Maverick Hybrid as Booster Vehicle?

[Randorita]

I left my Schumacher jump/air compressor out in the rain, and bought a Wolfbox 4000 to take it's place. I like it, except I have to hit the boost button to jump my mower. Good idea to keep one in every vehicle and keep it charged.

Sponsored

 

[Glen Baker LLC]

I left my Schumacher jump/air compressor out in the rain, and bought a Wolfbox 4000 to take it's place. I like it, except I have to hit the boost button to jump my mower. Good idea to keep one in every vehicle and keep it charged.

Probably a good thing you left your Schumacher out in the rain.
I quit buying Schumacher after the second one split its case when the battery expanded. I sent the first one in for warranty and I'll be darned if it didn't happen again.

 

[Randorita]

I actually used it today on my mower and all is good.

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

Also, for long term storage, keep the thing charged to 70-80% or so. Keeping lithium batteries charged to 100% for extended periods will shorten how many cycles the cells will last.

They are "good" for 5,000 cycles.

Just how many jump starts do you intend to do???

They are TINY in capacity.
ALWAYS charge to 100%.
Why limit something tiny by an additional 20 or 30 percent?

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

The only real issue trying to use the Maverick Hybrid to jump something is the low CCA of the 12v battery, a jump pack is a much better option. Likely safe bet is another hybrid vehicle, anything else, good luck.

The stock 12v hybrid battery (when charged of course) has 4 times the capacity of the top of the line "jump pack" and 10 times the capacity of the average jump pack.

I'm not saying they don't work, but I've not yet seen a jump pack that didn't grossly overstate their abilities.

4000 amps? Yeah, right. For 0.0001 second.

Guess what? The stock 12v battery can put out 20,000 amps for 0.0001 second.

Impressed? Me neither. Ya gotta know the language.

 

[notfast]

They are "good" for 5,000 cycles.

Just how many jump starts do you intend to do???

They are TINY in capacity.
ALWAYS charge to 100%.
Why limit something tiny by an additional 20 or 30 percent?

Well it depends on the specific type of lithium batteries. Common Samsung 30Q 18650s are lithium ion and rated for 250-500 cycles to 80% capacity. Lithium iron phosphate cells can last 2000-5000 cycles with proper care, but are far less common.

A jump pack with 18650s charged to 80% will definitely be able to jump start a dead (0.00V) battery at least twice. Probably jump start a low battery ten times or more.

Do as you please since it's your money after all. But there's good reasons why BMS's charge HEV/EV/12v batteries to no more than 85%. To me, charging to 100% is like filling your fuel tank until fuel is at the top of the filler pipe. The air space in the fuel tank is there by design.

More important than charge percentage is making sure that you check the charge status regularly, as well as testing it. Obviously you won't be able to find a conveniently dead battery, but at least power the thing on and connect the cable clamps to be sure the unit is ready to go.

Unlike jumper cables or old school jump packs with lead acid or gel batteries, lithium jump packs have a BMS with several sensors that may malfunction at an inopportune time.

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

Do as you please since it's your money after all. But there's good reasons why BMS's charge HEV/EV/12v batteries to no more than 85%.

Yes! And the reason is:

HEV's charge & discharge 10, 20, sometimes 50 times per day!

So again I ask, who on earth is using a jump pack 10, 20, sometimes 50 times per day?

EV's are minimum 30 times as large so cycle one-thirtieth as often but it's still weekly, or 52 times per year, minimum.

Again I ask: "WHO DOES THAT WITH A JUMP PACK?"

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

Related but different situation:

I have a 36 volt golf cart.
Three 12 volt batteries in series.
With a 12 volt battery charger, I can charge each battery independently while still wired to the vehicle.
As we were taught in school, current only flows between the two attachment points.

One battery is weaker than the other two. Say two are 100Ah and one for whatever reason is 95Ah.

I thought I could attach my small jump pack to that 95Ah one to "boost" it.
When I attached the jump pack to exactly one 12v battery - the jump pack beeped out - blinked out - some kind of error.

It thought something was foul. Wrong polarity. Wrong voltage. Something. No actual data. Just error light came on and no juice flowed.

Detached one battery lead from golf cart and it worked.

Who can explain why the battery charger works attached to vehicle but the jump pack won't?

 

[Ranko Kohime]

"Exercising" them is a good idea, but if your jump pack requires monthly charges to mitigate self-discharge, the cells are going bad. Neither lithium ion or SLA batteries have a self-discharge rate that require charging that frequently unless they've aged considerably or been treated poorly.

I may not have made it obvious, but I meant use it to charge your phone, so that it is discharged, then charge it. Run it down, then charge it, on a monthly basis. It shouldn't require monthly charges if left alone, but left alone for 3 years? (Which is how long it will sit if you don't have a habit of using it.)

 

[Tbone289]

I may not have made it obvious, but I meant use it to charge your phone, so that it is discharged, then charge it. Run it down, then charge it, on a monthly basis. It shouldn't require monthly charges if left alone, but left alone for 3 years? (Which is how long it will sit if you don't have a habit of using it.)

I understand, but there's really no benefit to doing that.

Lithium ion batteries don't age 'on the shelf' as much at partial charge as they do from frequently charging to 100%. Use them for whatever you want, but you won't get longer service from them as a jump box by doing what you're suggesting.

On the other hand, if you're using an SLA jump box, yes, I would suggest charging it to 100% fairly frequently.

 

[Glen Baker LLC]

Go with a maintenance free *superconductor jump pack and forget about the maintenance nonsense.

*Superconductor ≠ Supercapacitor

 

[Tbone289]

Go with a maintenance free superconductor jump pack.

I prefer lithium ion because I like to have them available to power devices in emergency situations. Supercapacitorr jump packs are more of a one trick pony. To me the versatility provided by lithium packs are worth the very minor maintenance required.

That is, I prefer them for vehicle storage. Around the shop I still prefer SLA for their greater energy storage, which is a tradeoff for the weight penalty.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

I'm sure someone here will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that as long as the Maverick is in the ready mode you will not be limited by its small battery as it's getting power from the HVB via the DC-DC inverter. Other wise I would not expect much ability to jump from just it's 12v battery by itself. It can, but will be very limited.

If the hybrid is in ready state the dcdc converter can output up to 265 amps but the battery positive is protected with a 200 amp fuze just be sure to use a good body ground, not the negative post. So the limit would be 200 amps for both batteries so maybe for safety your jumper cable should have 50-80 amp fuze just in case your 12v maverick battery is really hungry. I'm just going to use my jump box....

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

Go with a maintenance free superconductor jump pack and forget about the maintenance nonsense.

I thought you were going to act your age.

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

Superconductor ≠ Supercapacitor

Sponsored