recommendation on a good portable battery pack for starting, fridge etc?

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These smaller packs do not have the CCA's to start a large 6cyl or V8. What they must do is bring the week (low voltage) SLI main battery up to a higher voltage to allow starting.

I.E. you could not hook the portable battery pack to the positive and negative lead of the vehicle without the starting battery and start the truck.

The preference would be to use the pack like an auxiliary battery and leave the cars starting battery alone. Hook the fridge, inverter, etc. to the portable unit and drain it down as opposed to the vehicles starting battery, which is not suitable for that DOD anyways.
 
expeditionswest said:
These smaller packs do not have the CCA's to start a large 6cyl or V8. What they must do is bring the week (low voltage) SLI main battery up to a higher voltage to allow starting.

I.E. you could not hook the portable battery pack to the positive and negative lead of the vehicle without the starting battery and start the truck.

snip
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thanks
bummer.... I was hoping to be able to start the engine directly with the little guy. I can't imagine the little guy would be able to charge much the big guy. I would have guessed one would be better off with a higher voltage for a short time (as from the little guy) to start an engine than to charge the big battery to a so-so level.

But then Andy seems to have witnessed the thing firing up a big guy so maybe not all hope is lost... :)
 
Eric-you should get one. They really work for jump starting a dead battery. I do not think you'll get satisfactory performance trying to run a fridge on one though. Get the biggest one in terms of cranking amps that you can find.

However, I have had great success running a fridge off the primary battery. I've never needed a jump, or even managed to run it down very much. If you did manage to run it down, one of those booster packs could be used to get it going again. I have even run the fridge on my FJ60s 5 year old regular starting battery with no issues at all. (ie it isn't a deep cycle) One day that will catch up with me I'm sure.

The other option is a dual battery system. The Hellroaring in my 80 has been great and I can reccomend it highly after more than a year of use.
 
expeditionswest said:
These smaller packs do not have the CCA's to start a large 6cyl or V8. What they must do is bring the week (low voltage) SLI main battery up to a higher voltage to allow starting.

I.E. you could not hook the portable battery pack to the positive and negative lead of the vehicle without the starting battery and start the truck.
Click to expand...

Actually, a decent size pack will start an engine on it's own with no battery, I've done it a few times when I took out the battery on my car and had to get it started to move it. Of course, it does all depend on the size of your engine, the size of the jumpstarter, how low the main battery is, the temperature, how charged it is, the phase of the moon, etc. I can't guarantee it will work for everyone vehicle, but it will work on a 6 cylinder 232 ci at normal temperatures on a full charge. If the main battery is completely flat, as in DEAD, then it's better to disconect it because it will just be draining the power that could be used for starting. If it has some charge and is just weak, then just leave it in.

Also, for jumpstarting, you're don't need to worry too much about capacity, you really want cranking amps. Since it'll only be used for a very short burst, it doesn't matter how much energy it can store, but how much it can deliver in that that short amount of time. You do not want to use these packs to charge the main battery, it's only purpose is start the engine. There are some devices that plug into the cigarette lighter that are meant to trickle charge a borderline weak battery, I don't think those are the type you want.

A normal battery is rated anywhere between 450-900 CCA, but most of the time it requires much less to start the engine. The extra CCA is more of a safety factor than a requirement. I can't say specifically what a V8 would require, but my best guess is 450-600 CCA would be enough in most conditions. If you're in a cold area, you'll need more, if your engine is high compression, you'll need more. Best thing to do is go out and buy one and try it out. I would probably start out with one that's rated at least half of your main battery (i.e. if your main battery is 800 CA, then get a >400 CA jumpstarter) If you don't feel comfortable with it, buy a larger one.
 
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thanks guys

here is what I found out:

I saw 2 at Home Depot both Husky brand:
- $39 400A instant, 5 sec 250A 17 Ah no air no light no AC
- $90 450A instant, ? , 19h/20 (sic) whatever that means, 200+psi air, light, AC 400W

The Costco store one is a "Professional Powerstation PS1100". 400A or 425A, peak power 1100 A (whatever that means), 120 psi air, light, no AC. Hotline for info is 800-837-5994 (till 5pm EST). Black and blue housing. $50. They have others on the web site.

Not sure what the above amperages really mean.

For comparison my Toyota main Battery says 710CCA and 165RC.


For those who know about batteries, how does the Costco sound?
 
