What if it Snows?

Do you have anyone else other than yourself tripping power circuits in the truck? Say what? Remember that part in a previous post I said that the reason for the need of a power strip was because of human intervention?

Power from a power company is interesting at best these days. With alternate power comes the need to throw switches. When the power company changes power from one source or another. They snap a switch or two. For this we will do a demonstration of sorts. Your getting power from an solar array. At some point the power company is going to switch to the nuclear plant as the sun has set somewhere. It is impossible to have all power generation perfectly synched. In that brief moment that some human toggled the switch from solar to something else? A power spike was created. That power spike is traveling outward to all circuits that are connected to that switch.

Tho as @Espressolane pointed out, why arent you using one inverter? Having two inverters that pull off the power bank? Your doing thee same thing as the power company to the batteries. Unless your running isolators between your batteries. Your causing a brown out between the inverters. A brown out is when either too much load is used. Or you have a load and something is going to pull more load when turned on. So yes, run multiple inverters to run multiple locations will do flakey things to the power supply. Tho a power spike cord wont help. In this case you would want a uninteruptible power supply to stop the brown out. Or one ample inverter. IE if your pulling 2700 watt a 3500 watt inverter would be better.

 

Some time ago. I contacted my brother inlaw about using solar power ot run a air conditioner andd other devices in a pickup camper. He told me that if I had a 5kw inverter with 2 deep cycle batteries (group 24) and 3 solar panels rated at 100 watt each. They would create enough power during the day to top off the batteries and run the inverter 24/7 with out damaging the batteries or putting undo strain on the circuits.

Tho in a truck I highly doubt you are using deep cycle batteries (some deep cycle batteries cant be used to start trucks, just a warning).

 

Oh and that knock off? It probably still works. There is a shunt that is connected to all these gensets that burns out when too much load is used. Replace it and it will probably still create power.

Electric start diesel to create power over 5k??? Wow I have some prime land in Florida I will gladly sell you.

Diesel gensets under $5,000

 

I have air cooled diesel generator seating in my garage 4Kwt. Bulletproof Yanmar design. Come with some beer and it's yours.
I switched to Kubota with coolant because Yanmar wont fit the place between fuel tank and DPF.

 

I’m surprised two would cause a brownout situation.I researched wiring multiple inverters. No mention of it. Just a warning about wiring them in series. Can’t do that. Seems draw is draw, wether it’s from one or two sources. I don’t doubt your knowledge. Just how I understood it. A lot of newer Trucks have a combination of starting, and or dual purpose batteries. I imagine they use selinoid isolators. Don’t know much about it. I recall in the late 90s some fleets would isolate one battery, so the Truck would always start, after a long weekend, or high battery usage. I’ve thought of a system of adding 2 or 3 deep cycle batteries. I’ve looked at forklift golf cart batteries etc. amp hrs vs. weight and price solar panels,etc. I’d like to run an a/c at least 8 hrs. Off battery power. There have been a few such systems. Freightliner actually had them as an option on my Truck. I saw one once. About the size of a refrigerator, located behind the drivers seat. Driver said it works. The ones I’ve seen like The nite time system, a local company, they were $2500. I think they went out of Bussiness. It’s interesting stuff, something I’ll probably never get figured out. YouTube camping off the grid videos are good. Some are questionable though. Especially when it comes to running a/c units on solar.

 

One last post for today I promise. Yeah the above post for the yanmar is a true win.

On a truck? You really dont want to create ac power. You really want something that will keep the batteries charged when it is -40F outside and you want the truck to start. The reason that APU's are great is they are also circulating the coolant (at least they used to).

Personallly I would get a 12 or 24 volt generator that keeps the batteries charged.

 

I doubt you’re going to have a power surge.

 

Yanmar is the one I was trying to think of. Saw one once at a local pawn shop. Seems affordable. I’ve got a vented generator box, using for tools now. Definitely interested.

 

Here what my generator is.
Total price about 2000 or less.Need to look invoices.
Engine is most expensive part. Scored it from Ebay for 1200.00
Generator head from local sale for 250.00.
Controller from Amazon for 80.00
Coolant pump from Amazon 20.00
The rest is from auto scrap yards.