Semi truck Battery

The way that I set mine up is that from the generator into the cab of the truck I made a regular outlet like you have in the house. I used 20 amp Outlets. I went to Harbor Freight and bought a 10 gauge extension cord and I carefully ran that along my frame and I made sure that it's secured and it would not rub or chafe and I made mounts so it could go around the frame and up into the cab with grommets again so nothing could rub or chafe and then inside the cab I wired in the electrical outlet like you would do in a house. Be warned if you do that with the Harbor Freight electrical cord when you go to do the wiring that wire inside there is very soft and you really have to make sure you have a good connection because it's very easy to break those wires off.

Then I again bought the 25 ft 10 ga cord from Harbor Freight and this time I ran one in from the plug where you plug in your block heater and once again carefully I made sure everything was mounted so it could not move, chafe, rub, etc and I followed along the frame and ran it back up into the truck to that electrical outlet. That one I wired a regular plug on to it I did not hard wire it into the outlet.

So now that the regular electrical outlet is set up then I can plug into that for my microwave or my toaster oven or my heater or whatever else I need in the cab.

Then for the block heater I bought a heavy duty 20 amp appliance / air conditioning timer. So I set the timer and plug that into the outlet and plug the extension cord into the timer and as I sleep automatically at whatever time I pick the the block heater will begin to warm up the engine.

I'll tell you what we have had some really cold days in the last few weeks and it's been maybe three or four degrees out and my truck started instantly.

I will caution you, if you're going to do this you must use 10 gauge wire for everything. You must use 20 amp outlets and you must use a 20 amp timer for the block heater. When you initially test it and from time to time you must grab the wires and make sure there is no heat whatsoever to make certain that you have no problems and that you're not going to have any kind of a fire or any such thing because it is completely entirely possible if you do not use heavy enough wire and outlets to carry the electricity or if you have poor connections.

Just a note to anyone that isn't completely familiar with electricity, do not overload your circuits by operating multiple appliances at once.

With that being said, I can run my space heater on low, whether it runs steadily or cycles with temp, and my block heater with no problems.

That setup along with my truck inverter mainly running the fridge, I couldn't be happier with.

 

I have close to the same setup except my predator 3,500 has remote start/stop... I have my alarm set 3ish hr before I get up, when it goes off I just roll over and hit the remote start and go back to sleep

 

IS there room to run some conduit to help from having issues later on. Then you could run the correct wiring instead of using extension cords that can corrode.

 

I considered using conduit but I felt that it was easier and neater she just run the line. The way I ran it it actually follows the air and electric lines that run inside of the frame. Where it runs into the cab has to be just wire because the air ride goes up and down and the wire has to be free to move.

I would imagine it would take many years if ever to have a problem with the line breaking down. It is made as an outdoor line and the coating that is on there I could see from splicing into the wires is pretty thick.

 

I would like to get the remote start but I'd like to get the one from Pinellas power because that one actually turns on and off Eco mode. Is that the one that you have?

It is more expensive but that generator will run about 12 hours on Eco mode if my space heater Cycles with the temperature.

It also will run the block heater at the same time with no problem on eco mode. I try not to run too much at once but if the block heater is running and I want to use the microwave or make a cup of coffee there's no problem on Eco mode. It really saves a lot of fuel.

Beyond the remote start I would like to get a small side tank for the extended run. I have the fuel pump and the check valves and what I need for that I just need to call the junkyard and find a tank.

That would be great for when I have times that I sit because I could just let the generator run for a couple days at a time if I needed to and I could shut it on and off from the cab.

 

Use 'tinned' marine wire [10ga] if resists breaki9ng from flexing and handles the loads

 

You are absolutely correct with all that but I should also point out that you also shouldn’t be needlessly idling the truck to conserve the starter. Thinking more of plan more properly when you’re going to crank your engine.

Oh and OP if you got an APU that tops off the batteries I’m not too knowledgeable with batteries but I did hear that you need a different type of battery that can handle being used often. I’m not too sure it’s something I overheard with a mechanic and a driver. Something about too much current going back and forward with the apu wearing it out much faster than without an apu?

 

I never idle.

That was the whole idea behind putting the generator in.

Every now and then if the generator is not running I'll idle the truck for a couple minutes to make a cup of coffee or something but that's about it. When I get the remote start I won't even do that.

Otherwise the truck only runs at a thousand RPMs or so to warm the engine up before I take off.

 

I'm not sure how the Apu situation is set up but there are some situations where a truck will have 3 regular batteries and one deep cycle battery like a marine battery.

They have a battery isolator so that the draw is only from that marine battery and that battery is made in such a way that you can drain it basically all the way down and recharge it all the way back up and you can't do that with a regular battery you'll destroy them.

 

Thanks @Dino soar. Getting ready to do all this to my truck as well. I also looked into the Pinellas Power remote start.