I spend the night in the truck a lot, in the summer its hot in the winter its cold. Sometimes I get to plug in an electric heater at a truck stop. Just ordered a Honda generator which will get perminently mounted.

 

Nice. Microwave and satellite tv next??
Oh yeah and the fridge.

 

I used to work with a guy that had a 2000W inverter in his Cummins....ran a fridge, microwave, and MIG welder off it.....

 

I have a cheapie coleman 1200 watt continuous duty inverter that I am going to be installing tomorrow (surges at 2400 watts). (I wonder what would happen if I tried to plug in my block heater into my inverter while the engine is running!)



Not sure how much I could run on this thing ... How many watts continuous or surge does an average energy star efficient MINI fridge use?

I was hoping to get a cap for my upcoming trip (6000 miles in 1 week) so I could sleep in the back and run the engine at high idle and my space heater to warm up the cap but nobody around here has an ARE Z series for an 8 ft bed in Dodge silver in stock.

Looks like I will be sleeping on the seat

Anyway, I'm sure the Honda generator is a lot more efficient than leaving the motor running... Anyone know how many GPH the Cummins will eat at say... 1200 RPM?

 

Not so much the fuel it will burn but idling kills engines. Period.

 

[quote author=spots link=board=10;threadid=22007;start=0#msg205791 date=1068001012]
Not so much the fuel it will burn but idling kills engines. Period.
[/quote]

Totally agree........extended idelling is HARD on engines, expecially when its cold.....

 

I have a 2000 watt continuous, 4000 watt surge inverter on my truck. So far have not run it to max but will be doing so soon. It should be interesting to see if it will power a 1.5 HP motor.

 

considering 700 watts= 1hp you should have no problem

that 2000 watt inverter should supply 15 amps no problem

 

2000 watts at 110vac equals 18.18 amps. ;D

 

[quote author=spots link=board=10;threadid=22007;start=0#msg205729 date=1067996789]
Nice. Microwave and satellite tv next??
Oh yeah and the fridge.
[/quote]

Yeah fridge is already in the truck, I have a baby microwave for it. Have a good heater for the cab that I used last winter by plugging in.

I spent the better part of the last year thinking of what system to install. I almost bought an inverter but was not sure. With this I can keep warm, leave the truck lights on, will have more power than I need and the cost of leaving the truck running is very high.

After measureing for the installation I setteled on the EU3000. A button on the dash and it is running, it puts out 12v to keep the batteries up and will run anything and more than I need. The cost in gas is more than reasonable. The truck will get a sleeper and then it will get air for the nights.

I felt it was necessary after many freezing nights where I started the truck to get going and warm, fell back asleep and let it idle for hours. The cost in fuel is heavy, not sure how much but it gobbles fuel at idle. This means that I can cut down on the planned battery use and always have a way to bring them back up. It will also use the block heater.

 

[quote author=Mexstan link=board=10;threadid=22007;start=0#msg205828 date=1068003725]
I have a 2000 watt continuous, 4000 watt surge inverter on my truck. So far have not run it to max but will be doing so soon. It should be interesting to see if it will power a 1.5 HP motor.
[/quote]

Is the motor capacitor start? If so this does strain the equipment.

 

I've got a 2KW Coleman inverter (4KW surge) and have used it to power wet vacs, carpet shampoo'ers and a couple of fans simultaneously - easily.

It has also powered large refrigerators, but sometimes the same fridge will be an overload and it won't even start it.

One of these days, I'll hook everything I've got and just to see what it'll power.

I'll go back and look at my fuel records and see if I can reverse-engineer some fuel consumption data when using my inverter after hurricane Isabelle. But it didn't seem to be that bad.

 

[quote author=Haulin in Dixie link=board=10;threadid=22007;start=0#msg205675 date=1067991734]
I spend the night in the truck a lot, in the summer its hot in the winter its cold. Sometimes I get to plug in an electric heater at a truck stop. Just ordered a Honda generator which will get perminently mounted.[/quote]I like the Honda generators, but how is the genny going to help in the summer? It takes a rather healthy genny to power an AC unit.

On edit:
I just did some calculations to figure out how much fuel I burned while high idling and powering an inverter. Air temps were mid 80s. Being concerned about wetstacking etc, rpm's were kept around 1500 til engine temps rose to where the needle was about 4 hairs to the right of 200, then I just let her idle normally and cool off.

For 8-9 hours of high idling, I burned an extra 2.5 gallons of fuel. That works out to be about .3 gallons an hour. Not to bad. This was calculated using the averages I have seen from the last 18,000 miles of use.

Over that 18K miles, my truck has consumed 2.04 gph.

I don't think those numbers are too bad. Not like 30-40 gph boiling water in the boat.

 

I can assure you that my truck gets about one gallon per hour idling, do not have the good figures, but five or six hours idling brings the mileage for a tank down to 8 or 9 mpg. This may be due to the RV275 injectors. It is also bad for the engine so I opted for the generator. I know that there is a buildup of fuel after idling as it smokes for a time after ideling for a few hours. The 2800 output is well within what is needed for an air conditioner in the summer. Remember this is not cooling a motor home, only a a sleeper unit. It takes more to heat it. With a heater and the engine block heater it will be about maxed or near it. There are other benefits also for instance a lost altinator will not shut me down in daylight running. And then there is TV and Computer operation. May not be the best choice for all but it is the choice that I made. Now to get it mounted so that it stays clean and gets the necessary air for cooling, etc. Will be mounted like a side tank or tool box.