does anyone keep a jump starter in their vehicle(s)?

Cleaning wheels the other day, with my noise cancelling headphones on, a neighbor approached and startled me with a request for a jump start.

(Those headphones are brilliant by the way; I can just shut out the world and choose who or what is going to make it's way into my head.)

Someone had managed to break into her car overnight to see if anything was worth taking, leaving the door unlatched and therefore allowing the courtesy light to run all night., draining the battery. This particular car was a 2.0 Subaru diesel, so I allowed it a slightly longer transfer before starting. The neighbor commented how small it was, not something a male likes to here sometimes, but yes, these little battery jump starters are brilliant.
 
yet again (today)...

went with the parents to the supermarket and as we proceeded through the parking lot, there was a couple who had their older toyota (sienna?) van with the hood up. i asked if they needed a jump and the gentleman said he didn't know (vehicle wouldn't crank over and lights wouldn't turn on as well). i told them to hold on and grabbed the jump starter and hooked it up (a bit awkward because the plastic air filter cover was in the way) and asked him to start it and BAM!, it started right up. they were so relieved and called back whomever was going to help them and said they were good now. also.. being close to 100 degrees, i'm sure it wasn't doing the food any good either (who knows how long they were there) in the hot vehicle. the battery was at least 4 years old and my Father told them it's time to replace it. the lady handed me a $20 bill and i kindly declined several times and said it's okay and i'm glad that i could help. she grabbed my arm and put the money into my hand and said to go buy some coffee lol. they asked where they could get the jump starter and i pulled one up on my cell phone and they took a picture of it and said they were going to get one.

charging/topping it off right now, this jump used up one hole bar...
 
was out of town (w/ parents) today to the supermarket and in the middle of the parking lot where two grannies trying to start one of their cars with some dinky jumper cables. i asked if they needed help and they said it the car wasn't starting up. i excused myself and went to grab the jump starter and hooked it up and the car started right up. they both were so happy and relieved! they couldn't believe a little jump starter would work. one offered to pay me and i politely declined and told them to drive careful and have a good day. one of them had to give me a soda lol. i gave her some info on jump starters and off they went. topping it back up at the moment...
 
I have a compact one, works great

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My compact Noco keeps my bikes batteries healthy over the winter.
 
VISITOR said:
was out of town (w/ parents) today to the supermarket and in the middle of the parking lot where two grannies trying to start one of their cars with some dinky jumper cables. i asked if they needed help and they said it the car wasn't starting up. i excused myself and went to grab the jump starter and hooked it up and the car started right up. they both were so happy and relieved! they couldn't believe a little jump starter would work. one offered to pay me and i politely declined and told them to drive careful and have a good day. one of them had to give me a soda lol. i gave her some info on jump starters and off they went. topping it back up at the moment...
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I just wanted to comment that it was almost a full year between posts in this thread and both were of you helping someone. NICE.
 
DFB said:
This particular car was a 2.0 Subaru diesel, so I allowed it a slightly longer transfer before starting.
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Stuff like that ^ and people’s inability to realize some cars require a longer time to charge is why I don’t carry jumper cables in my car or even let anyone connect jumper cables to my car under any circumstances.

Instead of jumper cables, I carry this in my glove compartment, that way nobody takes it personal when I decline them.

b1e3b6c880b1bb8f8e36d1d416267812.jpg


My reasons for this are because most people don’t have the patience to do things right, and too many times I’ve had to deal with people who are in such a rush that they fail to connect the cables in the correct order which means they certainly aren’t disconnecting them in the correct order either. And even worse some people are in such a rush that they make the mistake of connecting the cables wrong, which could result in complete disaster for the both of you. I’ve had that nearly happen twice with other people.


When I sold my Cadillac Seville a few years ago it had a weak battery from sitting parked for 1-2 weeks and I told the guy who came to buy it that it’s not a big deal because the car needed a new battery but it would jumpstart. So his dad pulled out the jumper cables and they tried but it wouldn’t start because they were too impatient to give it the proper time before cranking it.

The dad was so impatient that instead of simply waiting a full 5 minutes before cranking it they decided to drive down the street to a local junkyard to buy a used battery… They showed up with a used battery that was the incorrect size and of course it didn’t work at all.

So they put the original battery back in and tried to jumpstart again but they still wouldn’t listen to me telling them to wait a full 5 minutes before trying to crank it and it predictably wouldn’t start until it finally did and they were able to drive the car away. Freaking idiots why wouldn’t they just listen to me? I’ve owned these cars for the past 20yrs. and they don’t jumpstart right away like a typical small car but people never listen. Smh.

People are idiots. That’s why I don’t jumpstart anyone’s car but my own. Lol.
 
