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Cheap jumper cables

Cheap Jumper Cables

I made my own for about $4. 12' #10 wire, 4 aligator clamps. ou can't get much cheaper than a BMW rider!
 
I have thought about buying or making a wire with a cigarette lighter plug on each end. Saw this advertised on TV as a more convenient alternative to jumping a car. You just plug each end into the cigarette lighters of each vehicle and wait about 15 minutes with the car doing the charging running. I would guess you would want to disconnect before starting, and I don't know how well this would work on a battery that was not in good shape. I could see it would probably work on a good battery that was just accidentally discharged.

I have a cigarette lighter adapter for my BMW Accessory socket, and a simple cord like that would let me get a jump from any car or another bike with a cigarette lighter adapter. Since I have to remove a lot of panels to get to my battery, this seems like the way to go.
 
It will not work

For you guys who "think" that you can jump with jumps from cigarette lighters, charger leads, etc...post here AFTER you have tried it and been successful.

IT DOES NOT WORK. This is experience talking.
 
JDOCKERY132445 said:
For you guys who "think" that you can jump with jumps from cigarette lighters, charger leads, etc...post here AFTER you have tried it and been successful.

IT DOES NOT WORK. This is experience talking.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing. very small conductors and contact points will just not carry a starting load.

Also, a fused BT lead with the typical 20amp fuse will not provide enough current for a really hurting battery without blowing the fuse and some very hot small conductors

A better idea is # 6 or larger , multistrand welders style cable is the best for that type of application. My YUASA set has #6 The #6 would probably melt trying to fire up my Cummins Diesel, works on most "left my lights on at breakfast" bike starts.
 
gblawler said:
I have thought about buying or making a wire with a cigarette lighter plug on each end. Saw this advertised on TV as a more convenient alternative to jumping a car. You just plug each end into the cigarette lighters of each vehicle and wait about 15 minutes with the car doing the charging running. I would guess you would want to disconnect before starting, and I don't know how well this would work on a battery that was not in good shape. I could see it would probably work on a good battery that was just accidentally discharged.

I have a cigarette lighter adapter for my BMW Accessory socket, and a simple cord like that would let me get a jump from any car or another bike with a cigarette lighter adapter. Since I have to remove a lot of panels to get to my battery, this seems like the way to go.
Click to expand...

The small conductor cig lighter thing is for charging, not jumping, as Glenn says.

Also, anybody looking for a deal on jumper cables needs to be careful about what the conductors are made from. If you're lucky, you can weed out fake copper plated wire using a magnet. I've read recently however, about discoveries of non-magnetic wire that looks and cuts like copper, but is something else.
 
Place a larger size, crimp-on type, ring connector(yellow) on each battery lead, bend down slightly, leave the plastic on & slide off to jump the battery,then replace when finished.
 
JDOCKERY132445 said:
For you guys who "think" that you can jump with jumps from cigarette lighters, charger leads, etc...post here AFTER you have tried it and been successful.

IT DOES NOT WORK. This is experience talking.
Click to expand...

henzilla said:
I was thinking the same thing. very small conductors and contact points will just not carry a starting load.

Also, a fused BT lead with the typical 20amp fuse will not provide enough current for a really hurting battery without blowing the fuse and some very hot small conductors

A better idea is # 6 or larger , multistrand welders style cable is the best for that type of application. My YUASA set has #6 The #6 would probably melt trying to fire up my Cummins Diesel, works on most "left my lights on at breakfast" bike starts.
Click to expand...

Just to confirm what MotorradMike already said, I was NOT talking about attempting to jump a bike using a cigarette lighter connection. The idea is to connect the batteries long enough to charge the discharged battery. The cigarette lighter plugs would allow connecting the batteries without removing all the panels required to get to the battery on the Dakar.
 
The idea

gblawler said:
Just to confirm what MotorradMike already said, I was NOT talking about attempting to jump a bike using a cigarette lighter connection. The idea is to connect the batteries long enough to charge the discharged battery. The cigarette lighter plugs would allow connecting the batteries without removing all the panels required to get to the battery on the Dakar.
Click to expand...

The idea is to get the bike going ASAP. I don't know many strangers who will let you hook up to their cigarette lighter long enough to charge a fully discharged battery.

My post concerned JUMPER CABLES. You know, the things you hook battery to battery so that a vehicle with a dead battery can get enough current to crank.

I like the solutions some of you have come up with. Having a good set of cables with the smaller clips allows you to jump off another bike whose owner has NOT done any of those modifications.
 
JDOCKERY132445 said:
The idea is to get the bike going ASAP. I don't know many strangers who will let you hook up to their cigarette lighter long enough to charge a fully discharged battery.
Click to expand...

The TV ad I saw for the cigarette lighter charge cord said that 15 minutes is usually enough time to get enough charge to start a car. Never tried it, so I do not know for sure, but I have had a lot of times when I put a car on a battery charger for only half an hour and it started.

JDOCKERY132445 said:
My post concerned JUMPER CABLES. You know, the things you hook battery to battery so that a vehicle with a dead battery can get enough current to crank.
Click to expand...

I didn't intend to hijack your thread. If you can get to your battery terminals quickly, I would agree that jumper cables is the way to go. I added this alternative for the benefit of many of us who cannot get to the battery without a lot of work. In my case, I have to remove about 14 screws and 7 panels and parts to get to my battery under the faux tank, which takes close to half an hour. I could probably charge the battery enough to start it in less time than that.

