Inverters....

[carlos64030]

I have one of those newer styled Cobra 1000 watt inverters. I simply made my cables out of battery jumper cables. The inverter sits behind the driver's side seat and on the floor, and I run the cables right under the driver's side door and the door jamb. The door's weather stripping protects the cables from any metal contact. I use it for my 700 watt microwave, my laptop, and my computer's sub-woofer speaker system whenever I watch movies.

I've been running this style of set-up for about 2 years without any problems.

[Kevin0915]

I have one of those newer styled Cobra 1000 watt inverters. I simply made my cables out of battery jumper cables. The inverter sits behind the driver's side seat and on the floor, and I run the cables right under the driver's side door and the door jamb. The door's weather stripping protects the cables from any metal contact. I use it for my 700 watt microwave, my laptop, and my computer's sub-woofer speaker system whenever I watch movies.

I've been running this style of set-up for about 2 years without any problems.

any wind noise from that? I have a headphone jack and USB jack in the dash of my 2009 Volvo, i THINK i can select the CD player to AUX and plug in a double-ended "male" jack from my laptop to the jack on the dash for my 'sound' for when i watch movies off my lappy. I tried running my small printer (for when i start doing my logbook on my laptop, too) and it works off one of those 100w cigarette inverters. so pretty much the only thing i would NEED an inverter for, is my microwave, 20in LCD and my XBox. I ownt run the microwave while running the other two....and vice versa. Guess ill give it a whirl for a few days and see how it all works. I think 1000w would do just fine....dont think i have to have 1500. not like i am going to be making an entire christmas dinner in my truck.

[carlos64030]

any wind noise from that? I have a headphone jack and USB jack in the dash of my 2009 Volvo, i THINK i can select the CD player to AUX and plug in a double-ended "male" jack from my laptop to the jack on the dash for my 'sound' for when i watch movies off my lappy. I tried running my small printer (for when i start doing my logbook on my laptop, too) and it works off one of those 100w cigarette inverters. so pretty much the only thing i would NEED an inverter for, is my microwave, 20in LCD and my XBox. I ownt run the microwave while running the other two....and vice versa. Guess ill give it a whirl for a few days and see how it all works. I think 1000w would do just fine....dont think i have to have 1500. not like i am going to be making an entire christmas dinner in my truck.

No wind noise at all. My Volvo's head unit has the AUX jack too and I've never thought about plugging my laptop up that way for sound. I use it for music with the MP3 player on my PDA phone though. I'm sure you'll be more than satisfied with the 1000 watt Cobra inverter. I recommend that one because it has a digital readout that shows how much wattage is currently being used, and it also shows the voltage reading from your batteries. The best feature is that it doesn't make any sounds at all under low power usage.

[Kevin0915]

No wind noise at all. My Volvo's head unit has the AUX jack too and I've never thought about plugging my laptop up that way for sound. I use it for music with the MP3 player on my PDA phone though. I'm sure you'll be more than satisfied with the 1000 watt Cobra inverter. I recommend that one because it has a digital readout that shows how much wattage is currently being used, and it also shows the voltage reading from your batteries. The best feature is that it doesn't make any sounds at all under low power usage.

now i like the digital readout. the only reason i was going with a 1500w inverter was just for extra protection from burning it out. Was planning on about 800w total at any one time.

Yeah, once i got this new truck, and actually had a CD player that WORKED, i stopped off at a Wal-Mart, burned some CDs to play in it, rather than running iTunes off my laptop and using ear-buds. I am sure passing truckers who saw me wearing headphones thought, "look at that stupid swift driver....no wonder they have 5 wrecks a day"

[repete]

Has NOTHING to do with it!!!!

Every inverter out there nowadays has built in overload protection. They WILL shut themselves down if you overload them, or at worst they may fry themselves, but it's very unlikely they'll cause a fire.

What causes fire is high current with high resistance, caused by improper wiring. When you're pulling your 1500 watts through cables that aren't rated for it, or through a bad connection that has too much resistance, you can start a fire.

Fires are caused by drivers who don't know how to wire an inverter, NOT by overtaxing an inverter!

