Jumping Batteries Batman!

RAY: This is from my delivery truck series and it was sent in by Rob Gretigney.

He writes:

I once worked as a delivery truck driver. The truck I drove was about 25 feet in length. One of the places that I routinely delivered to required that I pull into a narrow alley in order to unload my truck. One cold January day after making my delivery I discovered that my battery was as dead as a hammer. I had probably left my lights on when I went for coffee.

Another delivery driver had pulled into the alley right behind me and I asked if he had a set of jumper cables and a strong battery that I could use. He did but the jumper cables were only 16-feet long and wouldn't reach from his battery to mine. The alley was too narrow to park the truck with the good battery next to mine, and my truck was too heavy to be pushed into a better position. We did think about temporarily replacing my battery with the one from the other truck so that we could at least get out of the alley, but the cable connections were so corroded on both vehicles that they wouldn't budge. And, to top it off, we didn't have any tools anyway.

Then I struck upon an idea that allowed us to get my truck started in only a few short minutes. What was the idea?

Think you know? Drop Ray a note!

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]