ultra-portable jump starters - will they start a diesel?

[canyonier]

I see the ads and reviews of lithium-ion ultra-portable jump starters. For about $100 you get a book-sized power pack with cables. They are said to be powerful enough to jump start a car engine. One that caught my eye is the "ChargeIt! Jump" from Digital Treasures. Amazon sells them along with other similar devices.

My question is: would it jump start my Cummins diesel Dodge P/U?

What do you folks think?

Glenn

[Bill Joyce]

For $80 you can get a less portable jump kit at Costco that I know will start a diesel pick up. We have one that we carry in our car and helped a friend start his diesel pick up with it. There are cheaper ones at Wal-Mart. Check the cold starting amps of your pick up batteries first, then match a jump kit to that number and you will have more than enough.

I bought a 10000mAH external battery for $9.50 on a deal from Amazon, and it works great for recharging my phones, etc. I can't see spending 10 times as much hoping it will also start my car or truck.

[Yarome]

It looks like it will put out around 300amps (400 peak) which wouldn't be nearly enough to turn over a diesel. If you had one on each battery and let it sit for awhile... I doubt it, but it might be possible. You have to consider that the batteries you have in your rig now probably have somewhere around 800-1000cca EACH. So with 2 of those portable units it would still be like trying to turn over your Cummins with one battery.

[oldjohnt]

From an engineers perspective, all this hyperbole about it will start this or that is without merit or scientific value as far as I'm concerned. A battery is simply an electrochemical energy storage device. So if you tell me how many for example AMP HOURS its rated at and/or how many COLD CRANKING AMPS it can deliver and its RESERVE CAPACITY etc. etc., now that tells me something. On top of that to start a particular engine, it would help to know what the temperature is, gas or diesel and cubic inches and compression and oil viscosity on and on and on, get the picture???

 

That being said if you compare apples to apples and buy a starting unit with the HIGHEST Amp Hours or Cold Crank Amps or Reserve Capacity, now it has a better chance of starting a particular engine then a lesser rated unit, and whether it will or not, depends on temperature and cubic inches and compression on and on and on.

 

So not knowing the stored energy of a starting unit and all the engine parameters and what if any battery it has, I CANT SAY IF IT WILL START AN ENGINE OR NOT and don't see how anyone could. Sure, you can say I have an ACME so and so model and it started my engine and not be lying, but my only advice would be if it stores more energy it has a better chance of starting an engine then one with a lesser rating.

 

That's my story n Ima stickin to it

 

John T

[Biker56]

If it won't start. Why not just call your ERS. That cost less then $100 a year.

And good for many other things.

 

On a DP you just push the Aux button.

[Kirk W]

On a DP you just push the Aux button.

Is that somehow different from any other motorhome? Both gas rigs that I have owned had that also.

[skp51443]

Something else to look at in addition to John's items is wire and clamp size. Does no good to have a huge amount of power available if the wires and clamps start smoking when you try to use it and little power actually gets to the starter.

[Jimalberta]

The trouble with ERS is you always get the same old story about a 3 or 4 hr wait because of some reason or other.

If there is any possible way of getting going on my own I will do so and that includes backup systems on my rig.

[Biker56]

Is that somehow different from any other motorhome? Both gas rigs that I have owned had that also.

Only difference between a DP and a Gas MH.

Is most DP have 2 12V 950 CA at 32º chassis batteries.

All the gas MH I had only had one 12V chassis battery with a much lower CA

 

At 0º my 2 are 1040 CCA each.

 

OP was talking about Diesel boost starting.

 

But the 2 Gas MH I had, did have the Aux start button also.

[HamRad]

I bought one of the "emergency battery" type devices at HF. It was fully charged. When I tried to use it to start my Ford 7.3 PSD it would not turn it over. Obviously I do not have a large enough battery pack. Dennis

[bobsallyh]

Several years ago, a friend in the park, killed his battery overnight in his gas Buick. I walked up for coffee at the time and he said he called his road service. Well I grilled him as to why he didn't just come down and get my tuck to jump the Buick. He said "I have had Allstate Road Service for years and have never used it. Well as luck would have it, the outfit that Allstate dealt with in the Yuma, AZ. had a wrecker close by and they were there pronto. Big International tow truck arrives and the driver jumps out and was a friendly guy. He grabs his jump box out of the truck and said "I'll try this first. I asked him how well it worked, that if it started this dead Buick, I was going to buy one. His answer was "sometimes if not too dead". Well he connects it up and the Buick didn't even grunt. He then said, "well I'll jump it off my cables" that plug into the front of his tow truck. Shoot, you could here the RPMs change on the diesel. He left the cables on a couple of minutes, then told my friend to try to start the Buick. It then started. Needless to say I didn't even pursue the issue any further.

[Goostoff]

I have one that I bought off the Matco Tools truck a couple years ago. It is one of the most usefull tools I own. Last year there was a guy with a Ram 2500 Cummins that left his dome light on all weekend and didnt notice. I grabbed my little jump pack and jumpped his truck. The next time I ran into hime he had bought one of his own. I just jumpped a class C ford a couple weeks ago with a 460 in it, and had no trouble.. I comes with adapters and a USB port for charging all of your electronics as well.

 

http://www.matcotools.com/catalog/product/VERSAPRO/18000-MAH-PORTABLE-JUMP-STARTER-POWER-SUPPLY/

[Bill Joyce]

$230 for the Matco is more than many of us would spend. But it is good to know an 18000mAH unit will provide such starting power, which was the original question asked.

[K5RCD]

I inadvertently left the ignition switch in my 05 Ford 6.0 diesel turned on overnight a few weeks ago. The next morning it was so dead the door keypad wouldn't unlock the doors. Voltage read 0 on a voltmeter. I hooked up one of those batteries I keep in my truck for emergencies (Anti Gravity brand) to one of the truck batteries and tried to start it. It barely would turn the motor over, but far too weak to start. So, I got a second Anti Gravity battery out of my boat, and attached it to the second truck battery, and it cranked right up and started after a few seconds cranking. I'm not sure if one of those batteries might have started the truck if the truck batteries were just deeply discharged, but not totally dead down to zero voltage. I paid about $100 for each of those emergency batteries on Amazon a year or so ago, and bought a third for my wife's vehicle. One will start a gasoline engine in a heartbeat.

 

As soon as I got it started, I drove it to the local Ford dealer and had both truck batteries replaced with OEM Motortcraft batteries. I was already contemplating replacing both the truck batteries anyway, as they were about 5 years old, so all worked out well.