Charging a dead 12v vehicle battery with two 6v house batteries

[bigsallysmom]

Let's say you are out in the middle of nowhere and run the vehicle battery too low to start the vehicle.  Inside you have two 6v house batteries.  Can you use jumper cables to charge the vehicle battery with the 6v batteries.  If so, what posts do you connect to?

 

[Trebor English]

It works just like jump starting from another vehicle, red wire plus to plus, black wire minus to minus.

However if you have a relay to charge the house battery and nice thick wire it may be better to turn on the relay.

 

[Almost There]

Let's say you are out in the middle of nowhere and run the vehicle battery too low to start the vehicle.  Inside you have two 6v house batteries.  Can you use jumper cables to charge the vehicle battery with the 6v batteries.  If so, what posts do you connect to?

I'd suggest that you think of it in terms of boosting the vehicle rather than charging the vehicle battery. Get it started by boosting the vehicle and then let the alternator do the charging. Of course this actually means driving the vehicle sufficiently to allow the alternator to do it's job.

Just trying to charge the vehicle battery from the house battery bank could leave you with ALL batteries below usable levels. It's important also to determine what it was that left you with a dead vehicle battery in the first place and remedying the situation.

 

[John61CT]

Yes, not charging but jumpstarting.

If the Starter batt is shorted may flatten House, better IMO to switch between rather than join circuits.

A little power pack kept charged should be enough.

And yes you should have full knowledge of the State of Health of all batteries, any surprises should be extremely rare to never.

 

[rvpopeye]

What Trebor and John said^ X2

If I had 2 golf cart batteries in the back ,the starter battery would only be used for starting.

 

[highdesertranger]

this is when a portable solar panel comes in handy and one reason I will always have at least one portable. just hook your portable up to your start battery. of course this is not a fast solution so you can't be in a hurry. but if you are in a hurry yes you can jump off your 6v like others have said. highdesertranger

 

[reflex439]

Solar could be very slow if you go to start your car at 9pm and it's dead

When using 2 6v batteriss to jump start, make sure you use the posts for Pos and Neg setup in series, and not the Pos and Neg on just one of the 6v batteries.

 

[Gary68]

on the 2x6v side,one cable going to +red on one 6v battery and the other cable going to-black on the other 6v battery

would this be how to do it???

 

[highdesertranger]

yes Gary with the appropriate cable on the other + and - to make it one 12v battery. highdesertranger