Snowmobile Battery Back-Up in Super Cold Temps

Yesterday evening, we were out on the lake fishing in a near blizzard a few miles from our cabin. Temps were in the single digits and snow was blowing sideways on a strong N wind. We’d been fishing about three hours in our final spot of the day when darkness eventually fell. We decided to pack up and go. I hopped on my 2022 Ski Doo and my heart sank – the battery was stone cold dead. Not even a flicker or click. Of course, we failed to bring a jumper cable or portable battery jump pack, so we were in a bit of a pickle.

Figuring the battery was simply too cold, I removed the chemical hand warmer from my mitten and placed it on the side of the battery near the terminals. A minute later, the sled started as if there was no problem at all. We’re all a bit surprised and felt quite lucky this little trick actually worked so well. We made it back without incident and a new sled battery got ordered this morning.

So, what do you pack or have with you to ensure you don’t get stranded out on the ice with a dead snowmobile battery in bitterly cold temps? Clearly, we were unprepared – which got us thinking about if the same thing had happened while fishing alone since we are on a large, fairly remote lake.

I was always leery of this situation when some sleds went the way of the quads with electric start only. That was some cool out of the box thinking to use the handwarmer. Honestly I wouldn’t want to be in that situation without a pull starter. What about a strap on the primary clutch? That was always the backup if a recoil rope broke? My tool kit came with one. I have done that numerous times and it works.

PS-after thinking about it, Im not sure you can pull over a 4-stroke machine that way?

Noco jump pack come in real handy for things and not always just jumping a battery.

BrianF wrote:

We decided to pack up and go. I hopped on my 2022 Ski Doo and my heart sank – the battery was stone cold dead.

I believe there is an emergency starter rope that is included in the tool kit with Ski Doos. If not, you can certainly make one out of a simple length of small diameter rope.

By wrapping the rope around the primary clutch outer a few ties, you can pull start the sled. I’m sure there are videos on how to do it. Obviously, care is needed to do this and do NOT wrap the rope around your hand, hold the rope flat in your hand so it can pull free if the rope “wraps” somehow.

I’m sure there are videos on how to do this.

Emergency pull rope will do nothing if the battery is stone dead like that – still need the battery to run the ECU and fuel pump. Lithium jump pack rides in the dash compartment always, and that’s about all you can do.

BrianF wrote:

Figuring the battery was simply too cold, I removed the chemical hand warmer from my mitten and placed it on the side of the battery near the terminals. A minute later, the sled started as if there was no problem at all. We’re all a bit surprised and felt quite lucky this little trick actually worked so well. We made it back without incident and a new sled battery got ordered this morning.

Sounds more like a frozen relay or some other electrical gremlin than the battery itself. Batteries don’t go from no juice to no problem.

Just for giggles I’d check to be certain the battery clamps are clean and tight.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

By wrapping the rope around the primary clutch outer a few ties, you can pull start the sled. I’m sure there are videos on how to do it. Obviously, care is needed to do this and do NOT wrap the rope around your hand, hold the rope flat in your hand so it can pull free if the rope “wraps” somehow.

Ive done this with older 2 strokes and it worked fine. However, if they are newer ones with EFI like TSWOBODA said, you need the battery to electrify the fuel pump etc. The ones I did this on were the old fashion EFI on Arctic Cats that were batteryless.
Funny thing you can actually start the engine backwards and a buddy broke the recoil on his Doo and he thought he was stuck there. I took out my strap and wrapped around his clutch but intentionally did it backwards and the engine was rotating backwards so when he hit the gas HE went backwards LOL. You should have seen the look on his face.

tswoboda wrote:

Emergency pull rope will do nothing if the battery is stone dead like that

Had the battery been “stone dead” there’s no way a handwarmer would have brought it back enough to start the sled using e-start. So it wasn’t “stone dead” in the first place. And rarely is a battery actually stone dead if the sled has been running that day which will likely be the case if you need an emergency pull rope.

Also, if it does nothing, why does Ski Doo include the pull rope in the tool kit? I have no idea what the minimum voltage required is. But the point is the pull rope can still work and it’s a trick worth knowing.

So a 3 second search produced this video of the pull rope starting an Ski Doo 800 e-tec.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Had the battery been “stone dead” there’s no way a handwarmer would have brought it back enough to start the sled using e-start. So it wasn’t “stone dead” in the first place. And rarely is a battery actually stone dead if the sled has been running that day which will likely be the case if you need an emergency pull rope.

Hmmm maybe that’s why I said I don’t think it was even a battery thing. I’m not saying you can never clutch start an ACE, in rare circumstances it might work. What I’m saying is there was zero percent chance of it working when OP said his starter “wasn’t even clicking” and the battery was “stone dead”. That engine is 100% not starting if the fuel pump and ECU aren’t activated

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

So a 3 second search produced this video of the pull rope starting an Ski Doo 800 e-tec.

