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Might make sense somewhere where it's really cold, not so much in milder climate. I live where low 30's are average in the winter, you'll get spates of 0 degree weather for a few days. Hard to justify the cost of jump starter for something I might never need. I did buy one for my Father once but he had larger boat he was taking out in the Chesapeake, probably used the compressor more than anything.
Yeah I meant where I live, in Canada, where it's quite cold the last couple of months. It would be for these people, but I figure it's even better than calling someone from a professional garage, cause it's even more convenient.
If you mean jumper cables it may be because most jumper cables you find now are garbage. Many are incapable of carrying enough current to actually start a car. You can get good quality ones, usually made for trucks, but they cost $300.
If you mean those jump start boxes - I think people do not carry them because they are expensive, take up too much space, require you to remember to recharge them and they only last a short time and are expensive to replace. Every time I have gone to use one after carrying it in my car for years, it has not worked. Either it lost its charge, to the batter had gone bad (and it had no charge) or it was not enough to start the car. I am sure they work sometimes, but I have not had any success with them.
OP,
I think you are viewing this as a problem rather than an opportunity. In my area when someone has a dead battery we call the local garage which has a 24 hr towing service. My neighbor recently had a dead battery just before dark and called them. They arrived 15 minutes later and jumped her battery. Cost $60 and she was more than happy to pay it!
Or get an AAA account and jumpstarts are free.
they are also usually free if you have good cables, a smile and a mouth.
How about maybe they don't trust that they would work anyways, so what's the point of wasting the money?
That's the camp I'm in. I just don't see how a tiny battery with tiny wires sticking out of it that has been sitting in my trunk for 3 years can have enough power to get my car going when it's super cold outside. I could be wrong, but I would be very surprised if it could.
Even trying to jump a dead car with another running vehicle doesn't work very easily sometimes.
What's the CCA of the average jump pack?
I have 2 they are both 18,000 mAh I check them once every 3 months if I don't use them, I sure don't wait 3 years....I have started probably 2 dozen vehicles and twice myself. I have started small cars and a large Diesel truck (No, not a Semi, that's out of my league) but it was a E-450.
Older drivers like me just use to jumper cables because that’s all we had back then.
I am 67 and my dad always taught me to carry cables in all my cars. I also wonder why there isn't a battery level gauge on new cars? I would rather have that than all this other computer stuff ( Bluetooth, Apple Car Play, etc).
Yeah but that's it, my friends and family members carry cables in their cars, but no jump starter. What good is it having cables if you have no jump starter. Sure you can call someone but again, that takes time and it's less convenient.
OK, so if I understand it correctly, OP is proposing that, in addition to the normal car battery that is automatically charged by the alternator (till one or the other eventually fails) , everyone should ALSO carry around what's essentially a spare battery, that you have to (not automatically) keep charged up?
What a stupid idea.
Why not just get a good set of 00 or 000 jumper cables and keep them in the car? They will always work, unlike the spare battery-***-"jump start pack" that sounds like a good idea till you forget to carry it indoors and recharge it, and you find yourself with a dead battery AND no cables.
If, just possibly, you are one of those people who live and work in such a remote area that you will be unable to get a jump start from another motorist, the spare battery thingy would be helpful, but if you are one of those people, you probably are already way ahead of the rest of us in self-reliance.
In a lifetime of driving, I don't think anyone has ever refused to let me have a jump start. You don't want to ask the 16 year old girl driving the BMW convertible Mommy and Daddy bought her, you want to ask the elderly man driving the Ford pickup.
If you're going to carry what's essentially a spare battery around with you, are you going to carry a spare for the spare battery?
Yeah but that's it, my friends and family members carry cables in their cars, but no jump starter. What good is it having cables if you have no jump starter. Sure you can call someone but again, that takes time and it's less convenient.
Sheesh, as I just wrote, you go over to the elderly gentleman in the parking lot getting into his pickup; or the Mexican lawn crew taking lunch, and ask them if they can give you a jump start. It especially works if you walk up to them holding the cables.
Oh, and by the way, jumper cables store very neatly coiled up inside the wheel of your spare tire. Don't have a spare tire? Well, then you've got problems bigger than not having cables.
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