Motorcycle Battery Charger Jump Starter

[Lourdes Horace]

Withthe terminals exposed connect the jump start unit to the main power bank adaptor (called the mouse!) and then connect to the main battery terminals. With a traditional jump lead I would say connect positive to positive and then connect negative to negative however the great thing with this device though is that no current is flowing until you press the button on the side of the jump start unit. This is great as your not in a mad rush to go and start the bike as you normally would with jump starting a bike from a car as that always makes me rather nervous. With this device you press the button on the side and current starts to flow for 30 seconds which gives you enough time to start the bike.

Here is a video of me using the jump starter Video of jumping in case the embedded video does not show. I uploaded the second video to show that the unit automatically shuts off after you start the bike.

A little while ago I bought a 'Streetwise' 17ah Lead Acid Jump Starter Power Pack to run my CG5-GT mount and a dew heater (my version has two 12v sockets on the left hand side where the circular lumps are on the one in the link.

My problem is that I am only getting about 2 hours out of the battery. I have tested my dew heater and it is drawing 0.48 amps at the setting that I use and my scope is supposed to draw 2 amps max. I know it doesn't draw much more than that as I have a 2 amp quick blow fuse in the cigar lighter plug. So, I am drawing maximum of 2.5 amps and a 17ah battery is lasting max 2 hours before the red LED comes on.

Now my question! Can I charge the power pack with an intelligent car battery charger by connecting it to the correct (pos to pos and neg to neg) croc clips? I believe the croc clips go straight to the battery terminals on the power pack and it is lead acid, so it would/should be like charging a normal car battery, right?

My thoughts were that the intelligent battery charger might recondition the power pack battery and get me a full, longer lasting charge. When I measured the power pack the other night after taking it off charge - a orange LED comes on to warn that the battery is being overcharged - I was only measuring 12.55 volts which seems a bit low for a lead acid battery. I know car batteries normally sit at over 13 volts when fully charged.

OK, gratifying to hear that. But I see that its maximum charging current is only 0.8 A. May take a while to charge car batteries. But I find batteries deteriorate in peculiar ways here - they seem to lose a lot of their capacity. I wonder if something that conditions them well might just be the business. Jury is still out. But certainly it gets excellent reviews from the biker fraternity. Thanks

3) shock it back to life by connecting it directly to a large battery (large car, truck etc) and exposing it to a potential of several hundred amps. This has the effect of giving it a massive quick charge. Quite often this sort of shock charging will re-dissolve alot of the sulphates that form on the plates and give it a new lease of life.

As a part time mechanic, I have revived alot of "dead" batteries by zapping them with something powerful - including using my arc welder to zap truck batteries that had completely sulphated up and would not hold any charge at all. Do so at your own risk though and wear gloves + eye protection.

Nick: it shouldn't be 'furred up' as I have only had it for a few months and it hasn't had that much use. It has always been charged up after each use and never stored half empty - unless it was duff when I bought it!

Gel Batteries of a small size are very expensive compared to similar size wet cell types, they only really become economical in this situation if you buy full car sized batteries. Many Motorcycle batteries are now AGM types, but pound for pound they are more expensive, though smaller and lighter with less capacity..

Though the ad says the battery is a "sealed, maintenance free", could it still be a wet acid type? Other posts indicate the battery is a gel cell and the discharge limits for these types is no lower than 11.1 volts. Below this (even for short durations), the battery is damaged. How much? Depends on the time it sat at its discharged state or how far below 11 volts it was discharged.

So the only possible answer to your problem is to see if there is a manufacture's code date on the battery. If the battery was partially sulfated (from sitting without a charge cycle for too long in a warehouse), that would explain your battery appearing now as an 8-10AH battery. Unfortunately, nothing can be done to rejuvenate a gell cell and only a long trickle charge (1-5 amps for a day or more) can sometimes help a wet cel that is sulfated.

I think I will try discharging it part way at the weekend and then stick it on the car charger. My charger is an intelligent one and in the manual it says that it will charge 'gel' type batteries so I can but try!

Rubbish battery, I would suggest considering changing the battery for a YUASA S1712, LEAD-ACID 12V 17AH BATTERY. These retail at more than the cost of a jump start unit though, except for the quality ones. From memory we pay about 70 for them with normal retail being in the 80-100 mark.

I don't go out to dark sites, so I don't really need a mobile power supply. My latest thoughts are to make up a 240v to 12v power supply. I'll put the power adaptor in a box and add some sockets for the mount and dew heater. I may add a socket for the laptop too.

There are several Optimate models, the 3 and 4 are intended for motorcycles and the 6 is intended for car batteries. Any model will charge your battery and even better, will assess its condition and rejuvenate it if necessary (and if it's recoverable). I use the 4 to maintain my motorcycle batteries.

Yes, you can. There might be a heavy rotary on/off switch for the boost leads and you'll have to switch this on first but the leads couple directly to the battery. Make sure any lights/inverters/compressors are switched off before you connect the charger.

Presuming it's a standard "trickle" type battery charger and not a "jump pack", I wouldn't advise attempting to start a vehicle with the charger plugged in. The typical result, with a flat battery, is that the vehicle attempts to draw the power required to turn the engine over (the biggest ever demand on a car battery) from the low output charger and overloads the charger.

The result is akin to a bucket of water slowly being filled from an outlet. The water bucket can deliver a lot of water in a short period. The outlet slowly fill it. If you try to drain a lot (wateramps) from the outlet then it will either blow a protective fuse or it will burn out.

The XP-1 Micro-Start power supply is extremely lightweight and compact making it easy to take everywhere. So small it fits in your hand yet so powerful it can jump-start Motorcycles, Powersports Vehicles, even V8 Trucks up to 30X in a row! Start gas engine vehicles up to 6L V8.

Intelligent Jump-Start Clamps feature multiple Safety Protections built-in. They prevent reverse polarity connection, over-charge, over-discharge, short-circuit, back-charge, and also have thermal protections. Safely start cars, trucks, motorcycles, ATVs, UTVs, snowmobiles, other powersports vehicles, boats and other watercraft.

Whether you are riding, driving, camping or traveling, remain confident that you will be able to start your vehicle, make that important call, or get that last bit of work done. The multi-function XP-1 battery pack can charge a variety of electronic devices:

I was on holidays the last two weeks went all over the province of British Columbia and over to the Vancouver Island and Jasper National Park. While in Jasper Park I ran across an amazing interesting product. I pull a Lee-sure Lite Tent Trailer which is amazing in itself and with that I have been powering off the bike and charging a variety of items like my GPS, Iphone, Sony portable Blueray disc player, Bose Soundlink speaker, and Nolan N-Com Helmet sound system. That is allot to power for sure and have always been worried I would draw the battery in bike down to where it will not start. Have now solved my problem.

I found the Antigravity Battery Micro-Start XP-1 in Jasper. It is an amazing system. It is not only a portable jump starter but is also a power supply for all my array of portable products I carry with me. I no longer have any worries at all about not being able to get going in the morning or using my various devices on the road or ever being with out power for them. It will also charge while I a riding the bike back up to full charge in a couple hours while riding just plugging it into the cigarette lighter.

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