Has anyone tried jumping a non-hybrid car? Are there are any tricks to doing so?

Allow me to rephrase (my roommate takes pretty shoddy dictation). My roomate killed his car battery and I want(ed) to try and jump it with my Prius. I don't know if that's a good idea. First off, stomping on the gas (no gas!) to send out some extra juice (in Park no less)... well, wouldn't the Prius just laugh at me? Secondly, I don't know if I can get over the mental hurdle of jumpstarting somebody from my trunk. At this point I think I'm not going to do it. He's got AAA. But I'm curious for the next time this may come up. Any ideas?<br>Scott

About 20 years ago I went to a bachelor party for a friend. Afterwards we were all pretty drunk, when one of the guys said "I'm gonna go jump me a car!"<br><br>His technique was to get a real good running start. I'm pretty sure the car he aimed for was non-hybrid just because this happened 20 years ago.<br><br>Well, I'm not even sure he could focus, let alone jump, too good that night. He ended up right dab in the middle of the hood; bending it pretty bad.<br><br>So my advice is "don't even try it!"

Yup, jump started our minivan. Just follow the instructions in the manual on jumpstarting.<br><br>Most of the juice will come from the main (High Voltage) battery via the DC to DC converter. No need to stomp on the accelerator. Just have the car "Ready".<br><br>If the "dead" car requires a huge amount of starting current it might be easier on the Prius if you charged the "dead" battery first by connecting the cars, starting the Prius and waiting a few minutes before attempting to start the "dead" one. This assumes the "dead" battery actually will hold at least part of a charge.<br><br> arnold

I thought the manual only mentioned jump starting the Prius. No matter, I'm glad to hear that it can be used to get another car started. You would certainly have to think that with nearly 300 V at your disposal the car could spare a few V for the next guy (or gal).<br>Thanks,<br>Scott