Jump starters

Fortyfoot

I am looking for a jump starter, I have a 56 Nissan Xtrail DCI 2.2.
I am a caravaner and have a motor mover on the caravan.

From time to time I have exhausted the caravan battery with the mover but have bought a larger battery for it. I often do not use the Xtrail much in the winter and the battery suffers.

I am looking at the Clarke jump starter, the 4000 seems to be the best but is heavy at 17kg. It has 1500 peak amps and 700 boost amps.

Lighter weight Clarke jump starters, 900, 910, 1000 and 1010 all have peak amps of 900 and boost of 400 amps, ranging from 8.2 to 9.5kg.

What is the difference between the four above as they all seem to have the same output? I am confused with this as the prices vary from £72 to £104. I have found a 4000 for £123 inc vat and delivery which seems a very good price.

Any advice would be appreciated.

My car battery is a 70 Ah S4 026 Bosch.

Thanks,

Fortyfoot

BykerSands

And it's OK to use a booster pack on your vehicle?

Fortyfoot

BykerSands wrote: »

And it's OK to use a booster pack on your vehicle?

Thanks, I do not know, I have not seen any reference to it in the manual. It does show how to connect to another vehicles battery.

Fortyfoot

bigjl

Personally I would buy a proper smart charger for the X Trail.

As far as Jump Starters go as they are usually marked up as suitable for a range of engine sizes.

If you buy CarMechanics Mag there are often adverts for decent car tools and stuff like chargers and jump starters.

Remember that getting a flat battery started with a jump is only part of the problem

The alternator was never designed to fully charge a battery.

So if your battery has gone flat then it will never fully charge without the use of a decent charger.

Which is why I mentioned a smart charger first.

Any trip you take in your X Trail will be pre planned.

This giving you plenty of time to charge the battery up properly beforehand.

Fortyfoot

Thanks bigjl.

Firtyfoot

peter_the_piper

http://thejumpingjack.com/

Can recommend these if it suitable for you vehicle. Used one on DD's 107 and it started instantly.

forgotmyname

Your motor mover is exhausting the caravan battery? How many hours are you moving it?

Even an 85ah battery should give you 2 hours of use with the mover. The clarke 910's battery is only 18ah.

Is the caravan battery due for replacement? How do you charge the caravan battery?

arcon5

bigjl wrote: »

Personally I would buy a proper smart charger for the X Trail.

As far as Jump Starters go as they are usually marked up as suitable for a range of engine sizes.

If you buy CarMechanics Mag there are often adverts for decent car tools and stuff like chargers and jump starters.

Remember that getting a flat battery started with a jump is only part of the problem

The alternator was never designed to fully charge a battery.

So if your battery has gone flat then it will never fully charge without the use of a decent charger.

Which is why I mentioned a smart charger first.

Any trip you take in your X Trail will be pre planned.

This giving you plenty of time to charge the battery up properly beforehand.

How'd you figure that one?

reeac

arcon5 wrote: »

How'd you figure that one?

I, also, would like to hear more. I've just replaced a 10 year old battery and have another car where the battery is nearly 13 years old and neither ever needed topping up by an external charger. Did they really last that long in a partially charged state?

motorguy

Fortyfoot wrote: »

I am looking for a jump starter, I have a 56 Nissan Xtrail DCI 2.2.
I am a caravaner and have a motor mover on the caravan.

From time to time I have exhausted the caravan battery with the mover but have bought a larger battery for it. I often do not use the Xtrail much in the winter and the battery suffers.

I am looking at the Clarke jump starter, the 4000 seems to be the best but is heavy at 17kg. It has 1500 peak amps and 700 boost amps.

Lighter weight Clarke jump starters, 900, 910, 1000 and 1010 all have peak amps of 900 and boost of 400 amps, ranging from 8.2 to 9.5kg.

What is the difference between the four above as they all seem to have the same output? I am confused with this as the prices vary from £72 to £104. I have found a 4000 for £123 inc vat and delivery which seems a very good price.

Any advice would be appreciated.

My car battery is a 70 Ah S4 026 Bosch.

Thanks,

Fortyfoot

I've had a couple of Clarke Jump Start 4000's and they do give the feeling of being able to start anything - though they are very heavy to lug about.

I've - as someone else has suggested - a Jumping Jack- which i got off Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jumping-Jack-Supermax-Portable-Charger/dp/B00UJ9Q6B4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451579733&sr=8-1&keywords=jumping+jack

A friend of mine who is still in the motor trade has one and swears by it too.

Big difference to the Clarke units is it uses battery technology like what you'd find in a USB charger, not a big old fashioned lead type battery.

You genuinely can hold it in the palm of your hand, comes in a folder with loads of attachments and a charger and can fit in your glovebox.

bigjl

arcon5 wrote: »

How'd you figure that one?

An alternator is designed to keep a charged battery charged up.

Replacing what the vehicles systems consume.

That is why a car with a discharged battery that is jumped is always at risk of the same thing happening again.

But if you take this "knackered" battery off and charge it properly than you can get many more years out of it in most cases

If you don't believe me then fine Google it.

I suppose you won't believe that sitting in a car in idle can also flatten the battery?

But the AA/RAC always warn you not to sit in your car if you get stuck on a frozen motorway.

When the M25 froze over a few years ago most of the problems were made worse due to abandoned cars with flat batteries caused due to people sitting with the engine idling for hours on end.