Jump pack battery...big or little

[Tom Dunlap]

Battery technology moves ahead monthly it seems. What was small and strong last month is big and weak this month.

It's time to buy a jump pack and I see the differences in the pocket size lithium packs that are about as big as a VCR tape and the more traditional size, and weight of sealed traditional batteries. Before I posted I read a few articles that explained the differences in use.

My camper is a E350 w/V10...car is Tracker with V6.

Now its time to get some real world, in the field, feedback. Are the pocket packs big enough?

 

[Reach]

I have had good luck with the little ones, as long as your engine starts reasonably quickly, and as long as the battery is not stone dead. They usually won’t start a big engine with a completely dead battery, nor will they crank the engine for a long time, the circuitry won’t let them.

 

[Bart_]

Can you do a careful hot rodding of the camper electrics so your big new deep cycle battery(s) can double as emergency booster? Good isolation and power management should give you long battery life and no engine battery loss except the classic leaving headlights on. There may be a key-off load detection alarm out there somewhere. If not there ought to be.

The LiIon packs have the advantage of sitting at 14 something volts fully charged which perks up the boost, but don't have a ton of cranking time in them. And the built in electronic management/safety circuits can let you down just when you need them. Big charged battery and wire is pretty fool proof. Throw some money and you are buying convenience with a small pack, of course rated for your bigger engine size. I think they're less optimistic or more realistic in their claims for pack size and engine size now than a few years ago.

edit - if you have contactor isolation, you can have emergency start