Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives jump starters

I have a Dodge with the 6.7 Cummins. How much oomph would I need to jump start it? Do they make any of the battery packs that will do it on a cold day? I was looking at one with 3000 amps peak/800 cranking. I don't know if that 800 will do it.

Following to see what people have experienced. Am looking at these also for my big block suburban and to have on the boat during the summer.

I have looking at various reviews, but few test them in COLD weather.

the 2 batteries in my Dodge have 850 cold cranking each. However, I don't know how much it actually takes to run the heater plus start it in cold weather. 1700 might be way overkill but maybe not. I've been searching online and haven't found anything conclusive.

My 93 Dodge has 1 1000+cca commercial battery. It has started every time I wanted it to except when the battery was shot, 3 times in 23 years, and once -5 and the truck was not plugged in and had sat for 2 months.

When I'm home there's not a problem. I'm thinking of when I'm 20 miles back up a mountain road elk hunting and the batteries crap out.

if your only 20 miles back road hunting, I'm sure there will be others doing the same...... Just flag one of them down for a jump. Most roadhunters carry cables.......grin

Just buy quality batteries every 4 years and question if your tires are good enough.....................

It depends on how far down your batteries are. If they are really down, it can easy take more than 800 CCA.
What I do is have mine tested under load just before the hunting season along with a complete servicing of the truck.
Once the cold weather hits is even a better time to have them tested under load. If they are due to fail, the onset of cold weather often pushes them over the edge.
BTW, getting a jump start from somebody else is a good way for somebody else to have charging or battery problems. With today's very senstive systems, the only safe way to avoid damage to one's charging system is to give a jump start with a separate battery or batteries. E

Sadly, this is the camp I'm in. Had a case of 2 dead batteries on a -30 morning after staying in a public use cabin a couple years ago, and didn't overly care for it. A little Honda generator sounded like a really good idea at that point.

I did pick up one of these recently. http://www.costco.com/Lithium-Jump-Starter-and-Portable-Power-Bank.product.100230151.html

I don't have much faith in it being able to start a diesel, (and of course I haven't had a need to try it yet) but I did jump the toyota with it the other day. Mainly got it for snowmachine use, as the new sled is 4-stroke and has no recoil starter.

The batteries in my Dodge have 850 cold cranking amps...each. That lithium unit only has 200. I suspect that several would be needed to start a diesel. I wonder what 1 on each battery would do.

I went into Interstate Batteries and asked what they have that will handle a diesel. They have this one that's diesel rated.

QuickCable
Automotive Rescue Jump Pack LiFePO4, 600 AMP, 400 cranking amps
They sell for about $180 online, $250 at Interstate. They'll charge phone, computers, etc, too. That doesn't seem to be very many amps but apparently lithiums do it differently.

I did some reading on that particular unit and it has a minimum operating temperature of 32 F. That doesn't give me the warm fuzzies for what I'd be buying it for.

Where did you find that info? I couldn't find it. I'm more concerned with -5 than 32.

It was in an owners manual in the section about error codes. It said something about if the battery temp was below 32 it would give a particular code and not work until the battery was warmed above that. If it's not in your manual I can find the website with the PDF manual.

Found it. Thanks. I don't think I'll be buying this one for sure. In fact, I went to Amazon and wrote a review pointing it out.
I've found that this company, Quick Cable, is very stingy with specs. It's hard to get numbers from them.

Have you considered taking a couple of fresh VRLA AGM's and keeping them inside and warm? A group 31, 34 or 65 would all have plenty of power.

The whole point of a jump starter is to get you going while elk hunting at -5F. Keeping them warm isn't an option.

The Antigravity Micro-Start XP-10 is shown as having an operating temperature down to -20C. I've no experience with one so don't know if it's suitable for your application; however, the company says they work on diesels and reviews are fairly good.

I still haven't been able to find out how many amps are required to jump start a diesel pickup in cold weather. I can't believe that any of these little boxes will do it. The amperage is just too low.

The VRLA's will work at -5F.

I've got an 06 Dodge Ram with the diesel engine. My truck sat for a week once in sub zero overnight temperatures. When I tried to start it, it was -22 degrees.
I won't say it started easily, but start it did. Once it was running, it warmed up and ran as it always does.
If it were a concern, I'd get a good battery with lots of cold cranking amps and simply carry that. If I was worried about starting, I'd use the batteries in the truck to preheat the fuel and in coming air, then hook up the extra battery to backup the one in the truck.
Unless they have been really depleated, that should work. E

Tried the Jump start packs a few years ago and found I needed it so infrequently, it was generally flat when I needed it..Now, it wasn't completely flat, but it had lost enough charge not to be able to start a 2.8L diesel..

If I was going to rely on one of these for real emergencies, I think I would have it rigged to trickle charge in the vehicle...I am not sure how exactly how to do this , as you probably don't want to over charge it either but it must be possible...

The other thing with these packs is once connected to the dead battery, don't crank it up straight away..Let it trickle a charge across for several minutes at least and then try starting the engine..This dramatically reduces the peak load on the pack...

Edited to add, if there is room on the vehicle, I think an additional battery with a proper split charging/isolator unit might be a better way to go and be more versatile as well...

Pete E,

If your truck is new enough to have a 110V outlet, no problem- just plug in the charger and head down the road. I do this periodically to keep the jump starter charged up and ready to go.

I've had this problem before. Spent 4 days in weather that was -18f for the high, and -30f for the low. Batteries died, and could not get them jump started.

Problem was me ! I failed to check the water level in my batteries. Living in AZ, the extreme heat tend to evaporate your fluids and need filled at least once or twice a year.

Had I done my part and maintain my vehicle, this would not have occurred.

So... I now make sure that I complete a very thorough vehicle inspection twice a year. One in January, and another in August after most of the summer heat is gone.

And, I do keep a extra long set of cables just in case.

I agree. A regular starting battery is also a lot cheaper for what you get.

If a battery isn't used or recharged, heat will draw it down faster than cold. The obvious problem there is that a cold engine is much harder to start.

The vehicle was old enough to have a hand throttle so nothing as new fangled as a 110V outlet!

That said, the jump starter I was using had a 12V input and a separate 220V/12V transformer for charging so I assume I could have plugged into the vehicle periodically as you suggest.

These days I just keep a set of extra long H/D jumper leads in the vehicle, but I don't tend to get anywhere too remote at the moment..