Inverters

[cptmud]

One of the problems i found was running the inverter from the cig lighter, the wirring to the cig lighter is very thin and cant handle the power draw required. I had a lot of problems with mine, untill i hard wired it to the battery, and now it runs the laptop no probs

[Nickj]

James, I got a big assed one (1500w / 3000w peak) off ebay for under $200! It's not the perfect one, but it runs my laptop, phone chargers, electric drill down the paddock, even ran a 2000w angle grinder without cutting out. I have BIG power cable running to the back of the car for it.
If you have a Jaycar store handy, they have heaps of them. Hmmm, you could claim electronic parts on the business......

Nick

[LowLux]

I have one of those Coke can size inverters as well Patriot and it does the same thing. Cheeses me cause it supposed to run the laptop, charge phones and other little tid bits like that but does nothing of the sort. Going to have to look at something a little more functional.

[Grumpy]

I run A 1000watt inverter with 2500 watt surge for laptop and other charging adapters, paid $130 on Ebay

[Lost 2]

Hi,
Forgive me if this sounds dumb!
If you have an inverter,whether pure wave or not,should or can it be used while the engine is running?
Just curious.
I have a 300watt and have only used it for phone/camera charging and found it fine.
Yet to try it on my laptop which i don,t want to harm,hence the engine thing.
All my charging has been done while stationary.
All the best
Lost 2.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by Lost 2

Hi,
Forgive me if this sounds dumb!
If you have an inverter,whether pure wave or not,should or can it be used while the engine is running?
Just curious.
I have a 300watt and have only used it for phone/camera charging and found it fine.
Yet to try it on my laptop which i don,t want to harm,hence the engine thing.
All my charging has been done while stationary.
All the best
Lost 2.

Well I dont know about others but I havn't had a problem even with starting the car while it's running.

[Lost 2]

Thanks for your info.
I normally use mine off the second battery direct,rather than using the cig lighter attachment.
I am debating whether to mount it inside the cab as a permanent fixture(eg-under seat) and then hard wire it to the battery.
Always there and if need be run a 240v extension for outside use if required.
Any feed back would be good from those with a bit more knowledge or experience than myself.
All the best
Lost 2

[Grumpy]

Just be careful not to mount it near anything that can melt or burn and make sure they are well ventilated, if u have a Cargo Barrier in the Rig its a good idea to mount them to it.

[cptmud]

Inverters can be used with the engine running, i have mine hooked up to the second battery, and is conected 24/7, i just flick the switch on the inverter when i need to use it. I run the laptop of it all the time and never had a drama.

[Jarh73]

I have been using a 150 pure sine wave watt inverter i got from Jaycar.

A mate of mine worked at Jaycar and gave me the inside word on what was what with inverters.
Biggest issue he saw was inverters being returned for simply failing, the quality of a lot of inverters these days is quite variable.


Mostly use it for charging camera and video camera batteries but also runs my laptop charger perfectly.
Currently it runs from the ciggarete lighter plug but will hardwire it with a single 240 volt GPO at some stage soon. Its not the can type inverter its a "proper" looking one with heat sinks and proper mounting points the lighter plug it came with just makes it easy to use and portable.

I use apple laptops and they have a 45 and 65 watt chargers and the 150 runs them perfectly.

I know 150 watts seems low but i don't have anything else to run from it

Cheers

Justin