Truly Portable (mains free) Jump Starter?

[cormie]

That's interesting alright, but for convenience sake, maybe I'd be better off just buying the jump starter?

Is it not just a case of ensuring you have one more powerful than the battery you want to jump? If my biggest battery will be 700, I just need to fine one higher?

I want to be sure if I get one, it will jump a 700cca battery that's been lying up dead for weeks so I think I need one that's over 700cca?

What about this one:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/CLARKE-JUMPSTAR ... uctDetails
http://youtu.be/tdm0WVCBcvI

Looks to be packed full of features and says it can start diesels up to 2.5L and has a CCA of 400 with a peak of 900.


Does anyone know the difference of CCA vs peak CCA and if it's 900 peak is that enough for my 700 batteries or do I need a non peak of over 700 :confused:


Then there's this one which looks to be pretty powerful, but maybe I don't need something SO powerful and could get away with the cheaper, more feature rich one in the video?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clarke-4000-Hea ... ttery+pack

and then there's this one too which is available in Dublin: http://mtsdirect.ie/SIP-Rescue-Pac-1600[/quote]

[cormie]

Quick bump just to check opinions on the above options. Would these all suffice for a transit I wonder? Would prefer the one in the video out of the 3 but don't know if 400CCA/900 peak is enough :confused:

[cormie]

Last bump before I gamble?

[Jim Archer]

You could buy a couple of decent boat batteries for that sort of money.

Jim

[cormie]

Thanks for the input, it was already suggested to get a standard transit battery that it would be a lot more powerful, but I need to take convenience and ease of use into consideration too. If I'm going to be taking it on a trip to Europe when the van is packed with furniture and my own gear in the front, I'd rather pay a little extra to just be able to take the battery pack out and plug it in easily to give it a charge if the van battery is acting up, without all the messing about of changing batteries, dealing with connections etc. I've a very poor electronics knowledge so want it simple as possible. As long as it can start a dead transit battery after a charge.

I'm just not sure how many of the ones I mention would be up for the task with the transits I have as I've no clue as to the rating powers etc when it comes to cranking power, peak power etc.

[bigjohnthomas]

I have something called European breakdown cover on my van

[cormie]

I have something called European breakdown cover on my van

Don't get me started on EU breakdown cover, have researched this to hell and back and there's nothing other than PAYG available for a business based in Ireland. I've been onto companies in UK, Belgium, Germany etc. If it's just a dead battery, I'd much rather just jump it than call recovery even if I was covered anyway.

All I need to know is which of the above packs will suffice for my battery

[bigjohnthomas]

Well if you must buy one of those gadgeti gizmo things you will have the best chance with the biggest one I suppose

[Keef]

Think I'd just get breakdown cover

[cormie]

Breakdown cover isn't an option in my case

If this 400a/900peak is enough for a 700 transit battery, I'd choose this one: http://youtu.be/tdm0WVCBcvI

IF not, I'll grab one of the others..

[DodgeRover]

What about fitting a 2nd battery to the van, have it connected via a split charge circuit so it charges whilst the van is running, if you do get a flat battery - which rarely happens except in cases of 'user error' in my experiance you can just swap it over. With 2 decent (not knackered and on their last legs anyway) batteries on board you should be able to start virtually anything. You could even fit a 110a/h or bigger lorry battery somewhere and have it ready to connect it up via long welding cables (cheaper than buying battery leads) should it be needed, that way you wouldn't even need to get your hands dirty!

As has been said I wouldn't trust a jump pack to start a Di transit with a fully flat battery especially if you are going to Europe where it can actually get very very cold at times.

Also make sure you have at least 2 spare wheels on board if you don't want to get shafted on the cost of replacement tyres

[cormie]

Thanks a lot for the input, tips and advice. If I had just the one van, that would definitely be a great option, but this is for a fleet of 5 vehicles, so I'd like to just have something like this that can be kept at the depot, or brought on longer trips just incase. The cost to add a new battery to each van would be pretty substantial, and then to get the electric work to hook it all up with the relays etc too. I have an auto electrician coming tomorrow to do a few things so I'll ask him, but in terms of the choices, I wonder would the 400/900 peak be ok for a 700 dead transit battery or should I just go for the bigger ones?

[boltondigger]

Place i used to work with a few vans they had a good sized wagon battery ,sat on a sack truck? think thats the word ,which also had a battery charger strapped to it,and a set of jump leads.

When not in use it was left plugged in ,i assume mobile it could be plugged into an invertor on one of the vans.

I saw this used to start many a van on frosty mornings ,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sack-Truck-Al ... 2c8ad0be78

[cormie]

Thanks for that, somebody else suggested it too here so it's probably the best solution for the likes of a depot/garage set up but I'd be happy to pay a bit more for the convenience/compact/portable solution so I'll probably get this:
http://go.fordtransit.org/?id=20474X780 ... tz=0&abp=1

or this: http://mtsdirect.ie/SIP-Rescue-Pac-1600

I saw a review for the 5 in 1 on http://www.UKCampsite.co.uk and decided to pop them a mail to see if they think it would work. They contacted the makers of the video for me and I got this back:

"The Jumpstart 5-1 can only jumpstart vehicles which have a battery that isn't completely dead, it needs a charge from the battery to open the contacts otherwise it will shut down. It can manage diesel engines of that CC but with some charge in the battery.
I trust all is ok."

So looks like although it's packed with a lot of nice features, it may not get me out of a dead battery situation so maybe I'm better off just going for the bigger ones. Pity!

[bigjohnthomas]

The problem I would think with those is you are just buying a not very good battery and charger dressed up in a plastic box 400amps today 100 next month throw away crap the Victorians wouldn't of put up with any of that nonsense