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I bought one of these a few months ago and tested it on my 96 98. It started effortlessly after leaving the headlights on all night. This weekend I tired to use it on my 71 98 because the battery was dead. It only allowed the starter to crank for 3-4 seconds before being completely drained. This was barely enough time for the fuel pump to fill the carburetor.
Classic car owners beware!
Last edited by Olds64; November 19th, 2021 at 12:30 PM.
Reason: fixed link
The one you purchased lists that it starts engines up to 7 liters. Your 455 is 7.5 liters.
I fixed the link. The jump pack I bought was rated for a 10L diesel engine and "ALL' gasoline engines.
Let me tell you, there's NO WAY one of these jump packs could work on my 6.9L IDI in my Ford truck. At 22.5:1 compression the jump pack would drain the moment you hit the key.
These jump packs might be fine for daily drivers but buyer beware.
Recently picked this one up on Amazon for about 80 bucks, rated at 2500A. It (all jump packs) must (should) have a full charge, and has worked for me, each time, fully charged - haven’t tried it at a lessor charge.
Thought I had the somewhat ubiquitous ‘hot starter’ issue, but if a jump pack will get my ‘71 455 going, it’s most likely a battery /wiring issue, exacerbated by heat.
I have come across and owned a number of these starters for about ten years, since I first became aware of them. Before I bought the first one, with pure skepticism, I took it out to dead diesel pickup in the lot and it worked, sale made. I bought others for the family as gifts, they were all similar in size though not appearance to the original post. They all worked well for a couple/few years and then stopped being viable to jump start and then even lost their ability to charge electronic devices.
The best, most powerful and most reliable boxes in my experience have been the “NOCO” models, all of which still work after 5+ years. To be fair the 2 NOCOs are a medium size and a heavy diesel “rated” box at 1000 & 2000 amps respectively.
The model mentioned in OP, as a new unit, should have been sufficient to start that engine. It is defective or deceptive, probably both.
No jump box will overcome a bad battery. Let's be realistic. If the car is at your house, there's no reason to have a jump box over a real charger. Don't rely on the alternator to provide a deep charge unless you're taking a very long drive, using minimal accessories (lights, wipers, etc).
When I tried to jump my 71 last weekend the jump starter had been charged as recently as a month ago. I just bought it and fully charged it after I tested it on my 96 98..
I imagine the jump starter failed to start my 71 because the carburetor fuel bowl was completely empty when I tried to start it. By the time there was fuel in the carburetor and I could depress the accelerator to set the choke the jump starter was drained.
I'd be interested to know what kind of diesel Bccan jumped with his jump starter. Probably a Duramax or a Cummins...
I'd be interested to know what kind of diesel Bccan jumped with his jump starter. Probably a Duramax or a Cummins...
How’d you guess? It was indeed one of the big 3, I’m going with Ford or Duramax but it was pushing 10 years ago so I don’t really remember. What I do remember was being amazed that such a little box pulled that off. I think that was the only diesel I ever jumped with a little box, we always had the basic battery style jump box, much bigger & heavier but they proved to work reliably far longer than the capacitor boxes I’ve seen. To be fair, maybe they last longer nowadays with evolution and proliferation on their side. I have one cheapie that I think still works and the 2 NOCOs that are really nice and still going after 5 years or so. I rarely need them, iirc the last time one got the call was to rescue someone at a drive in movie that overextended their battery. Time will tell, it always does!
Last edited by bccan; November 23rd, 2021 at 01:46 PM.
Here's my two cents,
About 5 years ago I had a 1990 box Cherokee it was my off road rig it sat behind my RV gate about 6 months out of the year (if you know AZ you know it's to damn hot to 4 wheel in the summer) every year at the beginning of 4x4 season the Cherokee would be deader than Kelseys ***** !! I have a Schumacher battery charger but it always seems to spend more time at my neighbors or son-in-laws house so I ordered a compact lithium jump pack from Amazon it was rated for up to 6.0 diesel it was a Gooloo brand (never heard of them) highly reviewed and highly rated so I took a chance, I was very skeptical, when it arrived I was pleasantly surprised nice case, nice clamps, nice rugged housing
much better than I expected but as they say the proof is in the pudding I figured that Cherokee would be the ultimate test . Prior to receiving the jump starter I would usually have to jump it off one of my other vehicles this usually required at least 20 minutes or longer of running time,
I hooked that jump starter up to the Cherokee and it cranked like there was 2 battery's hooked up !!! You know those old Cherokee's with a gear reduction starter are known for long crank times !! no problem for this little jump starter .
Prior to getting my maint./battery tender for my 56 Olds I went to exercise my Olds and was met with a dead battery, While my Olds only has a displacement of 324 cid I had to use that jump starter several times and it started the old girl with no problem !! I also have used it to rescue several people, those things are life savers !!! I own 3 vehicles and plan to have one in the trunk of all.
P/S it was last Charged about 7 months ago and still shows 96% charge. I'm sure if folks pay attention and purchase one with the proper specs for their vehicle they will be pleasantly surprised.
I like the Project Farm videos, also. Great job of real world comparisons on many and varied product categories. Though I must say I'm surprised the GP4000 didn't work out in your situation, given the ranking PF gave it.
Liked the impressive arc jumping between A/C pulley and cruise unit over on the driver side of engine when he tests the first Gooloo in the truck. ~9:38 in the vid.
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Last edited by bccan; November 26th, 2021 at 09:02 AM.
November 19th, 2021, 06:20 AM
