Educate me on inverters, chargers and all things power

I’m trying to setup power options on a ‘99 Freightliner. I want to run a dorm fridge, microwave, the occasional small kitchen appliance and whatnot. And it would be nice to have a plug on the outside of the truck so that I can plug into the house on home time and keep the batteries charged and maybe the fridge cold.

I’m electrically challenged. Looked up shore power and feel dumber for my troubles.

But, if I get a decent 2000-3000 watt inverter, can i plug a battery tender, or whatever it’s called, into it and wire that to the batteries, then plug an extension cord from the house into the inverter? Or is there certain terminology I need to look for in an inverter so I won’t need the batt tender? Or am I waaaay off?!?

Also, what’s a good inverter to run those things? I do know (or atleast I think I know) that I need to run the truck when running the microwave or some big power drawing unit. Am I limited to a 700 watt microwave?

 

Watts is good. 3000 minimum.

Have freightliner wire your inverter to batteries. That will cost you a little money but they will ensure it's safely wired to your batteries. They have a habit of nuking people who should not really be fooling with them. Freightliner will also have the right cables to Inverter and grommet them through the sleeper wall so the weather stays out. And allow for cab and suspension movement etc.

Use your inverter sparingly. It builds heat. In time it will die a death from too many applications of it's own heat.

A good inverter will have cooling, alarms and so on. So if it's thirsty, overloaded or running too hot it will chirp at you to help out.

You are not to run that inverter without engine running. Monitor your voltmeter constantly. It should generally charge at a healthy 14.3 or so when running inverter give or take. At cruise on good pavement ours did 15.2 and pulled down to 13.6 when inverter was going. anything below 10 bricks the Comptuters everywhere and you have a dead truck.

 

@F4T6UY Do some reading here and get one of their inverter/chargers. If you have an RV dealer in your town they can do the install for you. Power Inverter | Pure Sine Wave Inverters | Marine Inverter

 

Believe it or not, a dorm fridge draws little power once it's running. It's the initial compressor startup that draws the most power and most inverters have two power ratings, surge and continuous. I have used a el-cheapo 700 watt Walmart microwave on a 1000 watt inverter w/o issues, but I had proper size power cables and a 100 amp breaker supplying power from my batteries so there was never an issue with melting wires or losing power because they got hot.

As far as hooking your truck or inverter to the house power, not unless you have a shore power system. Hooking a medium duty battery maintainer/charger to it when your home would be the way to go. Not sure if the mini-maintainer like you use on a car or lawn tractor that is parked for the winter would supply enough power for a fridge running off of an inverter.

 

You might want a Pure Sine Wave inverter. They make power just like at home so electronics last longer. But they are more expensive

 

Yes, I know to look for pure sine rather than modified, but I don’t know why lol. But just knowing which direction to go is half the battle.

Shore power: When I googled the term initially, it kept taking me to a product, rather than a definition. I reckon I’ll delve deeper.

@Roberts450 , I looked around that site, I’m thinking this inverter saga is about to get more expensive...

Here’s the thing, I was half hoping somebody would come in here and say, “Get this, this, and this, and do this.” And that would be it and I could move on to my next fantasy. But now, I’m starting to go down the rabbit hole...

I didn’t want to get an APU. But, after I solved this inverter thing, eventually I wanted to ad a generator and an air conditioner. But now I’m seeing power packs and things where I could store energy and solar and other nifty new fangled technology thingies.

Yup, things just got more expensive.

 

@F4T6UY I have the Freedom XC 2000. Its rated at 2000 watt continuous and 40000 watt surge. It features an 80 built in charger for the shore power side for when you’re home. I dont have it installed yet but its pretty compact for its wattages. A buddy of mine’s mom has an earthroamer RV and apparently they use xantrex products in them. If I remember right I went with 0000awg battery cable as Im running kinda far from my batteries and I think I had gotten a 300 amp fuse to install right in the battery box. I got these pass through studs Terminal Feed Through Connector - 3/8"-16 Studs (Black) - Blue Sea Systems from Blue Sea along with some other stuff from them for hooking everything up as Im turning one compartment under my bunk into the “electronics compartment” as I’ll have the inverter, sub woofer amp, and my camera system hard drive all mounted in the same location and running off the battery cables for the inverter.

 

As for picking the size of inverter get all the electrical devices you plan to have plugged into it and look at their wattage ratings on the UL tag thats on the back of them. Add them all up and get an inverter that with everything running will cover the load plus about 1/3 more watts under its continuous rating that way the inverter will never be working its hardest to supply the power you need. Yeah its going to get expensive but cheaping out on electrical components will actually cost more in the long run after have to replace the items a second time after they wore out prematurely or heaven forbids a fire from something that over heated. Also when looking at battery cable size the shorter and bigger the better. Less voltage drop makes for a happier inverter.

 

Yes, that’s the one I was looking at. I’m even looking at the pro version that comes in a 3000watt. Doesn’t seem much more money, but I was going with the philosophy of more power is better.

Are you running an APU/generator?

 

Also, there are quite a few RV dealers in the area and I will more than likely take that advice and have them install things.

But, I did notice that their inverters are rated to operate in temps up to 104F. I plan on mounting this in the side compartment and temperatures can well exceed that here in South Texas. Any concerns there?