cmcraig

Well this just happened last night. Ugh. So my wife, 2 kids, and myself had been out Christmas shopping since 10am. We finished up and decided to go get some dinner around 8:00. Ate, got ready to leave and the Jeep wouldn't start. No lights left on. No indication of a dying battery. Nothing. So I called my buddy and he came to rescue us. Hooked up the cables and nothing. The battery was so toasted it wouldn't even jump. Thank god there was a parts store open till 10,but it was 30 minutes away. My buddy and my wife hurried off to get s new battery. I stayed with the screaming crazy kids. After almost an hour waiting, got the new battery in and we were on our way. Told my wife I wanted this setup for Christmas. Lol. Probably won't happen, but it's worth a shot.

Ribeye3

Here's my story!!

I once drove a used car from Riverhead NY to Kearney NE that is 1500 miles without an issue! But once I got to my house I went to run a few errands in the car and it wouldn't start. Pretty lucky if you ask me!!

That being said:

I have never had a dead battery in my Jeep and I don't plan to start, so please hook me up!!

PLEASE!!!

PLEASE!!

PLEASE!

Thanks!

LoneWolf

Having changed jobs to a new organization that actually afforded me a little time off with my family, my wife and I decided it would be a great idea to take the kids to our local drive-in theater.

They were showing a double-header that night, with the first feature for the kids and the second more for moms and dads. We backed into place and dropped the top to offer the best view possible of the big screen. From the comfort of the Jeep, our 6- and 8-year-old enjoyed their movie, then drifted off to sleep as my wife and I enjoyed the second film.

Naturally, the Jeep was on accessory the entire time -- relying on the five-year-old original factory battery to power the speakers and, we assumed, carry us home.

When the movie was over, we hopped out and put the top back on as everyone filed out of the theater. I got back in, turned the key and -- nothing! We looked at each other and were trying to decide who to call when I noticed a man fighting to start an SUV at the far end of the parking lot. As I approached him, I could see he was in a similar situation. The young man, both he and his wife dressed to the nines, carried a portable battery charger with him, but clearly had never used it before and had no idea how it worked or how to attach it to his $60,000 SUV.

"I'll make a deal with you," I joked. "I'll hook this up for you if you'll let me borrow it to start mine."

A few minutes later, we both were back in business.

I thought I'd dodged a bullet, but when the same battery died after a day of wheeling the following weekend, I knew the old battery had given everything it had. The next day, I replaced it with an Optima Yellowtop.

pbujku13

0-dark-30, a few years ago and a different Jeep (a WK).... on a steep incline parked in the grass on the side of a one way road, in complete darkness, while leaving from meeting with some friends, in an unfamilar part of a small town, the jeep wouldn't turn over, and then was utterly and completely dead. My phone is dying and there isn't much of a signal, I manage to get a hold of someone who then was able to get AAA.

Assistance finally came, hours later, but the portable battery jumper was too weak and wasn't working, so we jumped it until it was idling for a while and the alternator seemed to be putting some e- back in to the battery and that lasted until almost the top of the hill in the road, where the jeep promptly died, trapping the help and now blocking any potential through traffic . We had to wait for AAA towing to show up as there was no way to get a working battery to the jeep (no 24 hours), and the portable isn't working, and I am blocking the road and the assistance that came.

The battery is replaced. All seems well.....

I am driving in a several story tall parking garage, when the engine light comes on and all the pretty white smoke that keeps the engine working starts to escape. The alternator is on fire!! after all the pretty smoke, clears and the fire is extinguished, the battery plastic connect covers are slightly melted, and the battery clearly has never charged much from the alternator and is dead (and possibly damaged).
AAA was called, but couldn't get a tow truck in the garage.
The garage is continuously charging me by the hour, and I had to get to my scheduled MRI (yeah fun laying in a small machine worrying about 2 things now instead of 1) so I had to call AAA (again) hours later to assist a controlled neutral/brake maneuver the jeep out of the garage down several floors onto a tow bed later at night.

New alternator, some wiring, and another new battery, and an engine bay cleaning later....

