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Portable engine starters, Who has one?


DOJOLOACH2

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After anchoring at the sandbar for a few hours playing tunes the boat started fine... but then we drove a bit to another cove and didn't crank again no matter what. I was about to call the towboat company as I didn't want to lose my dignity trying to flag someone down. I got blessed though because a pontoon literally drove 25 ft away from me in the cove and he had a portable charger/starter. I hooked it up to my starter battery and had to rev up the boat in neutral to get it going. Saved me a few hundred bucks!

Now I'm going to replace my accessory/speaker battery and get a jump starter. What brand do you guys recommend? I didn't want to put in more than 100 bucks for it but If I have to then so be it.

I was looking at a Cen-Tech at harbor freight for 50 bucks but want to hear someother opinions. 

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6 minutes ago, Eagleboy99 said:

Lithium ion... I like that. Any idea how many attempts to start your kid will get off of one?

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NOCO is a great brand but I ended up buying one at WalMart... cant remember the brand name. So far I have only had to use it too help other people who had drained batteries but I bought it specifically in case it happened to me. Very handy to have. One way you can avoid battery issues is too buy a battery maintainer (I have a NOCO) and keep the batteries plugged in if you have power where you store the boat. Also, since I have wet cell batteries I check the water level in Spring/Fall and top them off. A maintainer will increase the battery life for sure

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6 minutes ago, DOJOLOACH2 said:

Lithium ion... I like that. Any idea how many attempts to start your kid will get off of one?

AFAIK they come in various capacities so it would depend.  The BG50 says "Start Dead Batteries - Safely jump start a dead car battery in seconds with this compact, yet powerful, 1500-amp portable lithium car battery jump starter pack - up to 30 jump starts on a single charge - and rated for gasoline engines up to 7 liters and diesel engines up to 4. 5 liters." My LA jump pack is 1000 amps and will start my RLX three or four times at least.

Edited by Eagleboy99
Correction
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19 hours ago, Nitrousbird said:

Get two (or more) batteries and an ACR, then you will never have to worry about jump starting your boat.

Well I've got two batteries but I had never wired one of them up by accident this spring so the amp battery is completely dead. Then when I wired it up last weekend I think the dead battery stole my starter batteries juice 😡. I'll look into an ACR

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I double checked my battery wiring through the blue sea 6011 switch. Have you guys heard of a switch wired like this: Off position both batteries are isolated to respected purposes (1 for starting, 1 for accessory/speakers), Move switch to on position and both batteries are in use/both batteries are charging from the alternator. Then the combined postion is not doing anything?

I'm going to buy what Eagleboy suggested or a cheaper 1200 A version by gooloo for 80 bucks.

 

Do you guys think either battery is recoverable? Assuming they were both completely drained that day? I put my voltmeter on them and the starter battery was sitting at 12.5V when put on the maintainer in my garage, the other battery was around 11. 

 

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5 hours ago, DOJOLOACH2 said:

 

Do you guys think either battery is recoverable? Assuming they were both completely drained that day? I put my voltmeter on them and the starter battery was sitting at 12.5V when put on the maintainer in my garage, the other battery was around 11. 

 

I would leave them on the maintainer for a few days and see if they charge up and hold the charge.  My guess is that starter will hold the charge, the other will not.

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57 minutes ago, dlb said:

I would leave them on the maintainer for a few days and see if they charge up and hold the charge.  My guess is that starter will hold the charge, the other will not.

Yeah I figured the same but I sure hope you're right! 250 bucks for the starting battery is ridiculous

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