Alee891's Radiant Red Build & BS

That's what I read after a little reasearch this morning - 33 amps. I'm still unsure of the exact amount I'll be pulling with the small, intermittent charges I'll be doing. I never anticipated to have multiple items charging for long periods, more so just a laptop, camera batteries, and my power pack for trips outside of the truck.

 

I was about to say isnt it just dividing the watts by the voltage for your amps.... Austin you should have went to a 1000watt

 

Yes, remember you basic electrical calculations from you HAM tests. There are some losses also. E/IR or P/IE.

E=voltage or electromotive force
I=amperage or current intensity
R=resistance
P=power or wattage

https://www.theautomationstore.com/ohms-law-power-formulas-and-pie-chart/

 

I'm not against one with more power by any means. I've had this one laying around since before RT2016 and wanted to put it to use. So is it just a waste?

 

It can hardly make coffee in the morning so duhhhh dont you remember lars, ben, and trying to do coffee

 

Yeah I have a tiny inverter under my seat that I've used to blow up my air mattress or charge my lap top too. But it popped with a cord to long or trying to run a dremel. Ideally I want a hardwired 1000W in my tool box or bed or something.

 

400W is more than enough to charge all the items you mentioned at the same time. One thing to consider though is it will be inefficient. You are going to be converting 12V DC battery power to 120V AC power so you can charge a battery that uses 12V or less DC power. If you have a constant hot cigarette plug that's what I would use to charge batteries. If you're trying to run tools or brew coffee like Jake mentioned you may want to upgrade. Keep in mind though that a 1000W inverter will draw more than 80 amps at full power so you'd want to have your truck running when you do that.

 

Thanks guys. I'll upgrade to a larger one when the time comes. I'd assume most of the time I'm using it will be when driving at the moment.

 

I have a 1100 watt unit in the truck for years now. It has a LVC built into it so it shuts down and still leaves enough juice to start the truck if i should leave it running. It's happened a couple times, definitely saved my butt a couple mornings. Great for running the Mr. Coffee.
I would check to make sure it will actually power your computer charger safely.
The inverters produce a modified sine wave that is not always compatible with what you are powering.
for instance, mine won't run the power supply for my lipo battery charger when I go run RC stuff. The power supply gets skin burning hot in a matter of minutes. But it works just fine off the car battery.

 

I use a 600w one but literally the only thing I do with it is charge my camera battery. Everything else charges off 12v. 400w isn't a waste if you're doing just batteries.

 

Thanks for the help guys.
I've tested the charger with my comp before - it does charge, but is in fact pretty slow as @mountainmonkey mentioned.
@Blackdawg , are you just using the cig lighter, or do you have another 12v source?
@cynicalrider the only time I've used it was for a dremel and it didn't seem to give any trouble. Not saying that means anything, though.
@3378jakesr5 , it would certainly be nice to charge the impact batteries. I never thought about that.

Again, this is simply just an inverter I've had for over a year now that's been lying around. Most of the time I'll be using it while driving so it can serve small electronic devices needing a charge. If I find myself needing it more than not, I'll definitely look to upgrade.

 

Just sell that one to some chump on the for sale page

 

My 600w is 4ga wire. It goes to my power blocks in the cab that run to the battery and are 0/1 gauge I believe.

 

I'm pretty sure the stock 2nd gen one is 400w. I charge 20v DeWalt batteries with it on the regular. It'll also run the crock pot, an expo must! I've run a small shop vac, it does sound a little down on power but it works. It only works when the truck is running... I don't think I'd want it to be able to run with it off anyways.

 

Pre neat

 

You got those from front range correct?

 

Yes sir!

 

Took a trip to Tabernash to visit the mountain people and get the frame plates welded up this weekend. Huge thanks to @Reh5108 for letting me hangout and use his shop/tools.

Haven't really welded since high school so the quality is poor, but it's good enough for the gals I roll with.

Also got started on the trans skid. Didn't make much progress but hope to get it finished up in the next week or so and mounted up. Ryan did all of the dirty work and I just copied his skid for the most part - photos to come once that's all wrapped up.