FLAT battery vs DRAINED battery.
Submitted: Sunday, Apr 03, 2011 at 15:42
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Member - Phil 'n Jill (WA)
Well I finally made the cardinal mistake of hooking up the van without checking the frig setting and absolutely drained every last vestige of life from my 650 CCA battery, in my haste to get an early start on Satdy morning to get to a mate's workshop t fit an aluminium sheet over the boot area.
No excuse, should know better. But now I am concerned about the consequences of (
heaven forbid) - copping this situation in an isolated area.
I have always felt comfortable with my 1900 am Jump Starter pack as backup, which I have only used previously on my 4 cyl Mazda and the odd family vehicle.
I hooked this up Satdy morn and had lights and momentary turn of the motor before getting the dreaded 'Click click click'. Now that was showing 13 v but no use on this occasion.
Called the son out of the sack to get the rescue Patrol over here, Hooked up my reasonably heavy duty cables and with his motor running - achieved the same result - so he kicked in his 2nd unit - still no difference. Noticed the cables were quite warm when removing them.
RAC to the rescue - boot load of battery backup - tried his straight off - same result only diff was his cables were HUGE and they were fairly kicking, which he suggested was indicative of how flat the battery was.
Problem overcome after he continued to 'power up the battery for a few minutes' before having another go. He also suggested we may have achieved the same result if we had run the Patrol across to the Paj for 'a while'.
Anyhow - as I was now an hour overdue at the workshop I expressed my gratitude and hit the road. My quandary now is, what would have occurred if I had a 2nd battery (isolated) would that have got me going? Considering the Patrol had two linked up (admittedly by jumper leads) I am now pondering my options.
The Paj doesn't have much room for a decent 2nd battery and in this case the Jumper pack wasn't up to the job - I am wondering whether I need to be carting a gen-set around 'just in case'. It seems to me that there are differing degrees of 'Flat Battery'.
Please factor in the knowledge that I belong to the group that believes 12v power is in the realms of 'black magic'
Thanking you in anticipation.
Regards - Phil
Reply By: Member - Bucky - Monday, Apr 04, 2011 at 04:45
Monday, Apr 04, 2011 at 04:45
Phil
Do not know just how many sets or you beaut jumper leads I went thru, from when I started driving.
Finally got caught with the 4x4's, as my "el-cheepo" ones were not good enuf, but I got put right by the mechanics at work.
I went heavy duty multi core wire. Almost as fine as hair, and basically no loss of power, even over 3 meters of lead. my only regret was I never got them made up to 5 meters. I paid $150, but another forumite did inform me that he had his made up, basically the same for approx $40, but he was in the know
Amazed at the difference in jump starting power from the leads alone.
Turned out to be welding lead, with extra heavy duty clamps, fully "swagged in".
There is basically all wire, and not like the Repco, Autoharn, "all plastic" leads.
Will hand them over to my grandchildren, when I go into the old folks
home, in 20 years.
As far as isolators, and the wiring up of camper trailers, are concerned, Derek Bester from
Sidewinder website
Has brilliant articles on how to wire up, and is backed up with good equipment.
There is also some very informative articles on power and electrics on this
forum.
Cheers
Bucky
AnswerID:
450262
Follow Up By: Member - Phil 'n Jill (WA) - Monday, Apr 04, 2011 at 08:55
Monday, Apr 04, 2011 at 08:55
Thanks Bucky - another useful tip - I too long ago, gave away the basic small wire leads, but your setup sounds like the ultimate. My leads have been good enough for quite a while, but there is always remove for improvement.
And yair - I'm a fan of Dereks gear too - his charger system is everything I hoped for and the diagrams I got at the time were most useful.
Have a good one.... Phil
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: Member - Bruce Y (Vic) - Monday, Apr 04, 2011 at 10:07
Monday, Apr 04, 2011 at 10:07
The leads that you buy from
places like K-mart, Supercheap, etc are what are referred to as booster leads NOT jumper leads. The purpose of these leads is to connect two vehicles together, using the charging system on the running vehicle to charge the stranded vehicles battery to the point where it can start itself. Even if the leads look fairly thick slide the insulation back on one of the clamps and look at how thick the actual copper component is, you'll be amazed.
Years ago, (When stuck) we used to do a similar thing by putting the two vehicles bumpers together (Steel not plastic) to connect the negative side of the batteries together, and any wire we could lay our hands on (sometimes fencing wire) to connect the positive sides of the batteries, then leave the running vehicle at a fast idle for a few minutes before attempting to start the other.
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