Can you keep a laptop charged and a fridge running with no APU or idle?

You can buy an inverter that plugs into the 12 volt outlet, mine is rated for 150 watts, which handles the laptop. Not sure how many watts your fridge draws. The inverter I’m talking about is about $35 and I’ve seen them at Walmart. Truck stops have them, but expect to pay a lot more.

 

Better yet dont work for a company that won't let you idle to stay comfortable......

 

I used one of those to charge my laptop for about 4 months as my truck out West didn't have an APU. The inverter provides enough power for the laptop power brick, but I found my laptop power brick got really hot in under 20 minutes if I was running my laptop and had my power brick plugged into the laptop. I eventually decided to use my laptop on internal battery, and only use the inverter to recharge the laptop battery when laptop was turned off. This is what finally convinced me to use a pure sine-wave inverter. It's not hard to find a larger inverter that provides pure sine-wave power. I've almost never seen an inverter as small as 100-150 watts providing PSW. I burned out one laptop power brick using a non-PSW inverter.

 

To find out how much power you need look at the electrical device (laptop power brick, dorm fridge) and find the data box. On te fridge it will be next to the place where the electrical cord goes into the fridge. On the data box will be 2 of the following 3 specs. Voltage, Amps, Watts. Usually they list the voltage and the amps. Watts is simple the required voltage multiplied by required amps.

A small dorm fridge is going to be near the top of the capacity for an inverter that you can plug into the cigarette outlet or 12 volt outlet of the truck. You can run the dorm fridge for an hour, maybe two, on an inverter with the truck shut off if the batteries are new and the truck has them wired all together. It's my vague memory that some trucks isolate one of the say 4 truck batteries to power devices in the cab/sleeper. If that's the case I would not attempt to run your dorm fridge when your truck is not idling.

The dorm fridge won't need a pure sine-wave inverter, but you will need at least a 300 watt plug-in inverter. If a company had no APU and didn't allow me to idel the truck I wold not work for them. You are essentially living in the truck for at least 5-6 days per week, or more. You need rest and being hot or having to sleep with your windows down at a truck stop is not very safe, but it also will be loud as trucks/reefers run and set brakes all night.

Trying to figure how to live with a no APU, no Idle company is like climbing over the fence at a zoo to pet the tiger. You can probably get away with it once or twice if you are VERY careful, but that is not a good idea to make a permanent part of your day. Eventually you will "get bit".

 

Most truck stops will let you fill a gallon food storage bag/big cup of ice for free.
That's all it takes to keep your food cold when you are sleeping. You're only going to be stopping most nights for ten hours so you might not even need to do anything.

 

I bought one of these at Walmart. It plugs into the cig lighter and keeps everything charged.

 

The truck wont work but you can make a set up work if you are willing to buy some stuff. Personally I would not want to work for any company if they did not have an APU or allow Idling

 

Fridge, fan, and electronics can run for 10 hours easy without idling. If not you got bad batteries.

 

Try to choose a company that has APU, refrigerator and other driver comfort amenities.