Heavy Duty JUMPER LEADS Booster Cables Jump Start 600AMP 2.1M Long Car Battery

A flat battery at a bush campsite is really a two-vehicle problem: someone has to park close enough to reach your terminals. At 2.1 metres, these leads let a rescue car sit nose to nose and still reach. They are listed at 600 amp — the supplier's own body copy says 1000 amp, so work to the lower figure.

Reading the amp figure before you buy

The two numbers do not agree, and nothing in the supplied data reconciles them, so 600 amp is what appears here and what you should plan around. Whether that rating is a peak, a surge or a continuous figure goes unstated. Ratings printed on booster cables are very often surge numbers, and on this product the basis is simply not given. No conductor gauge or cross-section is published either, and neither can be read off an amp number.

Copper-coated aluminium that stays workable in the cold

The conductor is aluminium under a copper coating, which keeps a 2.1 metre set light enough to lift one-handed and small enough to live in the bag it ships with. The supplier states the cable remains flexible in cold conditions - worth something at six on a frosty morning, when stiff cable springs off the terminal every time you set it down. Clamps are insulated across the grip, leaving bare metal only at the jaws.

Key features

• 2.1 m reach: approximate, per the supplier; enough to bridge two cars parked front to front.
• Fully insulated clamps: covered grips, bare metal only at the jaws.
• Copper-coated aluminium: lighter than solid copper over the same length.
• Carry bag supplied: the set stays together instead of tangling round the jack.

Specifications

• Rating (title): 600 amp
• Rating (supplier body text): 1000 amp - conflicts with the title; buy on 600 amp
• Basis of rating: not stated - peak, surge or continuous is not specified
• Length: 2.1 m (approx.)
• Cable thickness: 10 mm (approx.); conductor or overall covered diameter is not specified
• Conductor: copper-coated aluminium
• Clamps: fully insulated
• Gauge / cross-section: not published

What's in the box

• Jumper leads
• Carry bag

Before you connect them

• Follow the order both handbooks give: positive on the flat battery, positive on the donor, negative on the donor, then the last clamp to bare metal on the flat vehicle, away from its battery. Come off in reverse.
• Keep the clamps clear of each other, and of panels and bodywork, while any end is live.
• A frozen, cracked, leaking or swollen battery is not jumped. It is replaced.
• Some makers nominate a specific earth point or rule out jump starting altogether.

Worth leaving in the boot permanently rather than buying in a hurry when it is already too late.