Big difference there is Etec’s are 2s and Ace are 4s – ACE engines don’t even come with a traditional pull start, and no option to add it on. Some Etec’s don’t come with electric start and are pull start only.

Noco 40 and a cordless Milwaukee heat gun for thawing things

Just to add ACE 4 strokes can also be started using the emergency starting rope that Ski Doo provides.

I think some kinds of Lithium batteries can catastrophically damage themselves if they have to start engines when they are too cold, so the trick is to turn them on for a few seconds to warm up and then give it the crank. I wonder if your battery knew it was too cold and didn’t start till it thought it was warm enough?

I always take a small jump pack (the size of a cell phone) when Im in the boat or on the ATV in the winter.

Had an issue with the ATV starting single digit temps once about 2miles from the access point, I know the feeling of a sinking heart. Luckily for me, the only 2 people I could see on the lake had jumper cables

Since then I bought the jump pack and have only had to use it once but I take it with in the boat all spring/summer/fall and on the ATV in the winter

Last fall I helped someone at the launch with his boat, he left the master power on overnight and his 200hp Merc wouldnt start. He was impressed with the little jump pack for sure

Honorable mention if you’re really in a pickle I’ve seen first hand someone take off a leather belt and start a snowmobile. We let it idle the rest of the day .

Ive also seen the dewalt / milwauke drill battery jump start . Never tried it but if I was desperate a guy could fashion something.

Jump pack. Used mine a few weeks ago out on the lake when it got cold and I left the ATV turned on to AC for charging a phone. Not my best move as I could’ve used the jump pack or power block I had with for charging the phone….but I digress. I just bought a Yaber 4500amp pack from Amazon for $60…making these things with air compressors to 150psi now. News to me.

Jump pack is a must have for anything that has a battery that can die in the cold. Also, always keep the jump pack inside your backpack or something that stays inside the portable during the day so it stays at least a little warmer than being left outside in the elements

In a pinch, I’ve used another battery and long forceps and the metal handle of an ice scooper as jumper cables to get a jump. Wasn’t pretty but it worked. Not sure if its big enough but you could try using a vexilar battery for the jumping battery.

Put me in the camp of a loose connection or something like that. No way the battery goes from completely dead to starting the engine just because of a few min of handwarmers. Either way – glad it worked out for you!

Not that hard to make up some short jumper cables out of 8 gauge wire. I always have a set in the boat and the 4 wheeler just in case.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

Put me in the camp of a loose connection or something like that. No way the battery goes from completely dead to starting the engine just because of a few min of handwarmers. Either way – glad it worked out for you!

You may be right. I’m a banker and don’t have a mechanical background, but we did know enough to check the battery for loose connections. They were all tight.

My dad buys a new skidoo every other year and the first thing he does is get a recoil put on it. One of his friends does it for him so there must be some kind of kit you can buy.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Noco jump pack come in real handy for things and not always just jumping a battery.

My wheeler was outside the other night and my noco wouldn’t even jump it. It was close but just wouldn’t start.

One of my worst fears as well. Especially ice fishing solo.

That’s why I’ll stick with carbureted 2 stroke machines. They always start. I’ve seen it too many times with modern machines. They’re not made for the cold.

Jump pack on my ATV battery has saved my arse more than once.

grubson wrote:

That’s why I’ll stick with carbureted 2 stroke machines. They always start. I’ve seen it too many times with modern machines. They’re not made for the cold.

My old pull-start Indy 500. That thing would start in any temp. Kinda miss that sound, too.

You may be able to smell the 2 stroke exhaust just from the pics :). Been a great sled, but think I need to beef up the suspension a little bit for two up as the kid gets older. Wouldnt even know where to begin asking someone to do that and a new(er) track, not many places work on these it seems.

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Last outing on Sat. A guy came around asking if anyone had jumper cables and could jump start his ATV. Finally he found someone with a jump pack. Had it started and running in just a few seconds. If I was using a ATV or snowmobile for ice fishing I would not be without one with me. I would not want to rely on finding someone on the lake with one.

acarroline wrote:

You may be able to smell the 2 stroke exhaust just from the pics :). Been a great sled, but think I need to beef up the suspension a little bit for two up as the kid gets older. Wouldnt even know where to begin asking someone to do that and a new(er) track, not many places work on these it seems.

It’s not overly complicated to do . I put a new track in a 99 Yamaha 6 years ago with no YouTube knowledge. Just went for it . Worse part was the track tensioner bolt on one side was seized up .