Jumper Cables
A dead battery can cause major frustration so you should always be prepared and know how to jump start a car. Jumper cables are an essential tool you should always carry with you in your automobile. When purchasing a set of booster cables, there are a couple facts to watch for.
- Cable Gauge – The gauge of your
jumper cables
will determine how much juice you can transfer from one battery to the other. The lower the gauge number, the more power the cables can handle. Here is a general guide to gauges.
- 10 gauge is for compact cars
- 8 gauge is for midsize sedans
- 6 gauge is for full sized/4 door sedans
- 4 gauge is for SUVs and Trucks.
- The clamps can be made from a couple different materials. High quality clamps are made of solid copper while the cheaper clamps have copper-plated steel.
- Lots of manufacturers will call their jumper cables “heavy duty”. Ignore that, check the gauge of the cables and the quality of the connectors. Those are the most important factors.
- Long jumper cables are a life saver when a car dies in a parking garage where you can’t maneuver a good car’s engine close by so the cables reach from the post of the good battery all the way to the dead car’s battery. So don’t be stingy and buy the 10 foot cables to save a few dollars.
A voltmeter can be useful to ensure that the jumper cables are transferring power. If a jump didn’t work, you can verify that the cables are hooked up properly by using a voltmeter to see if there is any power in those cables.
| These are good quality jumper cables at a competitive price. Be sure to select the size you want from the drop down box if you are purchasing via Amazon.com. | |
| Here is another well reviewed set of jumper cables. 4 Gauge is always good to have because you can use it with compact cars and SUVs. Where as an 8 gauge will be able to handle compact cars but not SUVs. |