12 Life Skills You Need to Call Yourself a Man

8. Jump-Start a Car

At some point in time that reliable vehicle you drive every day is going to run into problems. The most common automobile issue that Americans face each year is a dead battery.

It can happen for a number of reasons; dome lights were left on, headlights left on, a door wasn’t shut. The solution is simple, yet millions still waste AAA’s time and call them for roadside assistance.

A real man won’t be fazed by a dead battery and will simply reach for his jumper cables, and the assistance of a nearby Good Samaritan. The best approach to starting the jump-start process is to line the vehicles up hood to hood. This makes it easy to get the batteries lined up without stretching the cables to their max.

Once the cars are lined up, turn off the running vehicle’s engine and pop both hoods. Identify the positive and negative terminals on both batteries. In the event the positive (+) and negative (-) symbols have worn off, the negative terminal is typically connected to the engine via a black cable while the positive terminal will have several colorful wires coming out.

Attach the jumper cable connections in the following order: positive on the good battery, positive on the dead battery, negative on the good battery, negative/ground on the dead battery. Negative on the dead battery can be any piece of metal on the engine block or frame, but be careful to avoid any painted or coated services.

Turn on the good car, let the engine run a few minutes and then start the dead battery. If you’ve done it right it should start up.