Okay, here is my situation. I have a 2500 Watt Cobra Inverter, a med sized dorm fridge, 600 watt microwave, 4 cup coffee machine. The problem I am having is voltage drop. Whenever I use an accessory, the volts (on the dash gauge) drop from 14.1-13.9,13.8,13.7,13.6, then 13.5 and POP blows the circuit breaker. This is in a 2004 Columbia. I originally had 4 gauge battery cable run to a 150 amp circuit breaker. I called cobra and they told me the amp circuit breaker is not enuf. After looking back in my manual, they were right, I need at LEAST 250 amp. They also said that while 4 gauge is sufficient, I may want to upgrade to 2 gauge. Which I did yesterday. I am still seeing the voltage drop. I did not put a new 250 circuit breaker up there cause I am waiting to get one shipped but I ran the coffee machine just to see what it would do with the new wire. Voltage dropped to 13.1 and held steady. YES, I WILL PUT A CIRCUIT BREAKER IN LINE.
The question of the day is this....is 1 volt drop normal (14.1-13.1) when using these things or do I have a weak alternator?
Different Inverter Question
Discussion in 'Trucking Electronics, Gadgets and Software Forum' started by Gazoo, Aug 17, 2008.
-
-
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
-
Yeah thats a good Question cause when my girl is out with me. she plugs her flat iron in my 1500 watt -n- pop then i have to get out the trk -n- pull the fuse cap off the breaker -n- plug another 30 amp fuse bck in it to wrk sooo what type of inverter would i use i .was looking # a 2500 cause my frig laptop =n= tv works fine off my 1500 o yeah mirco wave would pop my 1500 but works fine off the 800.?? -
when you are running these things you a basically running off the battery and the alternator is charging the battery.
100amp alternator x 12v = 1200 watts = anything more and you are sucking juice from the batteries.
You want an inverter rated for rms wattage, the peak wattage is for electric motor start ups. Go for about 50-70% rms power and no more.
Question: can a 1500W hair dryer run off a 1500w peak inverter = maybe, for a few seconds. You probably want a 1500w rms inverter and a safer bet would be 2500w rms.
1500w divide by 12v =125amps = that's a ton of amps you are asking your batteries to give out + the inverter power loss.RAG Thanks this. -
Well, a quick read of my owners manual probably would have fixed it, but I had to call Cobra first to realize my mistake. Previously, before the 2500 watt inverter, I had a 800 watt unit in here with the same 4 gauge wire and a 80 amp fuse. Once I installed the 2500 watt, I blew two fuses in a 3 week time frame and then upgraded to the 150 amp circuit breaker. Where I got the idea that 150 was what I needed I will never know. The Cobra rep AND the manual say you need a MINIMUM of a 250 amp fuse.
Anyway, I installed a 250 amp circuit breaker and also upgraded to 2 gauge wire which was not required, but I did it anyway.
Now, my voltage still drops, but holds steady at 13.1 and it doesn't blow the breaker.
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.