Later on we got to the hand held portable jump starter, and then much more recently the small lithium battery packs. There are two portable jump starter boxes that I have used and like for a semi-professional shop. I mean ones in the $100-$200 range, that will start most things short of a diesel in cold weather. These two boxes are the
Jump and Carry JNC660, and the
Booster Pack ES2500.
Each has its advantages/disadvantages. I like that the
JNC660 can be charged by any extension cord. But its a bit bigger, and unwieldy.
The ES2500 is smaller, but requires a specific wall wart, or other method to charge.
Since we use them a lot, we find the limitations. For both the boxes, they have relatively short cables. Short cables are better to get the amperage you need to the car being jumped, but also mean that you often have to put the box on the car/headlight/core support. When you start the car, they often go sliding off. Occasionally you have to drive a car with the jumper box hooked up. So I have seen this many times in the past, especially with racecars, an Anderson SB175 connector.
Tow trucks often use these
SB175 connectors on their front bumper, with some long cables to be able to pull up behind a stranded car, and jump start it from behind. I always meant to install one in the race cars we had, would make those starts or even charging much easier, but never got around to it on anything I worked on for very long. It was always about 673rd on the list of important things to do.
The small packs, I have tried a lot, and most aren't worth a shit to a shop. They are temperamental, and not good enough to start multiple cars over multiple days. Carrying charged with you is ok. Occasional use is OK, but other than that I don't really want to bother.
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