217 NO ORDINARY BOOST...

It was a good news/bad news kind of day today. The bad news was that Lisa's little car, 'Ava', wouldn't start. The good news is that it gave me a chance to try out some of the tech bought for the rally, namely the Ring Ultraboost Battery Jump Starter Power Pack.

As well as being snappily titled, it also packs quite a punch. It is a rechargeable unit designed to jumpstart engines without the need for another car - nifty. This baby is designed to safely revive flat batteries on engines up to 3L petrol and 1.5L diesel, even in cold weather or after long periods of inactivity.

According to the blurb, it is a foolproof design, and I agree. Attach the red clip to the positive terminal, the black one to the negative terminal, connect the head unit to the battery pack, and press the 'Boost' button. This sends a surge of electricity to the battery so that when the key is turned, the car fires into life.

And do you know what, it did! A little splutter and then the engine turned over - perfect! We let the engine run a little bit, then took the little lass out for a run - after managing to unlock the brakes (she had been sitting idle for a few months). Some A-roads, some twisty B-roads, a blast down the motorway and then on a link road to home...where the car completely died. Grrr...

No electrical power at all, but fear not, I have my Ultraboost! Bonnet up, clips attached, Boost button pressed, Hey Presto! We are up and running again... until we got outside the house, where the car died again. <sigh> Bonnet up, yadda yadda yadda. Time to park the car up, positioning so it was just so, and it died again. <sigh x2>. One final boost and we were there.

I didn't really need to use my Battery and Alternator Analyser to tell me the battery was completely dead, but it did anyway. On a positive note, it confirmed that the alternator was working like a good 'un, which was a comfort.

So there we have it, should we have a flat battery on our trip, I have just the thing to get us going again. On top of that, the Ultraboost is small enough to fit in our glove box and doubles as a USB powerbank. It also fully recharges in just two hours, which is handy.

I need to change a battery in Lisa's car now, too. A simple case of disconnecting terminals in the right order, unscrewing the battery holder, pulling everything out and then following the whole process in reverse. Well, that is what it looks like in the videos I've watched, let's see how many ways I can cock it up!!!