Emergency Jump Starter / Charging System

[1515Art]

Some of the online reviews on the lithium emergency jump starters claim they only bleed as little as 5% to 10% each month storage vs the gel and agm at roughly double the loss of the lithium battery in storage.

[1515Art]

Steve, the pack you have is top notch and should be in good condition at 5% per month. Another of the many advantages of lithium packs is depth of discharge from what I have been reading as the lithium can safely be taken down  to 80% of capacity without any harm to its useful life cycles vs 50% with GEL. Some of the info on power output can be different between GEL and lithium if I understand correctly what I’ve read as the technologies discharge at different rates? The lithium packs 4 x’s Roughly the capacity over GEL at a lower peak output, so may struggle in a situation where very high discharge rates are required for an extended period of time as in the use of a winch, or in the case of big diesel with a dead battery in cold conditions.  In most cases lithium is the best choice, depends on individual needs but that’s a nice handy looking battery pack.

[Swegin]

I thought they lost closer to 10% a month but it's been awhile since I looked into these.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

Still showing 100% charge after 8 months though I am sure it can use a little topping off.

[klunker]

  But Steve --Why would a quality jump start system vs. an inexpensive one be any tougher of a decision than Minelab vs. Bounty hunter. If the thing gets you out of a pickle just once in 10 years the money was well spent.

 Better safe than sorry they say. I've got the sorry part well practiced. As I get older I think a little more about "safe" but so far mostly just thinking about it

[Jim_Alaska]

1 hour ago, kiwijw said:

Ok Jim....It is time to tell that story.  Thanks.

JW 

This short story doesn't have much to do with gold mining except that we were going upriver to my claims to dredge. I had my five inch triple sluice stashed far upriver.

One fine summer day I was going in to my claim to dredge and had a young Russian guy with me that wanted to see what it was all about. We headed upriver in my jet boat, the trip usually took an hour and a half. My friend had never been in a jet boat and was having ball. He was really looking forward to the suction dredging part of the trip.

After about an hour going upriver I decided to stop on a gravel bar and have some coffee from the thermos I always had with me. As we sat drinking coffee he was full of questions about gold and mining. Finishing up our coffee I went to start the boat. That's when I found that we had big trouble. As I turned the ignition on all I heard was ruuuh ruuuh...click click click. The battery was dead and there would be no one coming way up here to help. Walking out was not an option, a jet boat can travel a long way in an hour.

I had emergency supplies in the boat, along with lots of spare parts, none of which was a battery of course. So we sat down to have a bite of lunch and think the situation over. Evidently the alternator had failed and we had been running on the battery up to this point. What to do; what to do? I racked my brain which didn't take too long since there is not much in there.

I've had experience with dead or almost dead batteries before and I know that sometimes if you just let them sit, don't try to start the vehicle or run anything that ran on battery power, the battery will recover a bit. In thinking along these lines I thought, what if I could somehow help the battery by hand? Silly I know, but we were in desperate circumstances.

Fortunately this boat was powered by a small four cylinder Chevy. motor and the motor was connected to the jet pump by a short drive shaft. I of course had some rope in the boat and a plan began to form. The plan went like this: Wrap the rope around the drive shaft and tie it to the universal joint. The idea was to try to help pull the motor over after letting the battery rest for an hour or so.

I knew I was really reaching for it with this idea, but it was all we had to try. This little motor started easy, so it might just work. There was just not enough battery juice to turn the motor fast enough or long enough to start, when I had tried it before it turned really slow.

I got the rope all wrapped around the drive shaft, and knew that if the motor did start there would be no way to get the rope off because I didn't intend to shut the motor off until we got to my truck. I told my friend that we would count to three and on three I would pull the rope as he turned the ignition. Amazingly it worked, on three he turned the key while I was mightily pulling on the rope.....YES, I knew enough to not wrap the rope around my hand to pull better, I just had to grab it. 

The engine came to life and we immediately left for safety and home. All the way back that rope beat the water in the bottom of the boat into a heavy spray. This gave me visions of what it would have looked like if I had wrapped that rope around my hand.   :lol:  We got back ok, even though the alternator was dead and we were running the ignition on the little bit of juice that the battery had. All the way back I was praying that there would be enough juice in the battery to get us back, so needless to say it was a very fast trip back.

No mining that day to say the least, but it did make for an Alaskan adventure to be shared many times over.

[flakmagnet]

Hi Steve, were you ever able to find out how many times your battery unit would charge a 7000 before you sold the detector? Interested...

 

[Steve Herschbach]

7 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

It is is my truck right now but no, I never did get around to using it as a charger or anything. Quite happy with the purchase however - I detect alone in some places where the peace of mind is worth every penny.

I had other sources to charge from and never got around to it. I would not buy it just for that - as phrunt noted it is designed to do lots of starts, but not so much for charging capability. That’s like a bonus feature for me.

[Norvic]

5 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Still showing 100% charge after 8 months though I am sure it can use a little topping off.

Just a caution,  a battery that has lost a lot of its capacity can still show 100% charge regardless of its chemistry. The battery indicators are voltage based, a sure way to test is to load the batteries up ie. start a vehicle with a flat battery. Just a warning, nothing worse then finding it is so in an emergency. This is why with our old tech wet lead acid batteries a SG of the electrolyte is recommended over no load voltage reading, unfortunately I know of no way of testing a lithium battery except under load and doubt there is a method.

[spencer]

I always have a 1k watt genny, battery charger, and an extension cord with me even if more than two vehicles are with me. There has been a time or two both vehicle's have let the batteries get too low and a portable battery pack just doesn't have the guts to get a diesel going when it's cold out. 

I'm more worried about things like in the picture. I was fortunate to have another truck there, but I would have been just fine riding 50 miles into town and back on a four wheeler for parts in early January in N. Nevada with highs around 30° . Be prepared if you are a ways out and be able to save yourself, help may or may not come in time.