Portable Jump Starter

[BigTerp]

Just an FYI for anyone that is still interested in these, maybe for a Christmas gift for someone. I was looking back on here to see exactly which one I bought to get as a gift for my brother and sister since they are both now driving. I've used mine a few times since I last posted about it here. Once to jump a half-ton pickup of the guy that was working on my roof and just last weekend to jump an SVU in the University of Maryland parking lot after the football game. Both times it jumped each vehicle without issue. I throw it in my boat every time I head out. Thankfully, I haven't had to use it on the boat yet. A little more expensive then it was when I bought mine, but worth it IMO.

https://www.amazon.com/DBPOWER-8000mAh-Portable-Starter-Flashlight/dp/B074VY2SF2/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1511892941&sr=8-12&keywords=dbpower

 

[richg99]

Yep, I now own three of them. One for my wife's car, one for my van, and a much smaller unit for my boat so I can jump the 50 hp engine.

I'd be careful to buy one big enough for whatever engine for which you have a need. Amazingly, they seem to jump much larger engines than they are rated for, but I still wouldn't want to be undersized and have one blow up when you used it.

I mark my calendar to charge each one on a separate day each month. I have yet to find any of them under 100% when I go to charge them, but I put them on the charge for 20 minutes anyhow.

Yesterday, the day for charging my boat unit came up. I was hauling the boat down the road, so I just plugged the USB charger into my car and charged it while driving. Pretty slick devices!

 

[BigTerp]

Finally got to test mine on my boat over the weekend. Fished the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania for 2 days. Friday there were no issues. But Saturday we fished from early morning until dark and I was on the trolling motor pretty much all day. When we would get into them instead of throwing the anchor, I would just keep the trolling motor on constant and hold us were we wanted to be. Typically that was on full power in the current to keep us from drifting down river. I only have 2 group 29 batteries in my boat that run my 24v trolling motor. One also serves as the starting battery and the other has all my accessories hooked up to it. By evening the trolling motor and all accessories were still running fine, but there wasn't enough juice to get my motor turned over. Jump starter worked perfect to get it cranked. Was so confident in it that we ran to another spot to fish until dark knowing that the motor wasn't going to start back up. Jump starter got it started after we caught another dozen fish and got us back to camp.

 

[richg99]

"Was so confident in it that we ran to another spot to fish until dark knowing that the motor wasn't going to start back up. Jump starter got it started after we caught another dozen fish and got us back to camp.
"

Now, that's confidence. Ha Ha Well done!
rich

 

[eshaw]

How did you go about wiring your troller to run on 24v instead of 12v? Is it originally a 24v unit?

 

[jethro]

I snowmobile a lot and this year I got my very first 4 stroke snowmobile. I have had 2 stroke sleds for 25 years. 4 Strokes are a lot harder to pull start with a rope, so I carry one of these: https://no.co/gb20
It's saved my butt a few times and I will be carrying it on the boat. The 150 Merc comes with a pull rope inside the cowling, but my goodness I would not want to try pulling it over.

 

[BigTerp]

How did you go about wiring your troller to run on 24v instead of 12v? Is it originally a 24v unit?

It's an older Motor Guide 12/24v with 3 wires and a selector switch to go between 12v and 24v. I forgo'd the 12v and simply used the 24v wires by running one wire off the trolling motor to the + of the first battery and then the other wire to the - of the second battery. Then a jumper from the - of the first battery to the + of the second battery. This keeps each battery capable of providing 12v to any accessories that are wired to that battery only while also providing 24v to my trolling motor. I also rewired the selector switch on the foot pedal to provide momentary power in the up position and constant power in the down position instead of it being used as a selector between 12/24v.

 

[BigTerp]

"Was so confident in it that we ran to another spot to fish until dark knowing that the motor wasn't going to start back up. Jump starter got it started after we caught another dozen fish and got us back to camp.
"

Now, that's confidence. Ha Ha Well done!
rich

HA!! Not something I want to make a habit of, but we were in the middle of the best day smallmouth fishing my boat has seen. So we HAD to fish until dark!!

 

[BigTerp]

I snowmobile a lot and this year I got my very first 4 stroke snowmobile. I have had 2 stroke sleds for 25 years. 4 Strokes are a lot harder to pull start with a rope, so I carry one of these: https://no.co/gb20
It's saved my butt a few times and I will be carrying it on the boat. The 150 Merc comes with a pull rope inside the cowling, but my goodness I would not want to try pulling it over.

The NOCO's are nice. I have their 2 bank on board charger on my boat and love it. When/if I get another boat, it will certainly be larger than my current one with a bigger motor. Will most likely get a larger/more powerful jump starter like the NOCO. But the one I have now is nice insurance for my 50/35 jet outboard and I never hit the water without it on board.

 

[Jim]

The NOCO failed me miserably trying to jump start my Mother-in-laws RAV4. I though I was going to be a hero but ended up having to call AAA. I keep the NOCO in my hunting backpack now to charge my cell phone or camera.

My frustrating review if you have not seen it. https://www.tinboats.net/noco-boost-review/

Im still a little bitter. :LOL2:

 

[jethro]

The NOCO failed me miserably trying to jump start my Mother-in-laws RAV4. I though I was going to be a hero but ended up having to call AAA. I keep the NOCO in my hunting backpack now to charge my cell phone or camera.

My frustrating review if you have not seen it. https://www.tinboats.net/noco-boost-review/

Im still a little bitter. :LOL2:

Wow, that is more than a little concerning! I am going to use mine to start my outboard next time just to test it. I hope mine works.

 

[richg99]

I have a note on my calendar every month to remind me to re-charge the three units that I have. They are not Nocos.

Two of them are 600 amp, 18,000 mAH units and I don't remember the other one, which is smaller and I keep in the boat.

Every time I go to re-charge, they say 100% or 98% or so. I stick them on the re-charge cycle anyhow for an hour or so.

I, also, have not tested mine, but have seen other guys start boats with their units.

 

[BigTerp]

The NOCO failed me miserably trying to jump start my Mother-in-laws RAV4. I though I was going to be a hero but ended up having to call AAA. I keep the NOCO in my hunting backpack now to charge my cell phone or camera.

My frustrating review if you have not seen it. https://www.tinboats.net/noco-boost-review/

Im still a little bitter. :LOL2:

That blows!! Did you try and contact NOCO about it? My on board charger had one of the banks go bad after lighting struck a tree on my property. Assuming it fried the bank (among several other electronics in the house ). Noco replaced it no questions asked.

I actually just picked up another, larger, portable jump starter over the weekend. This one will live in my truck and then on the boat when out on the water. Wanted my wife to be able to keep the smaller one in her car in case needed. This one is max 500A compared to the 300A I originally had. More appropriate for my truck and should kick over my outboard easier then the smaller one.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y5JYG93/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1