Driving a car with a completely dead battery.

[Offgrid]

Obviously this thread is not suitable for drivers of those inconvenient electric cars. Yesterday I had to move Cinders ( 1988 744 ), and it has been on a sorn for a few months pending a major overhaul. Stupidly I hadn't diconnected the battery, as I have been in the habit of firing it up at intervals. I attempted to start the car, and the battery was completely dead. A few months ago I bought one of those brick sized booster boxes, so I thgought that there wouldn't be a problem. I could just jump start it. Wrong! The battery was beyond dead, and just caused the booster to complain about being associated with something that was beyond resurrection. I tried another battery that was destined for the scrap yard, and had the same result.

So what to do? I needed to move the car to gain access to the boot. Suddenly, I was hit by a blinding flash of the obvious. Why did I need a battery, when I had the booster box? So I removed the battery, and placed the booster box in the space. Then I clipped the box terminals to the battery leads for the car. The car started immediately, and I was able to drive it for a short distance.

Obviously this is not a permanent solution, as the box was unsecured, and I hadn't placed any extra insulation around the connecting clips. I've started this thread to alert people to the possibility of using these boxes as a get you home solution, and to encourage people to carry one in the car. They are small and cheap, and can get you out of a number of problems. You can also use them to charge mobile phones and laptops if they support USB charging.