Finally just bit the bullet and ordered the Truck Pac ES 1224 12V / 24V jump pack. I'm a mobile heavy equipment mechanic. This last month I've run into a few situations needing a 24v jump pack. CAT excavator wouldn't start behind a house on a postage stamp lot. 24V system, weak batteries, couldn't get truck back there to jump start with jumper cables, not enough welding lead to use welding cables at jumper cables, owners wife went out to get 4 new group 31 batteries and she came back with stud type instead of post type batteries (not her fault). Just time wasted. I got this last week. Used it 4 times so far............very handy to have!!
It is HEAVY.......it has 2 batteries inside of it for 12/24v starting. Wife grabbed it over labor day to jump start tractor. She made me come out and carry it over to tractor. Jump starting a 24v loader it did the trick getting it going. The litmus test will be to see 1.) how long the batteries last and 2.) how this will do in 0F weather jumping a piece of equipment.
Pros:
Good long cables on it, 5ft long
Switch on it 12V /OFF / 24V......nice that it has a master switch shutting off clamps. No worry about clamps shorting out riding around in truck.
Seems to pack plenty of power
CONS:
The clamps are kind of cheesy. The hinge point for the clamps is plastic. No metal pins or rivets holding the clamps together.
Charge time (I think this could be better, my opinion only)............out of the box, brand new, the battery indicator showed full charge. I put it on the 110v charger and plugged it in. After 20 hrs the 'GREEN' charge complete light finally came on.
The cable wrap doesn't really work. The cables end up falling off the unit when stored. I'll change that after warranty runs out.
So time will tell...........I'll update this in a year. Right now, I'm happy. Much easier pulling this out than trying to wrangle cables and getting something else with good batteries close to the equipment.
