In the past when I used my old vehicle to jump start my truck I just had to let it idle and the battery would supply enough power to start the truck, I need to use my 400H to jump the truck and think I need to have the engine running to supply enough power to start the diesel truck. How to keep the engine running when I jump it? Suggestions?

 

Jump in the RX and push the gas pedal down. I haven't used mine to boost another, but I would think that once the connection is made and the voltage on the RX drops, the engine would start automatically.

 

I'll know for sure as today is the day to try to jump start the truck.

 

If this is a common problem for the truck, why not purchase something specifically for the job like the following?

 

Well it worked perfectly, just pressing on the gas pedal and the motor started and gave enough juice to fire the truck. My truck is a International I use to tow my 5th wheel trailer and if I don't use it a lot it needs a jump. If I move the truck at 2 months it will start, 3 months not so much and I was almost 3 months and I was pretty sure I needed a jump.

 

You might want to consider an automatic trickle charge of some sort for the truck then to keep the battery topped up. Although jumping is OK for the RX, it's not something I would want to do regularly - too many fancy electronics to potentially go awry.

 

i ran the battery out on my 400h and my mechanic friend came over to jump it and he didn't start his car. i looked at hime weird and said hey you need to start your car to give mine the juice nad he smiled and simply said he has real jumper cables with thick gauge wire and it simply allows you to start your dead battery using the booster. then your alternator does the rest. so simply, also having extra thick cables will allow direct link of the batteries with no charge time. booster will start dead car directly. pretty neat.

 

The 400h doesn't have an alternator or a traditional starting system. It uses the 12V battery to power up the electronics and the high voltage hybrid battery does the real work. I keep a small booster battery in mine in case the 12V battery gets too low to start it. Had to use it a few times when my 12V battery was going bad.