Took that WK on trails it wasn't quite rated for, and then sold it to get my JK within a year.

spicoli

I don't know if it is the best story, but it was not a fun situation. On my honeymoon, my wife and I did a west coast cross country road trip filled with backpacking and off-roading and tons of camping, 5 weeks long honeymoon - was pretty awesome. One of our backpacking trips was in Big Sur in California, we hiked thru the park, camping for 3 nights/4days. When we came out back to the car around dinner time, the battery was completely dead. Lights were not left on or anything, battery just gave out and committed suicide. Additionally we were in a relatively remote area that did not get much traffic and we were in a downhill, so I could not push start the car (i drive a manual) because the only way to go is up. Some people did drive by occasionally, just not often. I had jumper cables and was waving the rare car down, but none would stop. We were parked on a little parking area off the "highway" with ~50mph speed limit. We were getting close to the end of the daylight when finally someone stopped and gave us a jump. We had been looking or trying to wave someone down for a few hours. We got it jumped and drove the 2hrs to get to the closest Sears, where the auto division was closed for the evening and parked our car there. We didn't want to pitch a tent in the parking lot for safety reasons so we walked about a 1/2 mile to a near by motel to sleep. Got a new battery the next morning and were back on our trip heading to Death Valley before lunch. It was a great trip.

FlexyJK

Just this past weekend we were on our Annual Guys run. This year we went to Valley of the Moon. My Jeep usually sits in the garage as i have a motorcycle i commute on. I never used to have a problem with it. The evening before the run it was dead so i jumped it and then put it on the trickle charger. Next morning it started up with no problems. I probably turned it off and started it about 10 or 12 times that day and never had a issue or hesitation with the battery. We got to camp and i parked it for the night. I had the doors open for a bit and maybe had the CB on for a lil longer but nothing out of the ordinary. Woke up the next morning and bam...nothing. And of course this one time i didn't have any cables. So i asked a buddy and got heckled from all the guys got some pictures and chalked it up to a one time thing. Throughout the day while stopping here and there on trails i didn't turn it off as I didn't want to chance it. So we stop for lunch after a couple of hours of wheeling and i thought maybe it was good now. After lunch I hop back in and nothing!!!!!! The issue now is the way we are all parked and there is no way to turn around. Finally someone saves the day after borrowing cables again and getting them to turn around without falling off the dooming cliff. At this time i have had to jump it about 3 times and i was that GUY! And of course every time i needed a jump i will never live it down and got tons of crap for it. We get to camp and i shut it off knowing i will need another jump. Next morning sure enough its dead as a door nail. But once i got the jump it ran perfect! Its sucks not knowing if you will be able to start the Jeep again and if you will have to bug someone for a jump, i would much rather be the guy giving the jumps with 2 batteries.

69mach1

My story is the day to day varity About ~ six months back I'm all ready to make the 5 mile trek to work, pop into the Jeep and notice the no interior lights when I get in... not a good sign. Turn the key and zippo, not even a click click click My less than 3 year old Optima Red top battery gave up the ghost for no reason what so ever. I was relieved it was in my garage and not out on the trail, so that day I was forced to drive my 69 Mustang Mach1 to work, such a chore but I endured I replaced my Optma Red Top with a Sears Diehard of similar construction. Two months later I come out to go to work and bingo, the Diehard is dead as a door nail, once again I am forced to drive the 69 Mach1 to work and again I endured I took the Diehard back to Sears and instead of replacing it they put it on their "special" charger, the next morning they tell me my battery is fine so no new battery IN both instances I troubleshot the electrical system on the JK and all checks out fine The moral of this story is I need a dual battery system so the next time one of these high falunt'en batteries goes t!ts up I can push a button and still get my rig going whether it be to work or out wheeling/camping in the sticks. That would put a smile on my face that would simply be immeasurable That and not having to explain to my wife why we can't start the Jeep and head home after a wonderful day of wheeling/camping in the back country.
The last benny is knowing when I'm using my winch to get out of a sticky spot I still have a backup battery to make the trip home should the winch battery give up the ghost while actually working like a dog
Hoping Santa is kind putting this slick dual battery system under the Christmas tree this year

Merry Christmas guys and gals

Jon aka "69mach1" Ringard with pinkies crossed

Ps. Made in America ta-boot Ooorhaa!

