I thought you guys would get a kick out of this....

I have some interesting chronic (well, reocurring) battery issues, and this morning it happened again. "It" being that the battery had drained itself overnight and the starter would just spin and click-click-click without engaging.


There wasn't anyone around in the 'hood to get a jump from, and AAA wanted an hour to show up, so... I winged it.

I have a number of linear power supplies around for some music gear, so I grabbed a couple of triple output supplies, set each of two adjustable outputs to 14v, wired them together in parallel, then wired each of the set of supplies in parallel for a total of four 12v supplies "overclocked" to 14v.

Each PS was rated at 1amp, and these are linears so call it 1.5amps on a normal day. That gave me a nice 6amp 14v charger.

I let it sit for about 15-20 minutes and the truck started right up.

(click for a larger pic)

 

You know what they say -- necessity is the mother of invention. Nice idea.

How about one of those little jumpstarters like the Coleman Powermate? I don't think it is too big to carry around in the vehicle. Better than having to have someone jump you anyway.

 

ummmm.... clever use of stuff

 

The Powermate would be a good idea, but the right solution is to get me a real battery. I've been running a CostCo cheap-o for about 2 years now and I'm thinking I've done good damage to a cell.

I don't really have the cashflow right now, but an Optima Red Top will be in there "some day".

 

"Dear Santa,

I have been good this year (mostly). For Christmas, I want an Optima Red Top battery. I promise not to eat the milk and cookies this year.

Yours,

Midiwall"

It's that time of year again!

 

Mr. "I can afford a supercharger but not a battery," you need to get your priorities straight! I picked up a red top battery from G.I. Joe's in North Gate for ~120.00, if I remember correctly. Cool way to get your car started though, very red-green of you!

 

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

..and I'd buy your old tires and wheels before I bought a battery too!

 

They have Red Tops at Costco too.

 

Yeah... I pass them everytime I walk through the Shop Towels and Car Brush aisle.

I'll get one... I promise.


The downside (upside?) of CostCo is that I have to use my debit card which brings us back to cashflow issues.

 

Now that is outstanding! Would have never thought of something like that.

 

I am trying to find the photos of a disaster I had to wire together on the trail one time so you can see how much better you did

My battery died overnight in solo camp, so I ended up pulling the batteries out of EVERYTHING I could find, flashlights, cell phones, you name it. I had a spool of wire and a butane soldering iron, so guess what I did? Yep...

I ended up with a PILE of various batteries wired together in the bed and a set of jumper-cables on the business end. It worked well enough to give me just enough juice to start the truck after about 10 minutes of waiting.

You did much better.