DmaxEter

I have a 600watt inverter in my truck for running whatever need be. I was trying to use it the other morning to charge my cell phone since I left my car charger at the shop and noticed that the inverter would kick out when I came to a stop. I kept watching this and figured out what was going on. It was cold out so every time the grid heater would come on, it would kick the inverter out due to low voltage. I have the inverter hooked strait to the batteries and have load tested both to ensure I dont have a bad battery. I dont know what to do about this. When Its cold outside I cant use my power inverter. I have to manually reset it to get it to come back on when it turns off due to low voltage. I think the low voltage threshold is like 11V ot 10.5V.
What do you guys suggest I do????

4x4not

Well the grid heater pulls A LOT of current when it kicks on... in the hundreds of amps range. I don't know what you could do to prevent that other than getting some even bigger batteries that can handle the load. Or you could just wait until the truck warms up enough to not trip the grid heater.

DmaxEter

I guess it was because of ambient temp because after over an hour of driving I finaly just gave up. It had been at 190deg for at least 45min.
I dont know what to do but just unhook the stupid thing. Isnt there two different grids? Does just one of them work while driving down the road?

Jc9995

Dont the grid heaters stop cycling after you hit 25 MPH?

streetsmoker

Are the grid heaters that awfull buzzing noise you here at startup and dims the lights real bad and drops the rpm's of the truck down about 100rpm's? Cause if it is, than the other day(not too cold and noticing it more) it would buzz everytime I came to a stoplight and when I got home, I thought something was wrong, cause that buzzing thing on the right side inner fender was drawing down the voltage so bad it started to make the truck run rough. The next morning, I was ready to take it to the dealer, but the same problem did not persist.

MikeyB

Could try adding one more battery to the circuit, like a smaller Optima or Odyssey gelcell.

MikeyB

tristan21

As long as the temperature is below 59*, your grid heaters will cycle on and off until the outside temperature is higher than that. On the older trucks i read that they used to cause the lights to flutter. I guess thats just what you call the "nature of the beast". Im not sure how many amps your standard toaster draws but look at the wire thin size of its heating element compared to 1/4 metal strips your battery is tryin to heat.

MickeyB's idea is probably your best choice but it is probably gonna run you a few bucks. I think those Optima Batteries are about $150 and then you would need a one of those painless wiring kits that charge your battery. Best guess with store bought items about 300 clams.