StripyMonkey

I had my Jeep before getting married. Shortly after my youngest step-daughter when off to college. My wife nicely let her take her car. That made it so my wife began driving the Jeep to work. At first she wasn't too in to the Jeep. But soon she warmed up to it. Until the stock battery started to fail. Fortunately her drive to work is only a couple miles. I got it replaced. But haven't a dual battery setup would relieve any doubt on if the Jeep will start when we are out in the middle of nowhere let alone on her short commute to work.

Thanks for this great give away.

Sparkee

This is a story from my wife’s first pregnancy with our daughter. This is not a wheeling story but it may give insight to something most people take for granted. As some can imagine, firsts in one’s life are usually filled with elevated emotions, planning, preparation etc. so I tried to plan for everything.
It was January 16 2006 when I arrived home early from work. My wife’s due date was in 10 days so we are officially in the red zone 4th and inches from the goal line of this pregnancy. It was a typical week night at our home, do some chores, eat dinner, and watch a little TV then go to bed around 9pm. Fast forward a couple of hours my wife wakes up and with contraction pain. She is in the medical community and is well aware of the symptoms of the impending birth. So without hast we notified our hospital, loaded our bags into the car and let our family know to let the dogs out. When I was loading the car I didn’t notice the lack of interior lights which at that time did not seem like a big issue because of the motion sensor light on the house lit up the car. So far so everything is moving as planned.
With the car loaded I decided to warm up the car while my wife was doing some last minute things and to my surprise the car did not turn over. There was really no need to panic because we had another vehicle but I did not want to unpack the car and drive the smelly work truck. So it was just a matter of jump starting the car which is not really a big deal. I then remembered that Cola is a dilute phosphoric acid solution and it will clean the corrosive salts off the battery terminal. I gave this a try since I had some cola handy in the car. I poured the can of soda on the battery terminals and it worked. The car started up and we were ready to go. We took our time and drove to the hospital without issue, later that morning my wife gave birth to our daughter. Sorry there were no Hollywood heroics to this story but to me it was still pretty exciting.
So the moral of the story to all you fathers and mothers to be is always change your old car battery when you are going to have a baby or have a Genesis Off Road Dual Battery Kit (shameless plug).

Thanks for the contest

afletche

I have the perfect story for this competition. It's a long story and it was while ago so I may have misremembered some of the details......

About 5 years ago I went on a 3 day offroading/camping trip in Hungary with my wife. We had a tricked out Jeep with pretty much everything you could want in an offroad vehicle, except of course, a dual battery setup…….

After the first day of relentless uphill trail climbing we finally stopped to setup camp for the night. We were high in the mountains (about 10,000’) and I was a little out of breath as I sat drinking a beer while my wife gathered firewood, pitched the tent and cooked our dinner. After she’d cleaned up the cooking stuff we settled down for the night. Now I don’t believe in ghosts and all that but I was pretty freaked out by some of the noises I heard that night. But even though I sent my wife out several times to investigate she couldn’t discover the source. It was a long night, but finally it got light and we decided to get out of there as quickly as we could.

Once my wife had loaded up the Jeep we jumped in. But as you have probably guessed, it wouldn’t start – no power at all – so she opened up the hood, checked the battery and it was completely flat.

We were a long way from anywhere and the chance of a car coming by were zero so I knew we were on our own. A few miles back we’d seen a spooky looking old castle built high into the cliffs. It was probably a good 5 mile hike/climb but we didn’t have much choice, and I definitely wasn’t going to spend another night out there with whatever was making those noises!

It was rugged terrain and the locals told of wild packs of wolves in the area. Luckily we were travelling with our dog, George, who is a pretty tough beast. So I felt quite safe staying by the Jeep with George as my wife set off alone on the perilous journey to the old spooky castle.

