RC Myths- Fact or Fiction – LiPo Car Starting!

Ever hear that you can jump start your 1:1 car with an rc car Lipo battery? Well, so have we, and like the all American good guys were are, we decided to put the rumor to the test, so you don’t have to! 🙂

First we drained the battery on a full size Ford Taurus. We did this by charging a few big 4S 6500 mah Lipo’s off a Hyperion 720 at 15 amps. We checked to make sure the car battery was too low to start the car, then it was showtime!

Earlier we had fully charged a MaxAmps 3S 5250 mah Lipo and removed it’s Deans connector. We then soldered the wires from the MaxAmps pack directly to a set of large automotive battery clamps. Lets Watch!

As you see in the video I attempt to start to the car, then jump out and hook up the MaxAmps Lipo battery and try to start it again. The 3S 5250 pack had more than enough power to successfully start the car. The Lipo did not get hot, puff, or seem to be damaged in any way.

But…. upon further inspection, we found that during the brief time the Lipo had been hooked up to the car after the engine was started, the cars alternator had overcharged the Lipo battery. Using the Lipo for the jump start had used very little energy out of the pack, and once the car was started, the brief charge it got from the alternator was enough to put the Lipo well past 12.6 volts, the maximum voltage recommended for a 3S Lipo. For this reason, although the Lipo did jump start the car successfully and we had no other problems with the pack, I would not recommend trying this at home. If you overcharge your Lipo battery too much (which will happen
Really fast when hooked up to a cars electrical system) the battery can, and will, go in to thermal runaway, ruining the Lipo and becoming dangerous to be around.

To boil it down- Yes! It’s a Fact, you CAN jump start a full size car with an rc car Lipo battery!

YOUR Cub Reporter