Battery jumper packs?

I don't drive my Benz in the winter (I'm trying to keep it rust-free) but I had to once. We had less than an inch of snow and I couldn't get up the slight incline on the road to work. A truck happened by and towed me up the last 1/4 mile.
Yeah, they suck in the snow (at least with the summer tires I have on it). I had a '64 Ford Falcon back in the day. I don't think I would have had $ for snow tires and I don't ever remember getting stuck in the snow with that.
Then I came into some $ and bought an RX-7 (not even thinking about winter). I put some really aggressive snow tires on that and had a blast! Rally through the streets before the plows showed up!

IDIBRONCO said:

I've seen, maybe "have been around" would be a better term, two batteries that exploded. Yes they can definitely explode.

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Two different times I blew up batteries!!!!!
Once on a '69 Chev 1 Ton dump truck, hit starter & it blew & dented the hood!

Other time I had charger hooked up & then started grinding metal across shop, sparks flying across shop did it!!!!

Brian VT said:

I don't drive my Benz in the winter (I'm trying to keep it rust-free) but I had to once. We had less than an inch of snow and I couldn't get up the slight incline on the road to work. A truck happened by and towed me up the last 1/4 mile.
Yeah, they suck in the snow (at least with the summer tires I have on it).

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At one time or another, I have owned a '73 220D (60 crank hp, wheee!) and a '79 240D, both 4-speeds, and an '83 300SD auto. All were quite drivable in several inches of snow with all-season tires.

Maybe there was ice underneath that inch of snow you had trouble with? Nothing works on ice but chains or studded tires. Real snow tires on the rears, or even better on all four wheels, made a big improvement,though.

Greenie said:

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https://www.walmart.com/ip/SOLAR-Ju...7?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=101021378
We used these at work - it would start a Cat excavator or just about anything we hooked it to. $145
1,700 amps

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Hi,
I was reading this thread as a review for portable jump starting options. One thing though is not making ends meet in my understanding about this and other similar portable boxes. The diameter of their cables seems too small for the current advertised.

This Jump-n-Carry above has cables has AWG #4 cables and described as 1700 amp peak and 425 amp cranking.
According Copper Wire Ampacity Rating Table (NEC Table 310.16) such AWG #4 cable is rated at 70 to 85 amp. Is it really conducting the advertised 425 amp and survives ?

Sergey said:

Hi,
I was reading this thread as a review for portable jump starting options. One thing though is not making ends meet in my understanding about this and other similar portable boxes. The diameter of their cables seems too small for the current advertised.

This Jump-n-Carry above has cables has AWG #4 cables and described as 1700 amp peak and 425 amp cranking.
According Copper Wire Ampacity Rating Table (NEC Table 310.16) such AWG #4 cable is rated at 70 to 85 amp. Is it really conducting the advertised 425 amp and survives ?

Click to expand...

The peak amp ratings for ALL those jump-packs seem to be essentially false. They may technically be able to hit very high amperage for a split second but it's not sustained output. For very short distances and duration a smaller wire can carry more current than its ampacity rating indicates. Just yesterday I was helping someone with a project where 2 gauge was used in a 20 inch length and we kept blowing 200 amp fuses so we stopped using the fuses and neither the cable nor the electric motor it was powering got hot or suffered any damage--we only ran the motor for a maximum of 7-10 seconds. An ampacity chart indicates 181 amps as max for 2 gauge in chassis wiring but I don't know how much of a safety factor/margin is built in to that rating.

I have a jump-pack from Goodall, the Start-All 5000 and it will indeed jump a 7.3 IDI. I just checked the current price, hah-hah pun, and the Start-All 5000 costs about 3 times what I paid 5 years ago so I can't really recommend it, but it does work.

I picked up a JNCAIR 1700 {jump pack with built in air compressor} for $10 at a yard sale because it would no longer hold a charge. Bought a new replacement battery for around $50 and it works great! Facebook marketplace would likely be another resource for a great buy. The major wear component is the battery and they are easily replaced.

I've had good success here on the farm with one of the NOCO Boost units. It doesn't work well if a battery is totally dead but for most applications works fine. This includes jumping heavy equipment and tractors.

I use the JNC 990 or something like that. Starts trucks, only downside is it's heavy, and the cables dont' reach from the ground. Works as advertised, and I never notice the wires being hot when I wrap them up.

i grab every dead jump pack I can find.

Of the last 2... one donated its clamp leads to make a 'battery in a milk crate' jump pack.
The other got a hand-me-down used battery from something else and works again.