jump start

[paulflan1958]

hi i loaned my camper Shirley to a relative this weekend she had some problems with it after getting home today she got back into van and it failed to start so i sorted breakdown to visit her loose lead on alternator recovery jump started everything ok, she went about a mile turned off engine for about half an hour tried to start but no joy. she got a neighbour to jump start but burnt jump leads has he connected wrong way around and what other damage could he have done can anybody help

[weegaz22]

hi i loaned my camper Shirley to a relative this weekend she had some problems with it after getting home today she got back into van and it failed to start so i sorted breakdown to visit her loose lead on alternator recovery jump started everything ok, she went about a mile turned off engine for about half an hour tried to start but no joy. she got a neighbour to jump start but burnt jump leads has he connected wrong way around and what other damage could he have done can anybody help

Burnt/melted leads could be a couple of things, either a combo of a really cheap or badly worn set of leads and a badly discharged battery could have caused it, trying to start pulls a lot of current through the cheap leads as there isn't much in the vans battery and they get hot, or as you say connecting the polarities the wrong way but you you would probably find some fresh evidence of arcing on the posts/terminals,

did the burning of the leads happen right away or was it after a good bit of cranking to get it started? if right away then its probably reversed polarities, if its been after trying to crank it over unsuccessfully for a few mins its probably the combo of cheap leads and deeply discharged battery, suppose it depends on what you mean by "burnt" do you mean the lead itself? or the big croc clip that attaches to them?

[paulflan1958]

hi
i spoke to my family member it happened straight away so i guess put on wrong way. Got Shirley back last night on pick up removed battery and put on charge over night put battery back started first time so i think its time i changed battery. Thankyou for your reply