Not sure what took her so long but I was Ok with George and I passed the time drinking a couple beers. Eventually she returned, on an old rusted bicycle with flat tires. There’d been no answer from the castle but she saw the bike and decided it would be quicker to ride back down the steep rocky trail vs. walking. She had some pretty significant cuts and bruises from repeatedly falling but seemed to be in reasonably good spirits now she was back at the Jeep.

Not wanting to waste any more time I had her get me another beer while I made a plan. I did some MacGyvering and with my directions she managed to jack up the rear tire of the bike off the ground with some rocks and a spare axle shaft that I had in the Jeep. Using a ratchet strap and some duct tape I had her fashion a pulley system and hook the bike to the alternator so we could pedal it and slowly charge the battery.

At 10,000’ it was hard work, but my wife was a trooper on that thing while I had another couple of beers. After she had been furiously pedaling for a couple hours I checked the voltage and it looked good. I tried the engine and amazingly it fired up. Awesome! We were going to be OK after all. Unfortunately at that point my wife collapsed and died. After burying her, me and George were back on our way.

But that’s when things took a turn for the worse……

Our plan was to head back down the way we had come but as soon as we set off there was a rockslide that hit the Jeep, broke all of our lights and made the trail completely impassable. So we were forced to continue heading up the trail, into the dark, cloudy mountainous pass that lay ahead of us.

We climbed for hours, going thru rocky canyons, testing the full capabilities of the Jeep. Because my wife had taken so long on her trip to the castle, and the time I spent burying her, we were not going to get over the pass before morning. And with no lights on the Jeep I knew we’d be spending the night outside again.

I managed to pitch the tent on my own as George was no use, and we hunkered down inside, terrified of what was out there. The noises were back, this time louder and closer – They were like the screams of tormented souls. I was unable to get to sleep and had to send George outside to scare away whatever it was making those noises. Each time he’d crawl back into the tent with more cuts and scratches, but each time the noises would eventually return so I had to push him out of the tent once more.

Somehow we made it thru the night, and at first light I bundled everything into the Jeep so we could get over the pass and back to civilization. But of course, the Jeep wouldn’t start. And worse, my wife had died before she was able to load the rusty bicycle into the Jeep.

So it was up to me and George to get ourselves out of there. We abandoned the Jeep and set off on foot up the trail. Knowing it would be hard I loaded up just the most essential survival equipment. It was hard, really hard, but we struggled on. At times George became so tired from dragging the harness I had attached to him so he could pull the cooler, so we’d stop and I’d have a beer. When we stopped I was sure we were being watched, so George had to patrol the perimeter to make sure nothing was there.

And that’s when things got really bad.....

Wolves attacked us. George fought bravely and managed to kill 5 of them and chase off the rest. However, he was badly injured as a wolf had bitten off one of his feet. I’m not a vet but it was clear he wouldn’t survive another night out in the mountains.

I knew I had to make a hard choice so we abandoned the cooler and I set off again with George dragging his bloody stump next to me. We walked for what seemed like days. Several times I fell from exhaustion but George would drag me on, literally pulling my limp body up the trail. Eventually we heard the sound of an engine! Could it be a car? Had we made it thru the pass and were now close to a road? With a new burst of energy we ran ahead and all of sudden came upon a narrow dirt road. And ahead we saw some lights. It was an old car heading towards us! We were saved!

I flagged it down. The driver was an old Hungarian man who looked about 90. I tried to explain but he spoke no English. I used my hands to ask if we could get in and he nodded. I crawled into the car and just as George was dragging his ravaged body towards me the old man said “No dog”.

I was crushed. After all we’d been thru, after being on the verge of death only to be saved by George, our path to freedom was taken away from us because this crazy old Hungarian didn’t like dogs.

It was a little sad to watch George try to run alongside the car for a while but eventually he couldn’t keep up and I felt even sadder watching him getting smaller in the rearview mirror as we drove away but I like to think he somehow got out of there on his own.

I’ve never been back to Hungary, but if I do I will definitely not go without my brand new Genesis Off Road JK Dual Battery Kit.