Amazon Link: Trekure TK50
There is no worse feeling than discovering your car’s battery is dead. I hate it. I hate propping my hood open and waiting for a kind stranger willing to help me jump start my car. It makes me feel anxious, embarrassed, desperate, and sometimes scared.
Many years ago, I discovered a “portable” car battery jump starter. I put “portable” in quotes because the decide was essentially a car battery inside a plastic case. It weighed like 50 pounds and was too big to carry around in my trunk all the time, which meant whenever the battery in my car died, the jump starter I owned was conveniently at home in my garage.
Things have changed. Portable car battery jump starters are small enough to store in your glove compartment or under your seat. They only need to be charged a couple of times a year, and can make the difference between being stranded and being on the road.
There are a zillion different brands and models of these things. As you can imagine, a lot of the difference is in build quality and frankly, I don’t want the device I’m depending on to save me to break when I need it the most.
The Trekure TK50 is kind of like the Cadillac of car battery jump starters. Actually, that’s not a good comparison — it’s more like a high end off-road Jeep. This is the most rugged, most well built, and highest capacity car battery jump starter I’ve ever used or owned.
The TK50 is as tough on the outside as it is on the inside. The case is compact, dense, and rugged. I keep using that word, but it’s true. Compared to some of the other jump starters I own which are plastic and feel hollow, this one feels like it won’t break if it accidentally slides off the hood of your car and hits the ground. Actually, it kind of feels like you could drive over it a few times and nothing would happen.
Like all of these jump starters, the TK50 comes with a set of short alligator clips and a USB A-to-C cable for charging. Unlike some of the others I own, it also comes with a small bag for storing everything.
One of my favorite features is the small rubber flap that covers the starters two USB-A ports and USB-C port. The USB-C port is an in/out that can be used to charge other devices or the unit itself. The USB-A ports are for charging other devices from the unit’s 26,800mAh battery, which is conveniently just a hair under the FAA’s limit meaning you could take this on vacation with you, charge your phone and earbuds on the plane, and still jump start your car if you left your lights on in the airport parking lot.
This battery is somehow able to put out a whopping 8,000 amps, which is enough to jump start up to a 14L engine. For the record, large semi-trucks have 14L engines. This will jump start anything you drive.
There is nothing worse than being away from home and discovering your battery is dead. Even if you have jumper cables, you have to call someone or worse, flag down a stranger. Having one of these in your car takes away depending on someone else to bail you out. If you’ve never used one, it’s pretty impressive.
Oh, one other important thing is the built-in security circuits inside the TK50. If the unit determines you’ve hooked the jumper cables up backwards or if something in your battery is defective, instead of sending 8,000 amps into a battery that might blow your head off, the charger instead gives you a warning. In the rare occasion that you’re trying to start a super dead battery there is a manual override system that can be used. I once had a friend hook up jumper cables backwards and it blew every single fuse under his dash. The guy at Autozone we talked to that evening was both horrified and a little impressed. You don’t want that to happen.
I have one of these car battery jump starters in every vehicle I own. I don’t want my wife, kids, or myself to get stuck somewhere. If you’re only going to own one of these things, the Trekure TK50 is the one to own.
Amazon Link: Trekure TK50
