In message , Dave Plowman
writes
In article ,
Clint Sharp wrote:
That's why jump leads are thick heavy wires.
Ever dissected a set? Most are just lots of thick insulation.

Must be cheap ones then. The minimum should be 16mm and decent ones are
25. But cost.

Oh yeah, definitely cheap to make but not necessarily cheap to buy and
most definitely in the majority. I've rarely seen a set of retail jump
leads that were anything like man enough to start a car straight away.

Having said that, I'd rather let the 'dead' vehicle get some charge from
a cheap set of leads and have it start from its own battery. Much kinder
to my alternator and battery.

If the person asking for help hasn't got enough patience to wait for
5-10 minutes then they can get stuffed, I usually find most are grateful
just to sit in a nice warm car for a while after being stranded anyway.
--
Clint Sharp

In article ,
Clint Sharp wrote:
Must be cheap ones then. The minimum should be 16mm and decent ones are
25. But cost.

Oh yeah, definitely cheap to make but not necessarily cheap to buy and
most definitely in the majority. I've rarely seen a set of retail jump
leads that were anything like man enough to start a car straight away.

16mm meter tails can be bought from TLC for a couple of quid a metre. So
say 8 quid for the wire and 5 for decent clips. So should be on Ebay for
this sort of cost. Very flexible ones will cost more.

Having said that, I'd rather let the 'dead' vehicle get some charge from
a cheap set of leads and have it start from its own battery. Much kinder
to my alternator and battery.

Indeed. But if the battery is very flat you'll still need decent leads.
There's a danger of cheap ones melting.

If the person asking for help hasn't got enough patience to wait for
5-10 minutes then they can get stuffed, I usually find most are grateful
just to sit in a nice warm car for a while after being stranded anyway.

--
*A journey of a thousand sites begins with a single click *

Dave Plowman London SW 12

"Dave Plowman" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Laurence Payne wrote:
It's 90 quid for 20 AH. My new battery was 36 quid for 40 AH.

And if you keep a spare at home, charged and ready, it can compete
with one of these boxes.

I have a spare which doubles as the standby for the central heating should
we have a power failure. Since doing that installation we haven't had one.
;-)

After the miners' strike I built a second coal house and put three tons of
coal in it. There never was another strike and eventually we went over to
gas anyway. I have a dipalidated building containing three tons of coal on
my hands. Suggestions?

Bill

"Bill Wright" wrote in message
...

"Dave Plowman" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Laurence Payne wrote:
It's 90 quid for 20 AH. My new battery was 36 quid for 40 AH.

And if you keep a spare at home, charged and ready, it can compete
with one of these boxes.

I have a spare which doubles as the standby for the central heating
should
we have a power failure. Since doing that installation we haven't had
one.
;-)

After the miners' strike I built a second coal house and put three tons of
coal in it. There never was another strike and eventually we went over to
gas anyway. I have a dipalidated building containing three tons of coal on
my hands. Suggestions?

Bill


Some sort of fire maybe?

You could always burn your gas bills on a coal fire.

Adam

On Sep 7, 7:51*pm, "Bill Wright" wrote:
"Dave Plowman" wrote in message

...

In article ,
* Laurence Payne wrote:
It's 90 quid for 20 AH. My new battery was 36 quid for 40 AH.

And if you keep a spare at home, charged and ready, it can compete
with one of these boxes.

I have a spare which doubles as the standby for the central heating should
we have a power failure. Since doing that installation we haven't had one.
;-)

After the miners' strike I built a second coal house and put three tons of
coal in it. There never was another strike and eventually we went over to
gas anyway. I have a dipalidated building containing three tons of coal on
my hands. Suggestions?

Bill

You could probably build with it. The lattice of mortar would carry
most of the load. Do render it for fire safety though


NT