Power Pack Jump Starter
I know very little about these things so I come here asking: "Will this thing really start a car?". My wife wants to give one to her son for as a backup for his 2008 Harley Streetglide. He has been wi...
Forum Discussion
It should work just fine.
The volume of a jump starter doesn't need to be huge because the total energy involved in starting the engine really isn't that great (particularly for a motorcycle—some are still equipped to be started by a push with one's leg, after all). Even a very large starter requiring, say, 500A at 12V and cranking for 15 seconds (which is a long time to crank) uses about 2 Ah of charge total, or 25 Wh. The real trick is that it needs the power all at once, which means the battery/jump pack needs to be able to discharge rapidly and have a low internal impedance. It needs high instantaneous power but modest total energy.
The volume of a jump starter doesn't need to be huge because the total energy involved in starting the engine really isn't that great (particularly for a motorcycle—some are still equipped to be started by a push with one's leg, after all). Even a very large starter requiring, say, 500A at 12V and cranking for 15 seconds (which is a long time to crank) uses about 2 Ah of charge total, or 25 Wh. The real trick is that it needs the power all at once, which means the battery/jump pack needs to be able to discharge rapidly and have a low internal impedance. It needs high instantaneous power but modest total energy.