I was discussing the hypothetical dead battery scenario with a BMW service manager once who cautioned me about jumping the bike with a car. He seemed to think it would be possible to damage the computer due to the much higher amperage put out by a car charging system. He said if you have to do it, make sure the car is not running when you jump. In the case of my bike, he said if you can't charge the battery, try push starting, but that won't work if the battery is too low because the computer won't turn on.
 
"I was discussing the hypothetical dead battery scenario with a BMW service manager once who cautioned me about jumping the bike with a car. He seemed to think it would be possible to damage the computer due to the much higher amperage put out by a car charging system. He said if you have to do it, make sure the car is not running when you jump. In the case of my bike, he said if you can't charge the battery, try push starting, but that won't work if the battery is too low because the computer won't turn on."


The "push" with electricity is the VOLTAGE. Amperage is drawn. If you hook a little tiny 12 volt bulb up to a huge 12 volt battery you don't blow the bulb because the battery has all those amps available, the bulb draws what amperage it can that is the total current flowfor the bulb circuit. A motorcycle jumped from a car will only draw the current it needs to get job done. The car can't push amps through the system.

That being said, I once had a neat set of motorcyle jumper cables made from super heavy duty home speaker wire. They were in a soft bag that fell off my luggage rack long ago. I may have to make another pair.
 
gblawler said:
The cigarette lighter plugs would allow connecting the batteries without removing all the panels required to get to the battery on the Dakar.
Click to expand...

not tryng to increase the hijack level...:scratch
Doesn't the Dakar have the small (+) jump post under the seat near the edge of the faux tank? And the negative post on the oil filter cover? Our lil' GS does:dunno

The manual also states you can jump with other vehicles, just leave donor off and turn off any other electrical "consumers" on both which I take to mean lights, radios ,etc.
 
henzilla said:
not tryng to increase the hijack level...:scratch
Doesn't the Dakar have the small (+) jump post under the seat near the edge of the faux tank? And the negative post on the oil filter cover? Our lil' GS does:dunno

The manual also states you can jump with other vehicles, just leave donor off and turn off any other electrical "consumers" on both which I take to mean lights, radios ,etc.
Click to expand...

I have heard about that on newer F650GS models, but mine is a 2003 and there is no mention of this in the manual and don't see anything under the seat that looks like a likely candidate for a jump terminal. I would love to be proven wrong on this, though, so if anyone has a 2003 model and knows how to locate this terminal, I would love to hear about it.

I assumed they figured out that jump terminals are needed from customer feedback.
 
gblawler said:
I have heard about that on newer F650GS models, but mine is a 2003 and there is no mention of this in the manual and don't see anything under the seat that looks like a likely candidate for a jump terminal. I would love to be proven wrong on this, though, so if anyone has a 2003 model and knows how to locate this terminal, I would love to hear about it.

I assumed they figured out that jump terminals are needed from customer feedback.
Click to expand...

It shows in the '03 parts fiche located with the E -Box, doesn't guarantee it's there...not listed in the Riders Manual but in the Maintenace Instructions booklet
 
henzilla said:
It shows in the '03 parts fiche located with the E -Box, doesn't guarantee it's there...not listed in the Riders Manual but in the Maintenace Instructions booklet
Click to expand...

I just checked my Maintenance book and I am missing it if it is there. Inside the front cover it has:

01 47 7 671 051
09.2001
4th edition US / RF

If 09.2001 designates September of 2001, it could be that they recycled the manual from the 2002 version (guessing the 2002 year model came out in the fall of 2001). If that is the case, they may have added the feature in 2003 and my manual is not up to date.

Do you have a page number where this is mentioned?
 
Real world

gblawler said:
The TV ad I saw for the cigarette lighter charge cord said that 15 minutes is usually enough time to get enough charge to start a car. Never tried it, so I do not know for sure, but I have had a lot of times when I put a car on a battery charger for only half an hour and it started.


I saw a TV ad for a cream that would make me beautiful; but I did not buy it.

Seriously, if it ONLY took 15 minutes; how many strangers in a parking lot would give you 15 minutes of their time?

When my battery died because of some mysterious dead short while we were having lunch, it was DEAD. Nothing would work. Not even the digital clock. IT WAS DEAD.

Paul's jumper cables [very similar to the ones I bought] did the job quickly and without having to remove a bunch of plastic from my R1100RT. I removed the seat. The ends are small enough to reach the terminals which are up under the tank. We ran the cable to a BMW sedan and it was cranked in less than 2 minutes. The battery has died one more time since then; but it was in my garage when it did it. I cannot find the problem. The battery tests out fine and since it is an intermittent problem, I cannot identify it.


I will NEVER leave home again without my cables.

The advice you receive on TV might differ; but mine is based on real life and experience.
Click to expand...
 
Standard stranded cable can get pretty stiff at AWG 4 - 8...

Just curious... is anyone aware of a "braided" conductor (i.e. ground cable (but with insulation)) suitable for jumper cables? It would be a lot more flexible...
 
Lmo1131 said:
Standard stranded cable can get pretty stiff at AWG 4 - 8...

Just curious... is anyone aware of a "braided" conductor (i.e. ground cable (but with insulation)) suitable for jumper cables? It would be a lot more flexible...
Click to expand...

Check a welding supplier.
I'm not sure they'd have small enough cable but the big stuff is pretty flexible.
 
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