Hi there,

I'm considering grabbing myself a lithium ion battery pack jump starter for my n/a 5.0. I'd welcome advice on the specs I should be looking for ... what amps, and so forth.

Thanks

 

I got a NOCO Boost Plus GB40. On amazon around $99
1000 amp
Claims to work up to 6L engine (not sure that's a real spec - just simple customer comms I expect)

Had it a couple of years. But have to admit I've never needed it so can't really vouch for it

Seems to hold charge well. Check it every 6-8 months or so and plug it in but didn't seem to have lost any appreciable charge

Small and lightweight which was my intent.

 

Thanks!

 

The Noco jump packs are amazing, unfortunately the GB40 is not the way to go. Especially with a 5 Litre engine. I owned a GB40, they were fine for cars with 4 cylinder engines such as Civics or Altimas. Worked fine for 6 cylinder Infiniti’s. But once I would attempt to jump a BMW 6 Series or an F150, it was a No Go. I upgraded to a GB70, worked like a charm. I purchased a GB150 during Cyber Monday, more than enough power. I keep my GB70 in my closet, just incase of a power outage. Works great as a portable phone charger and flashlight.

 

Well - that's disappointing that I may have not got enough power! They claim it works on these engines. So I guess one day I will try and will report back. Either stuck on the side of the road or safely back home!!

 

On advice of another 2013 XK 5.0L owner I got the Rugged Geek IntelliBoost 1000. Thankfully, I've not yet had to use it.

Only downside I'm aware of is the short cables won't reach the remote positive and the remote ground at the same time. My guess is this is true of all similar products since they're usually used directly on a battery, but that's not supposed to be done on these cars.

See my thread today 5/6/20 in the X150 forum.

 

THIS^^^ I jsut got one but a freind had one in Wisconsin started his Dodge Ram pick up from a dead battery in 10 degress F he was amazed, so I picked one up for my trunk since I do not drive the car all the time and it sits for a few days/weeks and we kno how these things drain when sitting.

 

There's a youtube channel called "Project Farm" where this guy tests all sorts of products (that you might use around the farm). In one video he tests a whole bunch of jump starters. I forget which one came out on top, but he subjects them to freezing temperatures, does load testing on the bench and then tests actually starting a diesel tractor. I've considered getting one also and made a note to go back and watch that again before I do.

As an aside, he also tests products for "off-label" uses; his favorite being to run old lawnmower engines substituting all sorts of nonsense for engine oil or gasoline, often with very surprising results. Just in case you want something entertaining and mechanical to watch while sheltering in place....

 

Yeah, I saw that vid recently, and a bunch of others. The Audew model seemed to always come out on top. Some of the others mentioned in this thread performed very poorly. I've ordered an Audew model. I'm not driving regularly these days. I'm sure it will come in handy.

 

Just want to point out the problem of finding a suitable ground to hook the booster to. I carried my Rugged Geek around for the better part of a year without ever having tried to hook it up since there was no need to. When I was checking its charge level I noticed the cable is designed to hook to the battery posts, meaning once it's connected to the remote positive on the left side of the boot the negative cable won't reach the recommended remote negative post on the right side of the boot. I now carry along a short battery cable I happened to have to bridge the gap. And, no, just any convenient body bolt won't do for boost current.

 

I saw that video as well.

the tests were not done as per the instruction on the NOCO. If you are using on a dead battery (as his load tester assumes) there is a button to push on the GB-40 that slowly 9in about 60 seconds) ramps up the charge, when the light come on its at full power. According to Noco, this extends the life of the battery and allow you to do multiple one crank starts on one charge like for multiple cars at the same time and the battery in Noco has a longer lifetime (supposedly). All his others required 3 jumps to get the unit warm, if you are only starting one car or you don't expect it to die again before you have a chance to charge the unit again then the others seem ok as well, I do not know if the extended battery lifetime would be true or not,

I am Not challenging the others but I am good with my Noco maintainer so I went with the jump started and my car has the same connection for both units that is connected to the battery all the time, no need for the alligator clips.

If you read some of the comments you will see others make this same comments, one commenter even suggests warming up the starter by sitting on it fr 10 minutes before using it. The Noco does this process for you, . I paid $79 on the Noco site on sale not on Amazon.

 

That's a good catch. Thanks. I'm kind of like that sometimes. "If all else fails, THEN read the instructions."