A settled nomad living on the edge of Appalachia. I love to listen to music, spend time with my family, and play sports. I'm lucky enough to write code for a living. I'm often accused of having no "filter" as I tend to overshare. I make beer on occasion and try to sample new beers whenever I can.
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The black box on the left is a standard 10000mAh Power Bank from Anker. It's handy. But it isn't what this post is about.
The box on the right.. that thing is also a 10,000mAh power brick. It's made by Road Proof. IT's the RPFBBJO1. I don't even know if it is still made. I bought it at AutoZone last summer for my motorcycle which was having some battery issues. AutoZone was selling it at really low, clearance prices.. I think I paid $30. I had not used it to jump start anything until this morning.
With the long quarantine I'd not used my car in a while nor even really gone in the garage. My trunk had popped open that turned on the interior lights. I think I "pocket dialed" my car using my remote door opener button at some point in the past 4 days. My car battery was dead. I mean DEAD.
I grabbed my motorcycle. It was a beautiful morning and I'd not had a chance to ride yet this spring because of all the rain. I went to start it. Nope. It was dead-ish. There was a little life but clearly my "battery tender trickle charger" had not done a good job over the winter - I had replaced the battery last fall and replaced the starter. I'm blaming the charger until I find the real problem. Anyway, I digress.
I hooked it up to the bike, put the bike in neutral, and boom - it started. No problem. I took the Road Proof with me and hit the road for a couple miles; then played disc golf for about an hour, and the bike wouldn't start. The Road Proof got it going again no problem. I decided to ride around for an hour or so before heading home and tested the bike re-start and it seemed to do fine.
I remembered that the Road Proof was supposedly able to jump a car. I had serious reservations but figured; what the heck; might as well try it. I popped the hood and hooked it up. My headlights immediately turned on and the interior lights did too.. but about 5 seconds later it stopped and the little box on the charger cables started doing a light dance. I went to look it up on line and while I was looking the lights turned on again.. 5 seconds of power then the car died again and the box lights danced some more.
I hopped in the car and waited for the next 5 second surge. About 30 seconds later it happened, I pushed in the start button and my car started! No problem. Just bam. I jumped out, took off the cables, and put the car in the driveway so it could run for a bit.
I checked the remaining power in the brick - it was still at a reportedly full charge! Oh, and it has a built in flashlight.
I found it for sale on [Camping World](https://
Plus you can plug your phone or whatever into it and get some extra charge that way too! The flashlight is pretty bright. I wish I had discovered it while I was under the hood. It never hurts to have an extra flash light.
I imagine most of these things work as well as this RoadProof one but I've never used anything else like it. I can't recommend this thing enough. It is the perfect little device to take on a road trip. It might jump your car and at a minimum it will charge your phone.
Here is a well rated one [on Amazon by "Yaber" it's got 2x the power at 20,000mAh](https://
4 min read