Eldorado2k said:
Stuff like that ^ and people’s inability to realize some cars require a longer time to charge is why I don’t carry jumper cables in my car or even let anyone connect jumper cables to my car under any circumstances.

Instead of jumper cables, I carry this in my glove compartment, that way nobody takes it personal when I decline them.

b1e3b6c880b1bb8f8e36d1d416267812.jpg


My reasons for this are because most people don’t have the patience to do things right, and too many times I’ve had to deal with people who are in such a rush that they fail to connect the cables in the correct order which means they certainly aren’t disconnecting them in the correct order either. And even worse some people are in such a rush that they make the mistake of connecting the cables wrong, which could result in complete disaster for the both of you. I’ve had that nearly happen twice with other people.


When I sold my Cadillac Seville a few years ago it had a weak battery from sitting parked for 1-2 weeks and I told the guy who came to buy it that it’s not a big deal because the car needed a new battery but it would jumpstart. So his dad pulled out the jumper cables and they tried but it wouldn’t start because they were too impatient to give it the proper time before cranking it.

The dad was so impatient that instead of simply waiting a full 5 minutes before cranking it they decided to drive down the street to a local junkyard to buy a used battery… They showed up with a used battery that was the incorrect size and of course it didn’t work at all.

So they put the original battery back in and tried to jumpstart again but they still wouldn’t listen to me telling them to wait a full 5 minutes before trying to crank it and it predictably wouldn’t start until it finally did and they were able to drive the car away. Freaking idiots why wouldn’t they just listen to me? I’ve owned these cars for the past 20yrs. and they don’t jumpstart right away like a typical small car but people never listen. Smh.

People are idiots. That’s why I don’t jumpstart anyone’s car but my own. Lol.
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I bought some new jumper cables a few months back, I'm sure the old ones are packed away somewhere, but I haven't seen them since we moved a few years ago. I never carried them in any of my vehicles, and I don't carry the new ones, I don't trust anyone either. The interesting thing about the new ones is that they have numbers on the clamps to tell you what the order to connect them is, which I always have to look up as I jump start so infrequently.

The first, and only, time I've used the new ones was on my Mum's Qashqai, and I had to remove the air intake to get to the battery hidden underneath. The reason I was jump starting with cables was the mobile battery replacement guy thought he had blown something up when he attempted to start it using a jump pack so he could test the charging system prior to replacing the battery. When I think back, he hooked up and tried to start it immediately, maybe if he waited he wouldn't have tripped the transit/storage switch. When I hooked it up to the FJ with the cables, I waited around 5 minutes, then started it up fine.

I bought a jump pack many years ago, it died after one use, just refused to recharge. When I returned it the guy gave me a refund no problem, then said, one to go, apparently every one of them had failed so far. So that's why I've never bought another one. But I am interested in the new capacitor ones, they build a charge off any source, even the car itself if there's even a little charge left in the battery. They're not cheap though.
 
Big Dave said:
I bought some new jumper cables a few months back, I'm sure the old ones are packed away somewhere, but I haven't seen them since we moved a few years ago. I never carried them in any of my vehicles, and I don't carry the new ones, I don't trust anyone either. The interesting thing about the new ones is that they have numbers on the clamps to tell you what the order to connect them is, which I always have to look up as I jump start so infrequently.
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That's a smart idea. I carried these instructions with the jumper cables I had in my car:

Official Car Talk Jump-Start Instructions https://www.cartalk.com/sites/default/files/features/jumpstart/images/jumpstart2012.pdf
 
Big Dave said:
The interesting thing about the new ones is that they have numbers on the clamps to tell you what the order to connect them is, which I always have to look up as I jump start so infrequently.
Click to expand...

That’s a pretty thoughtful idea for them to be numbered like that.
 
Got to use my jump starter yesterday and today. First time on my own car. I had been measuring the cold cranking amps regularly. It was ~515 this summer and was down to 370 last week. I had decided I was going to go get a battery this week.

Yesterday, one of my girlfriend's refrigerators went. Soda didn't seem cold so I grabbed my thermometer from the garage, which was ~47F, and stuck it in the fridge. The temperature went up in the fridge. We opened the freezer and the ice cube bin was full of water. So we tossed everything in the freezer and moved some stuff from the fridge to the one in the basement (the beer fridge). I decided to go to the grocery store and get some new milk, etc. Car really struggled to start. When I went to leave the grocery store, I had to use the jump starter to get home. Battery lasted 4 years to the day since I picked up the car. Then i used it again this morning to get to BJ's to get a new Interstate battery. Rated for 640 CCA. I did a test on it when I got home and it was over 700. Should be able to get a more accurate test after a long commute to charge it up.

Now to recharge the jump starter.
 
Usually in my wife's car it is also a 120psi air compressor fairly handy.

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topped off all the jump starters today...
 
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