Hello all
Just wondering if anyone here could give me any pointers.
Because I swap between trucks I can’t have my own inverter hard wired to the truck battery so was thinking about buying myself a leisure battery + a holder so I can have some proper power in the truck, mainly for a microwave.
Anyone else done this or if any other ideas could be suggested I’d much appreciate it.
Sensible answers only!
Iirc you do tour work don’t you Hammy? The reason I ask is that I imagine your trucks will have an Anderson plug for tail lifts etc. if that’s the case can you not just blag a spare lead, bang a fuse into it and hard wire that to your inverter? That’d save messing about with a big heavy battery, not to mention needing to secure it in transit.
Yes on the tour work and the tailifts. Will look for an Anderson socket.
My other option is to get myself a long power lead that the tour busses use when parked up and just request power from the gigs.
It’s not essential, I just hate relying on the truck battery for everything. It’d be nice to be able to charge stuff up and use a few bits and pieces without starting the engine all the time to stop the battery from dying.
I have leisure batteries on my boat, but it is a fairly complicated set-up. You need a split-charge relay in order that current is only drawn from the leisure batteries, and even then I think a microwave oven would very quickly kill the battery unless the engine was running while you were using it.
Charging stuff up, presumably mobile phone, tablet, camera etc can safely be done from the 12/24v socket as these don’t require much current.
You could get an inverter and wire it up temporarily to the batteries using jump leads and run the microwave from that although again, it would be best to have the engine running at the time.
In this day and age, it’s about time solar panels were an option
OVLOV JAY:
In this day and age, it’s about time solar panels were an option
Solar panels have always been available
Bit of a clat carrying a battery but I regularly use my caravan on sites without electric hook up I have a small mobile solar panel which keeps it topped up. Have toured the outer Hebrides for ten days using it including tv and microwave
Buy a dual battery charger. I.e one that can charge two batteries at once.
Leave them connected permanently and wire it up to a junction box with a 16 amp connection. Then just get yourself a 16 amp extension or blag one at a gig of a lampie.
That way the power is being used to constantly top up the batteries than having to run your engine at any stage. It’s what the tour buses do. C
Hammy747:
Yes on the tour work and the tailifts. Will look for an Anderson socket.My other option is to get myself a long power lead that the tour busses use when parked up and just request power from the gigs.
It’s not essential, I just hate relying on the truck battery for everything. It’d be nice to be able to charge stuff up and use a few bits and pieces without starting the engine all the time to stop the battery from dying.
As someone has already mentioned get yourself a 16a lead and a 16 -13a adaptor then at least when you’re on site you can find a 16a and away you go. Do you not like catering then?
Plambert:
Hammy747:
Yes on the tour work and the tailifts. Will look for an Anderson socket.My other option is to get myself a long power lead that the tour busses use when parked up and just request power from the gigs.
It’s not essential, I just hate relying on the truck battery for everything. It’d be nice to be able to charge stuff up and use a few bits and pieces without starting the engine all the time to stop the battery from dying.
As someone has already mentioned get yourself a 16a lead and a 16 -13a adaptor then at least when you’re on site you can find a 16a and away you go. Do you not like catering then?
Distinct lack of catering on this tour, we get a buy out every day instead. Most places have a microwave you can use but I’d rather just have my own that I know I can use whenever I want.