Yep that and some moron that drills a hole and just runs the cable thru it and it frays and shorts out

[Kevin0915]

well seeing how i just needed a jumpstart last night, and now come to find out i need another one this morning, kinda made up my mind that i'm not getting any inverter to put in this truck. I am pretty sure, that the company now will think "what the heck does that guy have on the truck to drain the battery twice and need two jumpstarts?"

Yesterday morning, i had a preplan sent to me and another driver. Aparently on weekends i have to play a game, the 'fastest fingers millionaire' game, to get a load. NICE load too...1100some miles from Phoenix to somewhere in Oklahoma. From the time my QC beeps, to the time it beeped again to tell me the load was removed (cause another driver commited to it first) took about 10 seconds. now how in hell can i even have a chance to commit when my QC is asleep, and has to wake up first.

What ended up happening, by accident, was I had my truck running....the anti-idle kicked in and shut off the engine. I forgot about it, finished watching The DeVinci Code on my laptop, and ended up taking a nap for 4 hours. I wake up, and i've got 10.1v. I get a jump late last night, and got her started.....i went to bed with the ONLY thing plugged still was my plug in cooler and my laptop (lid shut and in hybernate so it wasnt drawing hardly any power).....and guess what.......DAMN TRUCK WONT START AGAIN !!!!

So i guess if Swift wants me to sit for 2 days, this truck dont like it.......they had better keep me rolling.

Phoenix is 20 miles away....thought about going there saturday morning, but then figure i'd sit all day saturday anyways (which i did) and might as well sit till i get a 34hr reset....

[carlos64030]

Kevin, doesn't your Volvo have a low voltage alarm?

[Syncrosonix]

kevin, doesn't your volvo have a low voltage alarm?

ringringringringringringringringringring bananafone!

[Syncrosonix]

well seeing how i just needed a jumpstart last night, and now come to find out i need another one this morning, kinda made up my mind that i'm not getting any inverter to put in this truck. I am pretty sure, that the company now will think "what the heck does that guy have on the truck to drain the battery twice and need two jumpstarts?"

Yesterday morning, i had a preplan sent to me and another driver. Aparently on weekends i have to play a game, the 'fastest fingers millionaire' game, to get a load. NICE load too...1100some miles from Phoenix to somewhere in Oklahoma. From the time my QC beeps, to the time it beeped again to tell me the load was removed (cause another driver commited to it first) took about 10 seconds. now how in hell can i even have a chance to commit when my QC is asleep, and has to wake up first.

What ended up happening, by accident, was I had my truck running....the anti-idle kicked in and shut off the engine. I forgot about it, finished watching The DeVinci Code on my laptop, and ended up taking a nap for 4 hours. I wake up, and i've got 10.1v. I get a jump late last night, and got her started.....i went to bed with the ONLY thing plugged still was my plug in cooler and my laptop (lid shut and in hybernate so it wasnt drawing hardly any power).....and guess what.......DAMN TRUCK WONT START AGAIN !!!!

So i guess if Swift wants me to sit for 2 days, this truck dont like it.......they had better keep me rolling.

Phoenix is 20 miles away....thought about going there saturday morning, but then figure i'd sit all day saturday anyways (which i did) and might as well sit till i get a 34hr reset....

my car is parked there at the home terminal. can you wash it for me? i'm sure it's collecting dirt, and it's likely been hit again by some ****** who can't back out of their parking spot without scraping my driver side doors. oh wait, i has teh kees.

kev, it could be worse. you could be stuck here in decatur, ga. there isn't jack squat to do out here.

[Kevin0915]

my car is parked there at the home terminal. can you wash it for me? i'm sure it's collecting dirt, and it's likely been hit again by some ****** who can't back out of their parking spot without scraping my driver side doors. oh wait, i has teh kees.

kev, it could be worse. you could be stuck here in decatur, ga. there isn't jack squat to do out here.

eh, i'm a little more happy....i won the fastest fingers preplan earlier. I got it on text on my cell first, then got it a few min. later on my QC. SWEEEEET load too....not even 10k, and its going from LA to PHX where some poor sap is T-calling it here, where i pick it up at 7p local, and blast out of here for Joliet, IL. almost 1700 miles.

