Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Jumper cables vs booster pack?

Got a new vehicle need to get a new set of jumper cables. Been thinking maybe a jump pack instead. Thought ideas?

What if there's not another vehicle around?

If you choose jumper cables, build your own from #0 arc welder cable and VERY heavy duty clamps. Most auto parts store jumper cables are 75% plastic and 25% wire. I use arc welding ground clamps instead of regular cable ends so the clamp doesn't become a choke point for current capacity. All of my vehicles also have a HALO jump box onboard, including my Harley.

Cables are cheap and booster prices are dropping. Why not carry both?

You could probably buy a decent jump pack for the price of really good cables perhaps.

Both.

Another vote for both.

Had not thought of both. Good idea.

Belt and suspenders.

Would be curious to the correct choice of welding cable in one situation and the copper coated aluminum found in chink wares like the Halo for different applications for the same situation.

If you need either a good charger is the next purchase....

A high capacity HALO unit is good for a quick boost of a low battery where the main vehicle system just can't quite spin the engine over fast enough. A really dead battery needs the high current capacity of big cables, good connections, and a strong, full sized booster battery. The service rig I used when I ran a diesel road service used an 8-D 12 volt battery that weighed 120 pounds, and #00 welding cables to plug-in receptacles under both bumpers. The jumpers were #0 welder cable 20 feet long. It could deliver upwards of 2K amps to jump start 18 wheelers in freezing cold weather. In that situation, there's no substitute for a big battery and huge cables. I also ran a 160 amp Leece-Neville alternator on the service truck that could boost a dead battery back to life in 15 minutes or so at fast idle.

We try to carry both - heavy cables and a NOCO pack.

Why welding cable?

IME "a really dead battery" needs a charger and zero slush in the cells. There's really no substitute for just having a fully charged battery in decent condition. Most starters today are gear reducted, meaning they really don't care how big or little your battery is, they just need the required amps to function. "Jumping" can provide that, but it's a panacea for something that needs a charger.

A truly dead battery has a ph close to water; the liquid becomes a solid and the chemical reaction that needs to activate and restore energy in the liquid during a jump or boost can't take place if its "dead". That energy has to go somewhere.
If you haven't experienced resistance to the point of explosion, consider yourself lucky, or at least the paint job.

Never seen a 8D, 4D, 4DLT or a 7D, let alone a 53K or a 2N or 29NF.......or people jumping things that chemically can't be "jumped".

Too many mistakes in that post to address. Sounds impressive to a novice at battery chemistry, though!

Again, please explain the welding cable; you obviously think its advantageous, why?

I'd also like all my "mistakes" explained to me; won't be the first time I've been wrong.

A booster and a set of cables are fundamentally two different things.

Hahaha!

Exactly.

Got room for both. So I carry both.

If you don't own a booster pack, remember it can be used for things like boats, tractors, lawn mowers, ATVs, etc, that Mr Murphy will strike with a dead battery in places where its not convenient to drive up to and jump with cables.

I bought one mainly to take on board my boat. Where I live, I have to go out of my way to get away from people so I would probably be fine with jumper cables otherwise. Most anywhere I go, there are always more than enough other vehicles.....but still the jump pack eliminates stress and hassle.

Jumper cables can't die and the booster packs won't fry anything if hooked up backwards and I suppose might be safer for new vehicles with all the electronics that come with them these days.

Both will have you pretty well covered.