Just call me Sean

iTrader: (1)

Yesterday I went to work and when I got to the job site my truck stalled. I think my battery is giving out because it's getting hard to start when hot sometimes. So I'm in the middle of the road and I'm trying to start the truck, and the battery dies. Luckily it's a dead end road so there isn't much traffic, so I go ahead and start working and figure the battery will regain some charge in a little while. After about and hour I try to start the truck again to get it out of the road and barely a click, it's dead. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do, how to get home. I could push start it but it's facing downhill towards the trailer, the trailer is backed in the yard towards the house, and the truck is at a curb so even if I tried to unhook the trailer and push it uphill the curb won't help. I figured there was no way I could muster up enough strength to overcome the curb uphill and steer the truck away from the trailer enough to be able to roll it backwards. So now I need to figure out something else. I didn't have jumper cables but even if I did there wasn't anyone around to ask for a jump. So then I had an idea, and I put this to another use:


This is my cordless drill and radio/battery charger. The drill is 18 volts so I figured that was plenty to charge the truck battery. I dissassembled the radio and hooked some wires inside it and removed the truck battery and hooked it up. I plugged in the radio and went back to work for about an hour. After the hour I put the battery in the truck and the thing started right up, cranking faster than it had in a while. The damn thing worked, it charged my battery great. So now I have an emergency truck battery charger/radio.
How's that for redneck ingenuity?

Triton v8

That's pretty awesome!! I can't say that I would have ever thought of that.

Mr B

Thats awesome. I've been using my 14v battery for years to power the 12v accessories when doing electrical repairs (comes in real handy when bench testing parts), but I never would have guessed that the charger would have enough amperage to start a truck. Pretty good advertisement for Milwaukee tools if you ask me. Never would have thought of that.

crazykarl

that is pretty cool.... I have been doing resets for home depot in the hardware dept...been looking at all them tools...thinking how many i need to redo my new fixer upper.... all of my portable tools are 18 volt and wow what a job they do for being 18 volt... but this adds new dexterity to what they can do.... i really want 24 volt though... real bad.

Dark Stone

That is very impressive. Most people would have been stuck. Nice Job.

John

Uncle Tony

Pretty slick. Thanks for the tip.

Good old Bill

Nice going Sean, Megivers wrighters couldn't match that. Next time the battery is talking to your gut, replace the battery! I've said it all my life, the most unreliable thing in an airplane, truck, car, boat or what ever is the battery. Anyway congratts to you, have always recognized your down to earth approach on trouble shooting. Good going.