Your car depends on its battery to start, and if the battery malfunctions, you can quickly find yourself stranded. It might just be too drained to start and need a charge, or it might be dead and need to be replaced. Either way, you can get your car rolling again with a jump-start. All you need is a set of jumper cables, another helpful car owner with a fully-charged battery, and a little know-how. Discount Towing & Recovery of Mountain Home, AR, shares some helpful safety tips about jump-starting your car below.

First, you should always make sure your car is in a safe place before you try to jump-start it. If your car dies on the road and you can’t get it restarted, carefully push it out of the way of traffic, or set up traffic cones around your car.

If you can’t find another car to help jump-start your vehicle, you can call for roadside assistance. Not only will a helpful mechanic bring a fully-charged battery, but they’ll also have the jumper cables and expertise to safely get your car started.

Once you find a suitable jumper battery, position the two cars close enough together so the jumper cables can reach from one battery to the other without the cars touching. Make sure both cars are off and the brakes are set, then you’re ready to hook them up.

Using gloves and goggles if you have them, attach one end of the positive (+) jumper cable to the positive post on the dead battery and the other end to the positive post on the jumper battery. Do the same with the negative (-) cable, but this time starting with the battery on the jumper car.

With both cables securely attached, start the jumper vehicle and let it run a few minutes. Then start the disabled car. With both cars running, remove the jumper cables carefully in the reverse order of how you connected them. Be careful that the clamps don’t touch each other or any other component of the vehicles.

Now that your car is up and running again, you should take it straight to a car maintenance shop so you can get a new battery or charge up your current one.

If you find yourself stranded in the Mountain Home area, don’t fear! Discount Towing & Recovery can provide any jump-start, towing, tire changes, or other roadside assistance you need. Their professional crew can have you on the road again in no time. So call them today at (870) 425-1775 or visit their website to learn more about their services.