Whoever this morning after i got a 2nd jumpstart, said 'why dont you have the shop in phoenix look at the truck. And i said 'whoever it was from the phx shop that jumped me replaced 2 of the batteries, and said it should help charge the other two...and i was good to go.' I said i wasnt going to put my truck in the shop and let them spend 2 days looking at it when there isnt anything wrong with it. Said i knew what caused the 2 jumps. 1st one was because i had idle shutdown, and forgot i left the key on for 5 hours....and 2nd jump was because i wasn't rolling. Cant recharge batteries at just an idle for 5 min. here and there, one has to be rolling.

he must have got the picture. I still got screwed out of layover pay on 3 occasions over the past 10 days.

[Kevin0915]

ringringringringringringringringringring bananafone!

actually this was for Carlos....my old one did. when it got low the alarm went off in the sleeper. this one dont have an alarm....which kinda sucks. but hey, had i been rolling and not sitting for 2 days, not to mention having to play the 'fastest fingers' game in order to get a flippin' load.....i wouldnt have needed two jumps.

But hey, it works out better for me.....that fastest fingers preplan i didnt win was only 1100some odd miles. this one i DID win, was just shy of 1700. ....SO SUCK ON THAT SWIFT DRIVERS!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

[matcat]

actually this was for Carlos....my old one did. when it got low the alarm went off in the sleeper. this one dont have an alarm....which kinda sucks. but hey, had i been rolling and not sitting for 2 days, not to mention having to play the 'fastest fingers' game in order to get a flippin' load.....i wouldnt have needed two jumps.

But hey, it works out better for me.....that fastest fingers preplan i didnt win was only 1100some odd miles. this one i DID win, was just shy of 1700. ....SO SUCK ON THAT SWIFT DRIVERS!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

Man I am so glad I don't have to fiddle with a QC anymore, and that the company only has 1 dispatcher for all 6 trucks in total, and that that dispatcher actually WANTS the trucks to move Although the lack of freight is kind of making it suck

[matcat]

Ohh yeah, I was going to mention, the truck I am in has a 5000w inverter factory installed, with 10 total 120v receptacles scattered about the sleeper (looks just like the outlets in a house, even uses standard outlet face plates). Not to mention a factory installed fridge. This truck has YET to have the batteries die to the point of needing a jump. Yes the alarm will go off from time to time, but idling for 5 minutes and the alarm won't kick back on for about 7 or 8 hours.

[Malaki86]

If your batteries are down to 10.1 volts after shutting down for 4 hours, you've got a dead battery. I shut mine down for 10-12 hours every day, run a 1,500 watt inverter (laptop, printer, usb hub, etc) on it and a 12v cooler. It always has the juice to restart the engine, even when it's 20f outside.

[carlos64030]

Ohh yeah, I was going to mention, the truck I am in has a 5000w inverter factory installed, with 10 total 120v receptacles scattered about the sleeper (looks just like the outlets in a house, even uses standard outlet face plates). Not to mention a factory installed fridge. This truck has YET to have the batteries die to the point of needing a jump. Yes the alarm will go off from time to time, but idling for 5 minutes and the alarm won't kick back on for about 7 or 8 hours.

Annnnnnnnd yet you fail to tell us what kind of truck you're driving.

[Orangetxguy]

If your batteries are down to 10.1 volts after shutting down for 4 hours, you've got a dead battery. I shut mine down for 10-12 hours every day, run a 1,500 watt inverter (laptop, printer, usb hub, etc) on it and a 12v cooler. It always has the juice to restart the engine, even when it's 20f outside.

+1

[matcat]

Kevin0915, I saw a swift truck that looked just like the one in your avatar today going south bound on 81 in VA this afternoon, was that you?

[Kevin0915]

Kevin0915, I saw a swift truck that looked just like the one in your avatar today going south bound on 81 in VA this afternoon, was that you?

Nope. that truck is my mentor's truck. He is Wal-Mart DC out of Harrisonville, MO, and will never leave the midwest. I am driving a 2009 Volvo 760, and am in the middle of a run from phoenix to Joliet, il.

[carlos64030]

Nope. that truck is my mentor's truck. He is Wal-Mart DC out of Harrisonville, MO, and will never leave the midwest. I am driving a 2009 Volvo 760, and am in the middle of a run from phoenix to Joliet, il.

Uhhhh.... I think you meant Volvo 670.