Since this place knows everything, I figured I'd ask. Helping build a new Plumbing truck for brother Dallas, and we want to put an inverter in the truck to be able to charge cordless tools, run a 15 amp drill, a circular saw...
What do we actually need to buy? What's the good cheap one? Ain't never mess with none of this E36 M3 so I'm out of my league here.
I'll just drop a few links here, but your batteries and tools will do better on the inverters that output a true sine-wave. The cheap ones with square wave output are hard on batteries. If you need to leave the inverter running while your truck is off, you need to consider the idle current draw on the inverter, will need to run a second battery if you're charging and running tools with the truck off. 15 amps output at 120Vac pulls more than 150 amps from your 12 volt battery. Another option would be to mount one of those small inverter type generators (i.e. Honda EU2000 or one of the many cheaper knockoffs)
http://www.fleetelectric.com/selecting-right-inverter-vehicle/
https://www.familyhandyman.com/automotive/how-to-turn-your-truck-into-a-generator/view-all/
https://www.truckinginfo.com/153073/7-factors-to-consider-when-installing-an-inverter
Ive blown a few battery chargers on a modified sine wave invertor, i dont recommend one of those
Whatever you do, don’t use the Hf ones... my work van caught fire from one.
In reply to Trackmouse :
Got it.
What size and type of inverter should we be looking for? Hoping that its a sane price. Amazon seems to be all over the map on prices from 50-1500
If you are going to run a 15 amp drill and a skill saw, you need a generator, not an inverter. You'd need a rack of batteries to run those and the inverter to handle it is more than you'd want to pay.
I think you'll find that an inverter capable of carrying the amp load might be pretty intense depending on a lot of factors.
You may already know this, but when you're running an inverter to go from 12v to 120v, it takes 10 times the amps to supply it. Watts = volts x amps. So, for instance, a 15A circ saw at 120v uses 1800w. To get 1800w worth of energy from a 12v source will take 150A from the battery into the inverter. That is about an equivalent draw to a starter in a Camry. It wouldn't take more than 4 or 5 minutes to take the battery to a point where the truck won't start. Not to mention, the gauge of wire you'll need to supply it.
Even if your trucks have a 200 amp alternator and they're running, they're not designed to supply that amperage for long periods of time and they'll be taxed and have short lives.
I would strongly suggest a generator. You can get an inverter for charging cordless tools, but generator for running higher amperage 120v tools. The secret with cordless tools is that the batteries slowly charge which makes a low load for charging and then they can rapidly supply juice to the tool. But trying to supply all the juice at once when you pull the trigger is probably more than you want to tackle.
Think of it this way: If you need to supply 20 gallons of water in 10 seconds once an hour, you can rig up a high pressure pump and 2" tubing for a high-draw, occasional-demand system, or you can set up a 20 gallon vessel filled with a 1/4" tube that fills the vessel in one hour slowly and then its ready when you need it. The first example is the inverter; setting up a big system for occasional high draw use. The second example is like using cordless tools where you use small amperage to slowly charge batteries.
I think the answer here is good cordless tools and a smaller inverter to charge the batteries.
So using an inverter to run a 4 gallon "2hp" 120v air compressor would be a bad idea?
Curtis said:I think you'll find that an inverter capable of carrying the amp load might be pretty intense depending on a lot of factors.
You may already know this, but when you're running an inverter to go from 12v to 120v, it takes 10 times the amps to supply it. Watts = volts x amps. So, for instance, a 15A circ saw at 120v uses 1800w. To get 1800w worth of energy from a 12v source will take 150A from the battery into the inverter. That is about an equivalent draw to a starter in a Camry. It wouldn't take more than 4 or 5 minutes to take the battery to a point where the truck won't start. Not to mention, the gauge of wire you'll need to supply it.
Even if your trucks have a 200 amp alternator and they're running, they're not designed to supply that amperage for long periods of time and they'll be taxed and have short lives.
I would strongly suggest a generator. You can get an inverter for charging cordless tools, but generator for running higher amperage 120v tools. The secret with cordless tools is that the batteries slowly charge which makes a low load for charging and then they can rapidly supply juice to the tool. But trying to supply all the juice at once when you pull the trigger is probably more than you want to tackle.
Think of it this way: If you need to supply 20 gallons of water in 10 seconds once an hour, you can rig up a high pressure pump and 2" tubing for a high-draw, occasional-demand system, or you can set up a 20 gallon vessel filled with a 1/4" tube that fills the vessel in one hour slowly and then its ready when you need it. The first example is the inverter; setting up a big system for occasional high draw use. The second example is like using cordless tools where you use small amperage to slowly charge batteries.
I think the answer here is good cordless tools and a smaller inverter to charge the batteries.
That's exactly the primary purpose. Charging cordless tools going down the road. However he would like the option to run a corded tool every great once in awhile if he has to. So I guess a good question would be what size inverter do we need to charge cordless tools? And what kind?
How many different types of battery brands is he trying to charge? All the cordless stuff i carry in my work van is Ryobi and Ryobi sells a 12v battery charger.
As far as ever using corded tools, generator is the best option. But, he may find that just buying enough batteries to have a ridiculous run-time on his tools cost about the same as a generator or a big inverter setup when all the costs are added up.
if hes running corded tools he definitly needs a generator
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