Home made battery box or jump starter

[TheOtherLeft]

Which would be more useful, a home made battery box or buying a new jump starter?

My current jump starter has crapped itself due to lack of use (didn't keep the battery charged).

Whichever I choose it would be used to jump start my Suzi plus power for lighting etc.

I can assemble a battery box easily enough and can then build it to suit my needs. Or would a jump starter be just as good?

What type of battery would be best to use - SLA, AGM, flooded cell? Even though a SLA is a deep cycle can it be used to jump start a 4 cylinder engine?

[-Scott-]

Which would be more useful, a home made battery box or buying a new jump starter?

My current jump starter has crapped itself due to lack of use (didn't keep the battery charged).

Whichever I choose it would be used to jump start my Suzi plus power for lighting etc.

I can assemble a battery box easily enough and can then build it to suit my needs. Or would a jump starter be just as good?

What type of battery would be best to use - SLA, AGM, flooded cell? Even though a SLA is a deep cycle can it be used to jump start a 4 cylinder engine?

Without knowing a lot about them, I've never been keen on the "jump starter" packs. I guess I don't trust the combination of price point and the typical claims, so I've always regarded them as a cheap & nasty solution. As I said, I've never looked closely, so take that opinion as you will. That's the "disclosure" bit.

Personally, I would build a custom battery box, so I know exactly what's in it, and what to expect from it.

I would choose an AGM with a good CCA rating, because AGMs tend to have excellent power density (Ah per volume), and they typically suffer most from high underbonnet temperatures - which I presume won't be an issue here.

A large SLA may have enough CCA to start your Suzi, but I wouldn't want to rely on it, particularly if your Suzi can be hard to start (i.e. you might get away with a short burst, but I wouldn't try prolonged cranking.)

[DamTriton]

SLA's poop themselves very early on if you use them for jump starting too often. Simply not designed for it, but doing it once or twice a year would be acceptable.

As Scott said, go with an AGM

[jop]

I have a box made up using 6 x 17ah sla's for my camp trailer.

Not the ideal as it weigh's a lot and is rather large, but i got the batteries for nix - ups batteries.

Wired to anderson plug and plugged into distibution panel/isolator/gauge mounted in trailer
Or plug in charger or jumper cables.