Jump Leads vs Battery Jump Pack vs Charger

Scania said:
Same with modern trucks, you'll often see them with stickers on the back of the cab saying "do not jump start" - especially Iveco's for some reason...

On the rare occasion these days that the truck won't start due to a battery problem Scania (or whoever) will come out and change the batteries rather than jump start it.
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Some truck modules don't have much tolerance for overvoltage, so you had to be cautious of battery chargers. The easy way is just to say don't jump/boost start them, as it helps to try and avoid idiots untrained people from doing damage.

jpaul said:
my 20yr olds don't .. but a number of leads have surge protection for the donor vehicle ,
https://workshopping.co.uk/recovery-towing/booster-cables-jump-leads/surge-protected-booster-cables

so would that protect you against, say other vehicle shorting your battery or taking >X00A say - what do the AA use too ?
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The biggest benefit of those leads, is they'll stop you connecting them the wrong way around. Vehicle electrics should meet an automotive standard, which means components have to withstand some quite high transient voltages, so the transient voltage protection isn't really needed.
 
Personally, I have all 3 in the title..

Ctek 5A charger for when the car will be unused for long periods.

NOCO GB40 jump starter for when caught out (this is awesome, starts a car from FLAT after 30 seconds of letting it trickle in and disable the car alarm)

Clarke CJL54D jump leads for when anyone needs them.

In the 10 years we've lived here, have used all 3 multiple times. For my own use and 'rescuing' friends.
 
I bout one from amazon, its out of stock but goes along the lines of: (AsperX Car Jump Starter, 1000A 18000mAh Peak Auto Battery Booster Power Pack(Up to 7.5L Gas or 5.5L Diesel Engine) External Battery Charger Car Jumper with USB Quick Charge 3.0 for 12V Automotive)

I havent used it on my Petrol Audi but worked a charm on a neighbours french fantastic, One full start and the battery was still registering over 90% remaining. Seems well enough built and cost around £60 from memory.
 
Bloodrayne said:
Just to update on my personal situation (completely flat car due to lockdown) I bought a NOCO and it worked brilliantly; although I did need to use the manual override as the battery was that flat...
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I'm adding my 2 cents for those searching the forum for charger reviews.

After reading lots of CTEK stories of the things stopping working after a couple of years, I've bit the bullet with a Bosch C7 charger. Arrives Tuesday.

We have two cars - a 2017 3008SUV 1.6 diesel and a 1.2 matiz. The 3008 has a 75Ah AGM that is undersized for the car IMOHO, and the matiz has a 35Ah lead acid. I have a seemingly dependable standard halfrauds charger for lead acid after the Ring charger died after a couple of years abuse charging a 100Ah battery for astronomy.

The 3008 stalled yesterday after 2 weeks of quarantine and almost failed to start the car with a slow turn over. It doesn't get much mileage, so the battery condition is not good but with the mrs returning (another 2 weeks quarantine) and other talks of lockdown etc it's not time to replace the battery but merely keep it going for now.

So for me a charger needs a couple of features that the C7 seems to provide:
* waterproof - the charger will sit outside and has detachable eyelets and clamps.
* In-car power support with the battery connected - this allows a battery to be replaced without running the engine etc. In this mode it can be used to simply give the battery a little charge but it's not recommended (can boil off electrolyte). It can also be set to simply run as a power supply without a battery. This makes it useful for a number of purposes (including power supply failure on the pond equipment).
* 12V & 24V AGM and lead acid - this includes charging with automatic trickle topup for winter if left attached.
* 16V regen as a last resort

Only issue is that the charger doesn't like batteries flat below 6V which is a good indication of a dead battery.
 
Never tried a jump pack.but a worthy investment judging by comments

Personally have a ctek charger

Haven't had any success with jump leads for some reason on multiple occasions
 
dacads said:
Haven't had any success with jump leads for some reason on multiple occasions
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Not sure what they did wrong but I reminds me of a few years back stopped in motorway services when someone was trying to start a car with jump leads from another vehicle with a lot of sparks and a loud bang and both vehicles dead.
 
Rroff said:
Not sure what they did wrong but I reminds me of a few years back stopped in motorway services when someone was trying to start a car with jump leads from another vehicle with a lot of sparks and a loud bang and both vehicles dead.
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Ha ha , was none of that luckily, that would have just been adding fuel to the fire..
 
dacads said:
Never tried a jump pack.but a worthy investment judging by comments

Personally have a ctek charger

Haven't had any success with jump leads for some reason on multiple occasions
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I've jumped cars before - the main thing is not attempting to jump a large diesel with a small petrol engine by directly connecting the batteries :D

The C7 charger arrived today, just connected it up (+ to battery, - to specially design point on the bodywork) it cycled pretty quickly to trickle, so I'll leave it to tickle charge. Once that's done I'll give the 100Ah a 16V regen (I have it on basic charge just to get some charge into it).
 
My jump pack is regularly used, bought a solar trickle charger supposedly rated at 10w to stop the fade during the day but instead it died quicker than ever, jumped the car again. Giving the solar charger another go before it gets returned to Amazon.
 
Steeps said:
My jump pack is regularly used, bought a solar trickle charger supposedly rated at 10w to stop the fade during the day but instead it died quicker than ever, jumped the car again. Giving the solar charger another go before it gets returned to Amazon.
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Surprised it ran down quicker unless the solar panel lacked blocking diodes but not a great time of year for solar - my setup is struggling a lot at the moment for some reason with output down even compared to normal for this time of year.
 
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