Does It Matter Which Battery You Jump Start On A Diesel Engine?

Mr.Anuwat Rumrod/Shutterstock

If your manner aliases occupation requires a heavy-duty pickup truck, nan likelihood are favorable that motortruck will person a diesel powerplant nether nan hood. Although diesel substance is presently much costly than gasoline and you whitethorn person to acquisition diesel exhaust fluid periodically, nan pros still outweigh nan cons. For example, diesel substance whitethorn beryllium much pricey than state astatine nan pump, but your diesel rig will present astir 20% amended substance system to thief offset nan cost. Diesel engines typically connection much torque than their gasoline counterparts, too, and astatine little RPMs.

All of these factors consequence successful a higher resale worth for diesel-powered dense work pickups, but 1 area wherever you won't prevention money is batteries. That's because galore diesel-powered trucks person not one, but two starting batteries nether nan hood. The logic is because nan compression ratio of diesel engines averages astir doubly that of gasoline engines. Therefore, much existent is required to powerfulness nan electrical starter centrifugal during nan starting process. 

However, what if you find yourself stranded successful a parking batch aliases astatine location pinch a brace of dormant batteries? Jumper cables aliases a jump-starting battalion are items that you should ever person pinch you, but does it matter which of a diesel vehicle's 2 batteries you hook nan leads up to? Not really. It's not captious to link jump leads to 1 artillery aliases nan other. That said, it's bully believe to take nan artillery which is located person to nan starter centrifugal if possible.

Dual artillery setups successful dense work pickup trucks are astir ever connected successful what's called a parallel configuration. That intends nan amperage doubles, not voltage. For example, 2 12-volt 600 amp batteries would output 1,200 amps astatine 12-volts. That's what we want, because if they are wired nan incorrect measurement — successful bid — those aforesaid 2 batteries would output 24 volts astatine 600 amps, which isn't useful to many, if any, automotive applications.

The cables connecting nan 2 batteries together are rather heavy (low gauge aliases AWG) and robust, which is why it's not important to link your jumper cables aliases jump container to 1 artillery aliases nan other. However, if you tin place which artillery is superior — nan 1 that's straight connected to nan vehicle's electrical strategy — that's nan preferable 1 to connect your jump leads to. For example, connected galore Ford and immoderate Chevy trucks, it's nan passenger's broadside battery, while many RAM trucks person nan driver's broadside artillery connected to nan starter. To complicate things moreover further, some batteries provender nan starter connected immoderate older Chevy trucks. 

If you can't easy find which artillery provides nan shorter way to nan starter centrifugal aliases that artillery is little accessible for immoderate reason, for illustration parking position comparative to nan conveyance that's giving nan jump, cognize that it won't make a measurable quality connecting to nan different artillery instead.