Best way to jump a semi-truck with a car or pickup battery, is to hook up the positive cables direct to the batteries (positive post to positive post), and the ground cables to bare metal(steel frames). Have all electrical accessories in both vehicles turned off, and once the cables are hooked up, sit in the charging vehicle(engine running), and watch the ampmeter. If you are charging the batteries to the truck, the ampmeter should be pegged out to 14 amps. If you are applying charge, rev the engine up just a bit, to give a steady stream to the truck. Watch the amp meter, and once you notice that it is dropping in amperage, back to normal charge range wwhile operating, that is when you start the truck...give them batteries a nice healthy charge, before engaging the trucks starter.

It also helps that the jumping unit, have a good battery (90 amps+) and a good steady charging alternator.

HEY Jerod, I have been looking long and hard at TMC. I was wondering what i would be considered Longhaul or Linehaul? I live just west of I-96 in Grand Rapids, MI. i was also wondering if you have anything dedicated in that area. I understand you have to work for TMC for at least 6 months before dedicatred Thanks for any help
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REMEMBER TO KEEP 'EM SHINNY SIDE UP

I know they had a dedicated run out of Monroe Mi. It's a Home Depot account. I have also seen TMC covered wagons in that area, but I don't know what they are hauling.
I am on the South East side of the state and the Northern Boundry for Linehaul is M59. I don't know how far west the Boundry runs.

Your truck is a 24 volt system more than likely, hooking it up like a normal car battery will blow everything up. Haven't done it enough myself to know for certain which battery to hook to, try posting your question in the Maintence forum.

Info found on the internet, I cannot vouch for it.

"So how do you jump a 24 volt system? Well, ideally you do it with another 24 volt system! However, if you're stuck in the parking lot of your local grocery store, you can jump from a 12 volt system - usually. This is because it's usually only one of your batteries that will get run down. So it's a good idea to carry a multimetre with you. Unless your bad battery is really pooched, you can probably just hook the jumper cables up to the bad battery and let the other car recharge your battery for a few minutes.

How do you jump a 12 volt system? Pick a battery and jump. While the system as a whole is 24 volts, each battery is still just 12."

Im gonna try and find an open pete dealer as I know some stay open 24/7 but its gonna be tough to find Im sure and call them up.


As per the pete dealer in Bakersfield CA "my local ones are closed"

Its safe to jump a tractor off a car/truck.If you know the batt thats low connect to that batts posts.Let the car/truck run connected to the tractor
for 10-20 min to charge up the tractor then try it.If you connect the lines then try to start the tractor with out a wait you run a large risk on the car/truck
killing the alt.

You would think jumping a tractor would be common info we all would know.I must say I felt like a dummy callin a dealer to ask how to jump a truck.The guy was cool and only made fun of me a little.

trucks are a 12v system wired in series not a 24v system wired in parallel a 12v car can jump a semi just like jumping a car.

One other thing...TMCs website says they give one free Jumpstart a year and the rest you pay for.Thats a joke rite?

Its not my truck and its not my fault it crapped out.I did as they said and started it up every day it was to sit but it still died.It just came from a terminal and they told me the batts were tested good.I asked since cold weather is on the way so I would not have this problem.

If there is another Semi around ask them if they will pull your truck just enough to get it started. Put it in first gear and pop the clutch. They should only have to pull you about 10 Ft.
Good Luck. :wink:

Did you make sure everything was turned off or unplugged?

It was the first time at home with it so I went over every switch to be sure it was off.I even walked around the truck to be sure no lights were on.