Mid-winter often brings the click-click-click sound of a starter solenoid signaling its battery is dead. A couple investments greatly reduced my problems when starting winter-chilled equipment.
Battery tenders keep batteries fully charged during the off-season and dramatically improve battery life.
Batteries hate sitting without a full charge, so using these little computerized gizmos that keep batteries at optimum charge actually saves money by extending battery life.
I now have a $40 battery tender on my garden tractor, motorcycle and every machine at home that doesn’t get started on a regular basis during the winter.
Booster Packs, Jump Packs, portable batteries—whatever you call them, they’re way, way better than jumper cables and battery chargers.
The dealership keeps an industrial-grade booster pack plugged into a wall charger all the time, so all mechanics have to do is grab the pack, tote it to a machine, clamp on the cables and crank the engine with full power. No need to drag power cords for a battery charger and wait for batteries to build enough juice to start an engine. No need to mess with getting a pickup truck close enough to use jumper cables.
I keep a small boost pack plugged in at home, and haven’t used my jumper cables for nearly 10 years. A farm-duty jump pack costs from $100 to $500 and will start the biggest 4WD tractors or semi-trucks.
My little home unit retailed for around $60 and has started diesel pickups and small tractors.
