Flat battery solution please (1 Viewer)

[mjltigger]

Did yours start?

As it happens I told ms tigger what I planned and she suggested another couple of days wouldn't hurt so we are going to head off tomorrow and find somewhere to hide from the kids for a couple of days... If it starts...

 

[Jaws]

As a by the by, the panel in the Autotrail ALWAYS reads at least .5v lower than what the batteries actually are.. When I first got the van it caused considerable consternation until a couple of days after getting the van home I fitted the solar panels with their posh controller and noticed the difference in voltage readings
When I actually measured what the batteries were sitting at with a real meter it confirmed the solar panel controller was correct and the on board Sargent panel was wrong..
Tried doing the recalibration thing as recommended but made not a jot of difference.
Have spoken to several folk who had the same issue believing their batteries were stuffed ..

 

[Gromett]

Yuasa know a bit about batteries, and sell a "few" batteries a year. They supply our smaller UPS batteries (up to 480Ah) . They also make motorcycle batteries.
A few links for you "me old mucker".
Broken Link Removed
Broken Link Removed (page 11 to save your time)

Aren't Yuasa the ones who screwed up the Boeing Batteries..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_787_Dreamliner_battery_problems

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[Kool Kroozer]

Just found this little gem - a little power pack - £81 at Amazon - very high 5star rating reviews - small and very compact !
https://www.youtube.com/user/wickedsmart

 

[Terry]

£81 for 400 amp hrs neither use nor ornament to start a m/h -it may start a 1.6 ltr car - as to connecting wrong as shown in the video you soon jump and realize it's on wrong
terry

 

[Don Quixote]

The idea is good, but try "jumping" a MH diesel engine that is cold and the battery is dead and it fail. I would think it is designed for car use only as many of the videos show. Some of the reviews do not red well.

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[Kool Kroozer]

Its not a 1.6 car - its a 6.0 truck

 

[Terry]

Its not a 1.6 car - its a 6.0 truck

400 amp hrs cold cranking will not start a 2.0ltr engine (most mhs have bigger engines) and the only way that would start a 6.0 ltr engine is if it had already been started/warm even then it would be lucky
terry

 

[Kool Kroozer]

Then i stand corrected by false information and bow down to you gods of knowledge

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[pyro]

Sorry if I'm being presumptuous as a noob reviving this thread, but I've been looking at these recently from an engineering perspective. Quite aside from the 400 A claimed cranking capacity (which is obviously too marginal for any m/h) they now claim to offer 800A and greater. My curiosity was drawn to the leads, which I believe would struggle with any significant current (there's a good reason why decent jump leads are usually fairly beefy). A look inside one of these revealed a modestly low capacity lithium ion battery, with a hulking great capacitor wired to its output. To "prepare" for a jump start, the user has to push a button which allows the very low internal impedance cell to flash charge the capacitor, which is then discharged 30 s later at very high current and for a very short time period to jump start the vehicle.

Herein lies the first problem with the one I saw, the capacitor discharges very quickly, thus the current flows an extremely short time. This would appear to work on a smaller petrol engine, which turns over fairly easily. The (supposedly) 800A effort turns over the (cold) engine (3l Euro 5) briefly, then went into hibernation whilst the battery cooled down and it was then ready to recharge the capacitor for a second ineffective stab.

The second problem is the voltage drop across the woefully inadequate "jump leads" attached to these things. The voltage drop is dreadful, thus they are very inefficient and heart up when trying to do what the Chinese suppliers claim. Combined with the heat of the internal battery when trying to fast charge the effort, plus the grotty little switch mode charger heating up, and you could have a fire risk. These batteries are after all notorious for bursting into flames.

To be fair, I haven't stuck this in the lab and gone the whole hog, I just felt it was a waste of time. But £60 for this? My view is forget it unless you want to charge up a laptop or phone, and get yourself a more conventional starter pack with a minimum gel battery size of 22 AH. Alternatively a set of decent jum pleads or a subscription to a vehicle recovery service. Just my opinion, hope it helps others