Eating on the road, with Opti-idle, and keeping things cold.

I run a 2000 watt inverter hard wired to batteries and a full blown mini fridge and freezer. Can easily shut truck off 24 hours and have it start up fine. Maybe because it’s through the 12v plug it has issues.

I would get a regular 40quart cooler and buy ice every other day at truck stops. $1.99-$2.99 who cares. Every other day it’s still massively cheaper than truck stop food.

 

Mmmmm, seafood.

 

I carry an ice chest and stock up on ribeye steaks and bacon which I cook outside in a cast iron skillet with an alcohol stove.

I don't mind spending money on good quality food.

If you get a good quality cooler and drain the water regularly the ice lasts quite awhile.

 

Not sure what kind of trailer you pull but to those that pull reefers it’s a 53 foot battery charger.. PS you only need to hook up positive to positive as the trailer is grounded to the truck if not using the Teflon fifth wheel thingy

 

You might have one or more of several issues working against you.

• Only 3 batteries? 4 is better
• Old, bad, and/or weak batteries (sounds very likely)
• Auto [circuit] shutdown switch may be defective and shuts down circuits prematurely due to perceived low voltage
• A bad inverter that draws more then it needs to when demand is low or non-existent

A typical thermo-electric cooler should be able to run 48 hours plugged in with truck off and still leave ample power to start truck. If not, and assuming this is the only device puling any real power then I suspect you have some bad batteries. If shop finds one or more bad or weak batteries, a good shop will replace all batteries with new ones.

3 battery systems are going to be a problem and will shorten drain tolerances but some fleets simply won't go to a 4 battery system. Any truck that might occasionally run along I-90/I-94 in winter should have 4 batteries.

 

I had a 1500 watt inverter in my 780. It powered a 4.5cu.ft. refrigerator 24/7. I also had a microwave, George Forman grill, lap top, t.v., & playstation in the truck. With them huge windows keeping my cool, my idle time was minimal. I could let the truck sit with the inverter running over the weekend while home no problem.

I never had issuses with draining my batteries down. Maybe OP you just need new batteries.

 

clean the seal on the cooler, keep that darn thing closed, know what you going to have, open and close quickly.