I think people jump as close to posts as possible to compensate for usually small cables and unavoidable loss of conductivity between bolted surfaces. I'd be more concerned w/ alternator output than where I clamped the cables. Bill #5939 > All this talk about where to connect jumper wires is foolish. Electrically there is no difference where you connect your ground jumper as the negative terminal of the batery (regardless of jumper or jumpie) is directly bolted to the engine block.