jump starter et.al.

years back a fella at a VA rest area asked me if he could have a jump. I said that if he crawled into the back of my pickup and drag the jump start battery, et.al. he could use it. His comment, He sure picked the right place/person to ask.
bumpy

ya but the ONE time you are out in the boonies and need a jump to start your MH? Well it a 'good thing' to have one tucked in a bay! Small price for such big insurance and what could be a safety feature also.

These jumper packs are all about convenience, and when needed they certainly are convenient, if they can do their job.

Some people act like they are a real battery though, and cycle them deeply powering USB devices or powering something with the built in inverter, instead of cycling their starter battery shallowly.

The chargers which come with these jumper packs are quite poor, and might never actually fully charge the abused Asian AGM inside. When needed, a jumper pack used for anything but the occasional jump start, might not have enough gusto to actually help the starter battery start the engine.

The tiny lithium jumper packs now available are certainly Neat, but unfortunately many people correlate their ability to help a weak L/A battery start a motor with super capacity as well, which these lithium jump packs just do not have.

I've managed to not purchase a lithium pocket jumpstarter. I do have occasion for a portable 12v source, but I can just get a Tiny AGM for a fraction of the price, and so far have resisted that purchase as well.

I've got a bunch of 18650 cells from an old laptop battery which theoretically could fulfill any portable ~12v needs I have, but I've never actually hooked the cells in series nor am I likely to.

I often see jumper packs put out with the trash. I've scavenged them for their cables and clamps, and keep the batteries to recycle when I need to purchase a new battery. I've offered to put a new battery in one nicer jump starter for the owner, but they could not be bothered and just ordered a new one, for 3x the price of just the battery alone.

Some people are so poor, all they have is money

I have a Husky brand that I need to replace the battery in. It has a 400 watt MSW inverter, compressor and jumper cables. I have started several cars with it and used it to recharge cell phones and computers. Until I get that one fixed I have one I bought at Costco but don't like it as well as the Husky. It goes wherever the rv goes.

My little toad with 3.0 V6, 9.2 to 1 compression ratio and Mitsubishi gear-reduction starter requires 104 amperes at 10.9 volts to crank the engine on a 25C day.

From reading the above, it looks like today, there are serious "portable" jump starting devices then lesser units ranging down to utter jokes. Toys.

One interesting idea is to use super-capacitors in conjunction with lithium or absorbed glass mat. This would overcome the weight to CCA barrier.

both of the units I saw had 200 amp starting/400 amp surge, is the 10,000 mamp vs 7,500 mamp enough to worry about? assuming that it is just for intermittent use, charging a cell phone, etc. not running a stereo for a week?

as far as car starting, I would assume it would be used in combination with the low regular starting battery, as a boost?
bumpy

wa8yxm wrote:
If you plan to charge a cell phone than 10,000 mAH (10AH) is more than enough

If you plan on starting a car you need peak amps.. (Cranking amps) and you need as many as you can get.. I suggest 1,000 amps but my next to the last one was 900 My current one is smaller.. But I bought it for other things.

If I need to jump start I can either 1: PUSH the button (motor home) or 2: Pull one of my Marine/Deep cycles and use it.

You don't need "...as many (amps) as you can get...", you only need enough to start the engine. :)

If you plan to charge a cell phone than 10,000 mAH (10AH) is more than enough

If you plan on starting a car you need peak amps.. (Cranking amps) and you need as many as you can get.. I suggest 1,000 amps but my next to the last one was 900 My current one is smaller.. But I bought it for other things.

If I need to jump start I can either 1: PUSH the button (motor home) or 2: Pull one of my Marine/Deep cycles and use it.

wcjeep wrote:
The battery packs work great. I carry a diesel truck rated unit. It's possible to jumpstart more than one vehicle from a single charge.

I just bought a used Ford Explorer for driving around town. It had bad battery cables. No one else that arrived before me could start the vehicle. My Fuseled POD allowed me to jump start the vehicle. Price was below book value. I scored thanks to the battery pack.



Jump Starter

that is a bit more powerful than the ones I was looking at but the price also reflected that.
thanks all, I guess they work, just have to see what the Sam's club price is.
bumpy

I carry a portable jump starter with me at all times.

1. It has started my MH 'several' times.:B

2. I also use it with a small inverter plugged into the 12v to run a small TV when boondocking. Lasts all night.

3. And to plug in a regular residential ac lamp if the power goes out.

4. And I have aired up a tire on the SUV with it.

5. Can't count all the times I have loaned it out at CG's to others to start their TV or MH!

6. I even had to use it sitting shot gun for the Brake Buddy control because the cig lighter position in the MH didn't allow it have a clean shot to the toad!!!

Charges up ac or dc. You can charge it back up with your coaches cig lighter but I prefer to plug it in the 110 at the shore station when parked at a CG.

IMHO, JMHO well worth having one on board.

_+inverter_