Attaching the ground to a ground works, but you need metal with no paint or rust, you need to wiggle the jumpers to scratch to bare metal.
Always attach the cable ends (both) to the dead battery first. They will not spark unless the good battery has been hooked up first.
Explosive hydrogen gas emits from the dead battery not the charged-up good one.
understand if its isolated by rubber on either end its probably not a ground.
I usually use the alternator bracket bolt, or any unpainted bolt within reach.
Anyone who's taken drivers ed (should) knows that to jump a car properly, you attach the cables to the positive and negative battery terminals of the good battery and to the positive terminal and a metal ground on the dead car. They say you shouldn't attach the cable to the negative terminal on the dead battery because a discharged battery can vent hydrogen gas which may be ignited by a spark. But then they say it can be used cautiously if an adequate ground cannot be located.
But I've never been able to find such a ground. I've tried the hood latch, a metal tube that I believe was either a coolant line or part of the AC system, even just a part of the chassis (in this case I was jumping a gator- a small tractor kinda thing, John Deere makes them). Always end up having to go on the negative terminal.
What grounds are people able to use? I know something on the engine block is always a good option, but in most cases where I've had to jump a car, there's been a cover over the main engine block