I think I change my mind on my original advice, go with something 600A or larger. I had to jumpstart my cruiser yesterday (stock 2F engine), so I decided to test it by disconnecting the battery and using just the jumpstarter alone. Didn't work with a 450A pack. It was able to slowly turn it over, but needed more power to get it to start. Connecting it back with the nearly dead battery was enough to push it over the edge and crank it over. Granted, my jumpstarter pack is about 8 years old and isn't holding a charge like it used to, it might have done it when it was new. Plus the 2F engine always seemed a little harder to start than the jeep motor (higher compression maybe?) But it's better to have a safety margin. If you're willing to carry the extra weight, carry as large of a pack as you can.
 
ducktapeguy said:
I think I change my mind on my original advice, go with something 600A or larger. I had to jumpstart my cruiser yesterday (stock 2F engine), so I decided to test it by disconnecting the battery and using just the jumpstarter alone. Didn't work with a 450A pack. It was able to slowly turn it over, but needed more power to get it to start. Connecting it back with the nearly dead battery was enough to push it over the edge and crank it over. Granted, my jumpstarter pack is about 8 years old and isn't holding a charge like it used to, it might have done it when it was new. Plus the 2F engine always seemed a little harder to start than the jeep motor (higher compression maybe?) But it's better to have a safety margin. If you're willing to carry the extra weight, carry as large of a pack as you can.
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good to know. The HF above supposedly is 650A. And emphasizes the point that it's better to leave the old battery in, as mentioned above.
 
OK, I'll be the guinea pig. I bought the biggest one from HF.
It's a 600/1200A, 24Ahr affair, thankfully it does not have the dinky compressor.
List: $85, on sale for $60 if you press them hard enough.
First impression: not quite the finish of the Costco one. and the light is incandescent bulb, not LED. But it's rated quite a bit bigger than most so I'm feeling a bit better about it. Heavier too (good sign).

Interestingly, I met a guy there who was buying a smaller one and said he was running a tow company and used these a lot and he said they're fine for starting cars. So maybe not pure junk after all...

Will post feedback later when smoke clears (figuratively speaking I hope)...
 
success!

well, it just so happened that for an unknown reason (door ajar?) my truck battery was found to be completely dead today. So dead the starter would not even click and the palest light was observed on the roof light. Perfect opportunity to try out the emergency battery pack I got from HF (P/n 40615).
Well, connected it and tried to start the engine right away (to see if it would start it based primarily on the external battery rather than having "recharged some" the main one by connection with the external). To my pleasant surprise, the engine cranked just as strongly as usual, and fired up right away (less than 1 sec). Even better, after I removed the extermal battery, and checked its charge, it still showed it at 100%. Still even better, this was after the external battery had been lying around for at least a couple of weeks since the last charge.

Conclusion: seems like this external battery can easily start the 4.5L I6 on a completely dead internal battery, apparently with plenty of power to spare. Not bad! I'm taking this thing along for sure when exploring the backcountry...
 
e9999 said:
well, it just so happened that for an unknown reason (door ajar?) my truck battery was found to be completely dead today. So dead the starter would not even click and the palest light was observed on the roof light. Perfect opportunity to try out the emergency battery pack I got from HF (P/n 40615).
Well, connected it and tried to start the engine right away (to see if it would start it based primarily on the external battery rather than having "recharged some" the main one by connection with the external). To my pleasant surprise, the engine cranked just as strongly as usual, and fired up right away (less than 1 sec). Even better, after I removed the extermal battery, and checked its charge, it still showed it at 100%. Still even better, this was after the external battery had been lying around for at least a couple of weeks since the last charge.

Conclusion: seems like this external battery can easily start the 4.5L I6 on a completely dead internal battery, apparently with plenty of power to spare. Not bad! I'm taking this thing along for sure when exploring the backcountry...
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It was a done deal as soon as the Harbor Frieght version was pointed out to you.

Is there a HF item that you DON'T own yet?
 
honk said:
It was a done deal as soon as the Harbor Frieght version was pointed out to you.

Is there a HF item that you DON'T own yet?
Click to expand...




:D :)
 
well, had to try the battery pack again. Was 2 or 3 months since last charging. It was showing an 80% charge on.

Used it on the 1FZ (4.5L 6), with a completely dead (no cranking at all) battery. Fired the engine up first try within 1 or 2 secs.

Works great!
 
if anybody wants one of these I see them on sale in HF flyer for $60.

Update: used mine several times now and it always fired up the 1FZJ very easily. Seems to hold its charge very well. Looks pretty good really for the price.

I think having a jumpstart pack (big enough) is a great insurance for backcountry trouble. (I imagine would give several hours of light too if needed.) thanks to this I have relegated the dual battery mod to the distant future...
 
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