120v converter for pickup.

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Tbrake

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I've been looking at power converters that plug into the 12 volt plug in your vehicle or tractors. I have found some cheap ones on amazon that are for laptops and such, I'm sure not what I'm needing. I would like to be able to run a large drill for drilling holes in hedge post, also would like to be able to run my clippers for freeze branding. Maybe a small air compressor when dealing with flat tires. I get tired of lugging around the generator times when I only need to hang one gate. Does anyone make one large enough to run that drill? Any suggestions? Thank you much
 
Yeah, a cigarette lighter inverter isn't going to run what you need.

You can buy a small generator from harbor freight for less than an inverter thats big enough to run a hammer drill, not even including the wiring.

Inverting is inefficient, to run a 1000 watt drill, you need 1200 watts or more from the source (100 amps at 12 volts). That requires 4 gauge cables and an inverter that can produce 1000 watts continuously (not surge). Even then I doubt the duty cycle is very long at that rate.
 
I know the built in power inverters in the new Ram pickups will spin a small grinder. But I think I would be afraid of burning it up if using it too much. I have a cig lighter plug inverter and it will barely charge a laptop. I would go the generator route, if you've got pickup access shouldn't be a big deal to just have it sitting in the bed and running some extension cords from it.
 
hillbilly beef man":4inz6yiz said:
Silver":4inz6yiz said:
I think the built in pickup inverters are only 150W, and they kick a relay when overworked.
The new Superduty ones are 400 watt. All I have ran on mine is a crock pot.

I'll have to take a look at mine, I didn't think it was that much. On my old 2011 Dodge it would trip trying to charge my laptop if the laptop was open and low on battery.
 
Yours is probably 150 then. My wife's car is a 150 and all it is fit for is charging a cell phone. It tripps with her laptop too. Crock pots are out of the question even on warm.
 
I would assume my one ton 2017 ford is 400W if it is as you say, and expect you are right as I've not had any issues with it.
Actually I think it says right on the little flap over it what the Wattage is.
 
We use a 3000 watt inverter on the boat, and see no reason a truck with dual batteries couldn't run all you need and then some. As noted you can't run off the power point in the truck, the inverter needs to be hard wired into the battery - charging system.
 
i have a 800w run / 1600 w surge inverter i've had for like 15 years. This works great. I got a "marine" version.

I just hook it up to a random battery and it'll run a lot. I use it to run my jet heater, etc.
 
Tbrake":vmw4mzjr said:
How hard are these to wire to the charging sysem?

Easy to wire into the charging system, but you need the amp hours to support the inverter. Like TG, we use a 3000 watt inverter on the boat for everything but the AC, heat, oven, and the water heaters. Our battery bank is 875 amp hours and requires a couple hours a day of charging time if it's being used for much more than just the lights. I would want the inverter batteries isolated from the truck batteries, if I had the choice.
 
I have one association with one to comment on: Do not remember the specifics of the device other than it was rated at 400 watts....do not remember how it was connected to the vehicle....belt drive comes to mind.

It was rpm dependent and you had to run the truck at something like 3000 rpm to get your 400 watts. Course there are 746 watts per hp, so it wasn't lugging the truck's engine, must have been a result of the design being rpm dependent. Taking account of the gasoline the truck was consuming (carbureted) efficiency was a JOKE!

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