inverters?
 

New to trucking. I seen inverters as cheap as 30 bucks to as high as 400 bucks. Whats the difference between them? Is there anything specific I should look for? Probably just be recharging laptop batteries.

Your choice of inverter depends on your need, if all you want to do is run your laptop, a cheap one will do, most laptop chargers are only a 60 to 75 watt draw. Just keep in mind a cheap inverter will do the job, but you won't have the regularity and consistency of your houses power, but most inverters even the cheap ones should be decent enough to not give you any problems.

I bought a Cobra 1500/3000 watt inverter tonight at Peterbilt in Des Moines for $109.95

There could be a lot of differences in between them.

Power output
Built in "filters" for noise and power output
Cooling ability

and the list goes on.

Generally speaking inverters up to 400 watt can be plugged into a 12v socket. Anything over 400 watts will need to be hardwired into the vehicle batteries.

Uturn2001,

Are you aware of how to figure out the watts of an appliance to determine how big of an inverter I would need? Running everything at the same time is unrealistic, but let's say I had a coleman cooler plugged into the cig lighter, don't have an apu and want to run a burton oven, crock pot or microwave seperatley? What's the normal size inverter that everyone is using to supply the listed appliances. Thanks and appreciate you posting.

All inverters are rated by watts, you should never exceed the maximum constant draw rating of the inverter, most microwaves are going to be 700 up to 1500 watt constant draw, but they also have a huge peak draw too, if you want to go with a microwave find one with the smallest peak and normal watt draw, just because it says 650 watt microwave on the front of the box, doesn't mean that is its power draw, you need to read its specs, crock pots pull very little watts, usually 100 to 300 at most. If you really want to run a microwave and a few other things, I would go with a 1500 watt, which would have to be direct wired to your batteries.

So . . what is the problem with hard wired inverters? Swift, among others, prohibits them. What is so complicated about a fireproof inverter installation?

It's not that complicated, when I was with swift I had an 800 watt I direct wired, most fires come from people trying to hook up an inverter either using a wire not rated for the power draw, or by trying to wire it to a 12v wiring such as a cig lighter, which the wiring is not made to handle that much draw. If you go with 1500 watt or more inverter, you will have to be careful of your wiring, but just make sure you use the proper rated wire, and that it is hooked up securely to the battery array and hooked up correctly.

The big companies are not big fans of inverters because they are afraid of them catching fire. I ran a cobra 400 watt inverter for over 2 years without an issue. These companies really fear the big inverters because they don't want the drivers installing it themselves. (I'm pretty sure this kind of aftermarket modification would void warranties unless done by a professional.)

When I was at USXpress they installed my 1500 watt inverter for me. The only thing I had to provide was the inverter itself. They provided the wire and 2 60amp fuses. This was done at no cost to me.

Most companies do not allow inverters for exactly that: the potential fire hazard.

Cigarette lighter inverters are notorious for running hot, melting wires, and blowing fuses.

Hard-wired inverters have the human touch, whether installed by the driver or a company shop. And it only takes one truck getting burnt to the ground with the driver in it... :shock: In addition, even if done right, doing so voids many of the warranties that companies have with truck sales companies.

So, if you're working for a company, better make sure you check and see what their inverter policies are before you plunk down your money for one.

USXpress says that they install inverters up to a certain wattage, I want to say 1500 but not sure. You just have to provide the inverter. Thinking about getting one myself so I can get a bigger fridge. Starting to spend more weeks out on the road to get the extra $$$ for that house I want

It was either 1500 or 2000watt max at USX. Can't remember for sure.

A 1500 is more than enough for anyone. On mine, I can run my microwave, a 13" tv and the computer at the same time with no problems (as long as the truck is running).

volts X amps = watts. or watts/volts = amps.

In other words, if you take a 1500 watt inverter and divide by the 120 volts (the output a/c voltage), you would get 12.5 amps. So that means that you could power 12.5 amps maximum of combined appliances with a 1500 watt inverter. And that does not include peaks which occur during refrigerator and microwave usage. This is a lot of A/C. It is almost the equivilant of what a normal standard circuit breaker (15 amp) in a house would supply!

All UL listed appliances should have a power consumption plate afixed to the apppliance indicating the power requirement. Determine what your combined power demand is and use the above formula to determine the size of inverter that you need.

To safely install a 1500 watt inverter, a very heavy cable is needed from the battery to the inverter. For a 0-6 ft run = 2 gauge wire, 7-12 ft run=1 gauge, 13-18 ft. run =0 gauge. also a 200 amp fuse is highly recommended.

Please consult the manufacturers installation manual for important information. I found some good information at this Cobra web site.

http://www.cobra.com/index.cfm?fusea...upport.FAQ#190

Be careful and don't forget the fuse.... It'll prevent the fire.

Good Luck.

USXpress is 1750 watt max... hard to fine

we have a 1500 watt and it does just fine for us, it runs our fridge, 1000 watt microwave, 15" lcd tv, laptop, dvd/vcr, satellite dish, froman grill, crock pot, cell charger. and yes we do unplug the fridge when using the microwave or grill and yes the truck needs to be running to use microwave for more than 3 min.

When we were company drivers for Digby (Green- got bought by someone), we covertly installed a 1500 watt inverter. We ran a 4 ft tall freezer and a microwave. About a year or two after we put that deal together, the microwave wigged out- it started sparking all over the place- kind of scary. We just unplugged it- no fire or anything. The inverter never had a problem, though.

In our last truck, we had a 3000 watt true sign wave inverter- that cost about $3000. We used it to run a lot of electronics we had stashed in our sleeper.