power inverter advice

HaulinCars · Jan 12, 2015

jose1503 said: ↑

Where can I get a pure sine inverter? I've tried a couple major retail stores but all they have is modified? Besides online I do otr alot I'm on the road at least 1 month on the road that's why I haven't gotten it online..... thanks
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2 places you can find ALMOST ANYTHING... but neither is going to be at a bargain price. Sometimes the selection is fantastic and even overwhelming. Sometimes not so overwelming..

WW Grainger:

http://www.grainger.com/search/ecat...ne+wave+inverter&sst=All&nls=0&ts_optout=true

McMaster-Carr:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#ac-inverters/=vfrz1l

You can also try Googling up solar power suppliers in whatever city you are in and call to see what they have in stock. Some of them will inventory these. If your ever going to install a generator of any kind get one that is an inverter/charger. That will charge your truck batteries while on generator/shore power and automatically switch over to battery power when the 110 is gone. If you know what your doing with this kind of stuff you can even build your own "Uninteruptible power supply" (AKA: UPS) like what you buy at the office supply store for your home computer only with as large of a battery bank as you want to give extremely extended run time, (like days and days instead of just a few minutes). But that is a conversation for another thread..

However, your best bet from a selection and price standpoint is certainly going to be order one from the internet and ship it to some place you know you will eventually get to.

ElijahRea1978 · Mar 27, 2024

HaulinCars said: ↑

A conversation about inverters can be very short or very, very long. It all depends on the level of knowledge of the "Teacher" and what they feel the level of interest / intent of the "Student" is.

This is one subject I happen to know a fair amount about. I'll try to hit the high points and give you some things to think about and you can do some thinking and some research to come to your next set of questions...

Inverters come in 2 basic types. Modified sine wave and true sine wave. What you have at home coming out of your walls is true sine wave. Almost all of the inexpensive inverters make modified sine wave rather than true.

Electronics and things with motors tend to like (And in some cases absolutely require) true sine wave. What happens when you use a modified unit on a device that wants or needs true? Good question.. In some cases you can get unwanted noise (that you hear) from the device. You can get unwanted electrical noise that can affect other electrical/electronic devices hooked to the same power source. Components can overheat or simply run hotter than normal shortening their life either some or a lot.

Almost all of the inverters sold in truck stops and your local auto parts super store are of the modified type. A true type will cost you about 50 to 100% more than a modified type. I always buy the true type because over the life of the unit (Which should be several years for a decent unit) I'll have all sorts of things plugged into it and since I tend to like nice things they tend to not be inexpensive so I want to get the most life out of them I can, and providing them high quality electricity is a good place to start in making them last a long time.

My stepfather was the chief engineer of a TV station so he was very up on electrical and electronic stuff. Apparently some of his knowledge rubbed off on me. I know for sure that wanting stuff to work properly and last a long time and doing things correctly the first time came from him. I'm now in my 50's so I have a moderate amount of experience with this so take the above recommendation to purchase a the highest quality true sine wave inverter you can afford. Do it once, and do it right and you'll never regret it.

One thing most people never mention is that care and feeding of the inverter properly is very important to making the inverter itself last a long time. Whats that mean? Make sure you mount it in a place where it can breathe. It is going to get warm, you do not want it getting overheated. That is the care part. The feeding part is making sure you use wires that are large enough to carry the load for the given length of your wires. This is super important. Also, make sure the connections are proper. Use high quality terminals and install them correctly. As with any wiring project make sure you route the wires away from moving parts and sources of heat. Make sure you eliminate places where the wires will rub and chafe on anything else. I ALWAYS run ALL my wiring in split loom to help with this, especially when they are the size of large battery cables and run up inside my cab! The last thing I need is a fire. Lastly, make sure you use proper circuit breaker or fuse to protect the install and mount this as close to the battery as is possible.

What brand? I like Tripp Lite (Found in a LOT of commercial equipment installs) and Xantrex but there are others as well.

If your ever going to install a generator or plug your truck into shore power you might want to consider an inverter/charger. This unit will give you house power from your batteries and when you have house or generator power available it will charge your batteries.

Another advantage of a quality inverter is that when it is at "No load" (Meaning nothing it wanting it to make power but it is still turned on and ready) it will draw far less (at no load) than the less expensive units. This will allow you to leave the truck off longer with the inverter on to keep your refrigerator running for longer without killing your truck batteries. Which brings us to the next question

How long can I keep the inverter on to run my refrigerator with the truck off and not kill my batteries, and how can I extend that time frame? That answer in and of itself can get very lengthy. The easy answer is that "It depends". On what? Assuming you have a quality inverter with a very low stand by (No load) drain and there is nothing at all on using power you could probably leave it for a week or more and still start the truck. Of course leaving noting on pretty much defeats the whole point of the question. Speaking directly to the refrigerator question; The less it has to run the longer you have. How do you keep it from running a lot? There are several things to do. The more full it is the less it will need to run. The cooler the room temperature it is in the less it will need to run. The better it is insulated and sealed the less it will need to run. The more efficient the cooling components of the refrigerator are the less power it will need while running so therefore the longer you can leave it. Don't forget to mount the refrigerator in a place where it can get some cooling air to the coils on the back as this will directly relate to the efficiency of the fridge.

How else can you extend the "Truck off time"? Install a separate battery or bank of batteries. This aspect can also get to be a very in depth conversation and it can be as simple or complex as you want it to be, but a basic install of a couple Wallyworld deep cycle batteries mounted fairly close to the location of the inverter (to keep the poser supply cables short) and attached to the main batteries with a Ford type starter solenoid (as a relay) wired so that when the truck is on the solenoid is "On" and allows the truck to charge your "House" batteries should get you about a day (more or less) depending on the variables as noted above, assuming your running only the refrigerator and that you have taken steps to address the variables as much as you possibly can. (Talk about a run-on sentence! LOL)

You could also install the smallest generator you can find that has electric start and is adaptable to remote start and has a battery voltage sensing auto start. Here again, this could lead to an entirely separate conversation but if you do this you can leave the truck almost indefinitely. You could also install a RV type roof A/C (if your particular truck sleeper roof design permits it) and presto, you have your own home made APU at a far less cost.

A lot of what you do depends on your budget, if you own, lease or are a company driver in an assigned truck and your ultimate goal. I hope the above has been at least somewhat helpful.
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I found this thread wondering if I can use a variable voltage power supply in the truck for the purpose of feeding my cb radio 15v. Could I run one from the 3000w inverter. Thanks

Ridgeline · Mar 28, 2024

ElijahRea1978 said: ↑

I found this thread wondering if I can use a variable voltage power supply in the truck for the purpose of feeding my cb radio 15v. Could I run one from the 3000w inverter. Thanks
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Why would you need 15v?

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