables you now have to find a willing person who has a car AND cables. And apparently that's not as common as you'd think. If you don't have cables, get some. If your parents, brothers, sisters, kids, spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend doesn't have them, they make a rather goofy, but incredibly valuable Christmas present. It shows you care about their safety. Might I also suggest something called a "Boost in a bag" where the cables come in a nice zip up bag with the instructions for jump starting a car printed right on them. (See my cable bag above) It is true that if you hook things up the wrong way you can cause serious problems. If you already have cables, here's an inexpensive bag you can buy: Booster Cable Bag. I handed the girl the cable bag and asked her to read the step by step to me. I didn't really need it, I know what I am doing. I just wanted to get her talking. She was cute after all. Red on the dead battery, red on the good. Black on the good battery, and black on bare metal of the dead car. When I explained the black goes on bare metal, she was confused thinking it went to the black terminal of the battery. LOTS of people think that. That's how you make a battery explode, or worse give the good car a power surge that shorts out a lot of their vital components. The way I remember it is this: You always start with "Red on Dead" then think of "dancing" between the cars. You only do two "side steps" not three. If that's confusing, just read the bag, or find a cute girl to read it to you. Of course you know the cables should never touch each other, the car, or the ground when you are hooking them up. Most people get someone to hold them up and apart. An advanced trick I use is to clamp the black clamps onto the sturdy plastic handle of the red clamp. No way it can touch the metal of the red clamp or the ground and as long as you pay attention it wont touch the car. I don't recomend clamping it onto the actual cable as I have seen some folks do. If the metal clamp chomps through the outer layer, you're toast. Or at least your battery is toast. Once you have your very own set of booster cables, learn to use them. I know a lot of people who don't have a clue. In fact, I was browsing the web yesterday in preperation for this blog post, and found a website most folks would consider a good source of instructions and they had the instructions WRONG. There was a video clip that was actually correct, but the typed up step by step was wrong. Thankfully the incorrect instructions are not dangerous they just won't work. But incorrectly attaching jumper cables CAN BE potentially dangerous. What if someone doesn't watch the video clip but follows the written directions? How NOT to jump start a car (read the comments, too!) The right way to do it There is also a chance that if you jump someone else's car, improper hook up can damage YOUR car. The good samaritan takes it in the shorts. It is important to know your car, and know what you are doing. Lastly, if someone does jump your car, offer them like $5 or $10. I bet 99% of the time they wont take it. If they are kind enough to jump start your car they wont take money for it. But that is how you show appreciation. I've had a few people offer me money, one offered to buy my lunch (I was going into Burger King he had just come out). If you jump someone's car and they offer you money, that's your call, but I'd never take money for it, personally. The girl yesterday thanked me like 3 times. She told me how lucky she was that I was just pulling in. I told her I was lucky because as a Boy Scout I got my "good turn" done for the day. Had she ever actually offered me money, I don't know if I'd have had the guts to ask for her number instead. She was cute after all. The large shiney ring on her finger was sending a clear "buzz off" signal, however. Do you have jumper cables in your car? If not, why not? Can you use them correctly? While we're on the topic, go pop the hood on your car and check your battery. If you have blue/green/white crusties on your battery terminals they could actually keep your car from starting. You might not even need a jump. I've been told repeatedly over the years that Coke makes an excellent cleaner for battery terminals. Pour some on, let it sit, then scrub with a WIRE brush. I just went to the store and bought a battery terminal cleaner, and said to heck with it. Toss that little gadget into your booster cable bag, and drink the Coke instead. Now you've got that situation covered as well. I have not had a trunk for years, since about 1998, so my cables stay under my passenger seat. If you have a trunk with a spare tire, you'll find the cable bag sits nicely inside the wheel of the spare tire.