12v Portable Jump Recommendation

Well, that was a bust lol. The OBD2 was Female so it's no use. I returned both items and bought this one instead, duh.

OBD2 Male to Cigarette Lighter Female Socket Adapter
https://a.co/d/45Mgtd9

 

An easy reminder is to charge it at the start of every season, just like testing the smoke detector battery in spring and fall.

 

Speaking of the devil, had to use the super cap jump starter yesterday to help someone in a parking lot and it worked pretty well!

 

Used the NOCO GB40 to jump my 24 Prius a few days ago. Car battery went dead after not using it for a few weeks. It took a few minutes, but the NOCO gave it enough juice to start the car without any problem. I usually jump right to the batter in the trunk.

 

I have a motomaster jump starter plus a NOCO smart charger/conditioner I typically drive once a week so I plug the charger in when I park. I've run a hard wire to the battery so all I have to do is do the quick connect. It is a little annoying have to do each time but it's better for the life of the 12V battery.

 

It also means no stressing over driving frequently just to keep the 12 volt battery healthy.

When both my wife and I were retired, then doubly so with the advent of Covid restrictions, our use of the car is increasingly infrequent. Been keeping it plugged into a smart charger 'round the clock for years now. My CTEK charger came with a quick-connect cable which I installed, very handy.

 

I drive often enough I don't worry about this with the prius. But this spring I will be looking into doing something like this for our gas car. I try to drive once every 2 weeks to hopefully avoid anything seizing, keeping fluids moving for lubrication, and to avoid stale gas because she's an 03 and is a backup/rare use car for us. But anything to help the battery from needing a boost is good.

We *need* it to survive until we're done with parental leave, and it would be preferable if it could survive until after we pay off the prius. We have a 5 year loan on that, but plan to have it paid off in 2.5-3.5 years assuming no major unplanned expenses come up that drain our set aside emergency savings.

 

Approximate: I did kill my battery a while back and weirdly the jumper spot in the hood DID NOT WORK!!! I thought there were major car problems and was about to get it towed until on a lark I tried jumping the battery directly and the car fired up! I ahead all the problems noted abiut getting to the battery without being able to raise the hatch, but saved a tow. I think there must be some cutoff between the battery and the hood jump point. My battery drainer was tied directly to the battery, so not impacted by it.

Will

 

The underhood jump point is only metal on one side. It's backed by a piece of plastic on the other side.

The cable clamps that come with jump packs sometimes only wire one of the two clamp jaws—even though there are copper teeth on both jaws, the wire only goes to the teeth on one jaw, and the teeth on the other are just there for show. You can see this if you look at the clamps.

They're not all like that; I had a set from Antigravity Batteries where they had spent the extra fraction of a dime to make the teeth on both jaws live. But the jump pack I have now is the live-teeth-on-only-one-side kind.

If you put that kind of clamp on your underhood jump point and you happen to put it so the only live teeth are on the plastic side of the jump point, nothing will jump. Turn the clamp around.

 

There could also be a loose connection, somewhere between jump point and battery.

 

The jump point is generally part of the heaviest bus bars running through the underhood fuse box and to which the fat cable back to the battery is connected (through a fusible link of 125 A or so). It would be hard to have a loose connection there without the car being pretty nonfunctional.

 

My 2024 PP XSE lost power on the 12 volt battery 3 times now with less than 3000 miles - the first issue was assessed by the dealer as a bad battery and they replaced it with a new one. I now carry a small NOCO GB 40 (1000A) battery jump charger in my emergency kit and, as of 3 days ago, I have a NOCO Genius 2D permanently mounted with the battery in the rear cargo area (out of sight). I drape the 2D’s plug out of the rear hatch and plug it in nightly (car is garaged). It’s less than $40.00 - seems simple and straight forward. The 2D brings the battery up to full charge every night. They refuse to call this a trickle charger but along with its other capabilities, that’s what it is for me.

 

Good points @ChapmanF, but pretty sure this wasn't the case for me. My jumper cable is old school with all metal every where for the clamps (well, makes it a lot easier to short too which isn't great, but...), so 99% sure I was making contact to the tab. My wifes Gen3 is set up the same way and I've used it a few times successfully too.

I'm not sure if it was appeasement, but when I pushed the issue at the dealership and got past the intake person, then past the manager until they finally let me talk to a real tech, he did say that there are times when the tab don't work for them too and they resort to battery-direct.

Here's hoping I don't mess up again, but if I do, I'll look and measure a lot more carefully.

will

 

I've moved our GB40 device over to our other car, a 2.5L turbocharged Mazda.

I just bought a new GB20 device for the Prius.