I learned talking to a battery expert some years back that batteries are far more complex than we give them credit for being.

For instance, a "dead" battery, one so flat the motor won't crank, and a booster pack so small it won't crank the engine, will do the job *if* you put the booster pack on the dead battery for 20 or 30 minutes and let it sit. The dead battery and the booster try to equalize and the end result is that the dead battery gets brought back up far enough that it actually will now crank the engine, together with the booster pack it is usually enough to start the engine.

It seems just about anything will do it. He was telling me that in fact you could likely resurect a car battery with little more than a meter to monitor progress and 10 D cell batteries. The batteries, wired in series, would produce 15 volts and bring the dead car battery a long way back up.

He also stated, that in most cases, both battery packs and booster cables are ineffective, not because of the lack of source power, but because the wire itself was inadequate and limited current flow.

I made, on his recommendation, a couple sets of booster cables using heavy welding cable. What a difference!! Half the price of a "good" set from the store, and 10 times the cranking power.

Best of luck.

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