1999 suburban won't jump start

Trying to jump a 1999 suburban off of my 02 f250 7.3 and it won't happen. It's like nothing is getting through. Crazy. Ideas?

Ground cables to engine good? 

Lights and all come on?  Hammer to the starter?

Really dead battery and too small cables? I've had that with my Cadillac, had to use my FIL's cables that are made out of welding cable :)

It's getting only minimal power. I've jumped hundreds of cars (the joys of being from rural New York) and admit that I hate the side post nonsense that GM uses but, everything is as connected as I can make it. My f250 has a ton of CCAs (2x950) and spins fine. The suburban is only able to create very dim lights. FWIW, the battery is only a year old in the suburban and it was starting fine less than a week ago. I also put it in neutral, in case it was the NSS on the trans. No joy

Get that dead battery out of the circuit, see if it wakes up.

It's possible that the battery is totally toast.  Plates can become dislodged and contact each other effectively shorting out a cell.  Sulfides can precipitate out and short the plates meaning that the charge is basically going straight through.

Easiest way to test that is to pull the cables off the 'burb battery and connect the jumpers directly to the cables.  Bypass the 'burb's battery.  If you get good lights and cranking, you know you have a shorted battery.  If you don't, you know you have a rotted cable or corroded connection somewhere.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

So, put the cables directly on the cables of the suburban?

In reply to Docwemple :

Yeah, disconnect the dead battery and hook up the positive jump cable directly to the positive cable on the Suburban. You can probably keep the ground where you have it.

Bypassing the battery,  not as easy as it sounds due to the layout of the GM cables (SMDH), but, it is getting more power,  but not enough to start. So the battery is shot. Who ever installed it. Left it lose, so that explains the plate issue. 

Bypassing the battery does give the truck a lot more power, but still not enough to start it. I'm noticing that the bolt on the positive side has significant corrosion 

What size cables are you using?  If you have 10ga parts store cheapies, they won't cut it.  If you have 2ga good ones, it should start.  If it has more power but not enough to crank, I would suspect you're getting enough juice through the jumpers to light up lights, but maybe not enough to crank the engine.

So far the cranking seems to have been proportional to the juice it's getting, so let's not assume it's the starter, but we can keep that diag in our back pocket.