# Jump Starting Positive Ground

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/jump-starting-positive-ground/49421>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Created:** [May 26, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/jump-starting-positive-ground/49421 "2010-05-26T20:16:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![farrelc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cc9497/32.png) [@farrelc](https://community.cartalk.com/u/farrelc)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/jump-starting-positive-ground/49421/1 "2010-05-26T20:16:26Z")

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What as the proper connection for Jump Starting a Positive Ground Tractor with a Negative Ground vehicle?

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**Author:** ![JayWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e480ec/32.png) [@JayWB](https://community.cartalk.com/u/JayWB)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/jump-starting-positive-ground/49421/2 "2010-05-26T20:40:14Z")

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Positive to positive, negative to negative. Make sure the cars aren’t touching each other. Aside from that, which end of the battery is grounded is irrelevant.

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**Author:** ![JoeMario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3bc359/32.png) [@JoeMario](https://community.cartalk.com/u/JoeMario)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/jump-starting-positive-ground/49421/3 "2010-05-26T21:11:42Z")

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In addition to what JayWB noted, for safety sake, I would make sure the last (4th clamp) connection is to a ground on the tractor (not on the +terminal of the tractor).

I’m assuming both the tractor and car are 12 volts? Many of the old positive ground tractors were 6 volts. I have seen 12 volt cars jump 6 volt tractors, but that was years ago before cars had lots of sensitive electronics.

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**Author:** ![oldtimer-11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e79b87/32.png) [@oldtimer-11](https://community.cartalk.com/u/oldtimer-11)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/jump-starting-positive-ground/49421/4 "2010-05-27T00:55:40Z")

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I would take the cables off the battery on the car, then connect pos. to pos,neg. to neg. .

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**Author:** ![Triedaq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Triedaq](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Triedaq)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/jump-starting-positive-ground/49421/5 "2010-05-27T14:32:16Z")

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As others have said, connect positive to positve and negative to negative. I had to start my 1950 Chevrolet pickup truck on occasion from a 12 volt battery. It didn’t hurt anything.

I remember that there used to be 8 volt batteries available for old tractors. The voltage regulator would be stepped up to charge the battery. Apparently, this didn’t affect anything else on the tractors.