Advice on Power Invertor

[WVaughan]

I'm planning on traveling from Washington state to Montana in Sept. to harvest 4 buffalo... (yum yum), my question is "What size Invertor can my 03 handle to supply power to 4 chest freezers that I will be hauling in a covered trailer???" Or would it just be easier to purchase dried ice for the 13 hour trip? Thanks for any input & experience on this matter.

 

[lkozark]

Freezers

Not enough information. How much power does each one require?

Add the total power required for each freezer, add about 50% to that to take into account the compressor motor start up current. It may be that dry ice would be cheaper.



Inverters draw a lot of current from your batteries. A 1000 watt load on an inverter would require in excess of 85 amps. This does not take in to account the efficiency factor of the inverter which I would guess at 65-70% putting your battery load well over 100.



Good luck.



Les

 

[RMachida]

You might be better off running them off of a generator. I've done this in the past when going fishing.

 

[MikePowers]

I run a 1700 watt inverter to a chest freezer for elk hunting and It is maxed out and I feel if hooked a second up it would be too much. When the compressor first kicks on its a large jolt that max's out in amps. Theres a formula, you multiply # of amps freezer is running X's 120 volts and then get a verter that is 1/3 bigger than that to handle the surge when the compressor kicks in. We use inverters in our glass trucks so Iv'e been using them for years. A gas generator will handle big loads much better. A 3000 watt gas generator will out perform a 3000 watt inverter hands down. Inverters don't handle " resistance electricity" like a generator. My 3000 watt generator will power my camper with the AC, fridge and microwave going etc, my 1750 inverter will trip off when you just turn the micro on and will not even start the AC. Big generator or dry ice, I'm certain an inverter would not power more than one freezer and a 2000watt 4000 peak would be suffice for that. Also been running these things daily for years and have never had problems with the trucks batteries, but truck MUST be running to generate big power demands, inverters will shut down if battery goes under 10 volts, if truck is running this will never happen, we just let then idle when running power tools, copressors etc. Hope this helps

 

[WVaughan]

Thanks.... =)

Thanks for the info. I have been beating this around for awhile & think I will look at at the diesel generator option. Basically killing 2 birds with one stone. Use the generator for the buffalo thing, then use it to power the house when the power goes out. Have you guys ever gone to www.craigslist.com ?? Excellent website (like the little nickel). Just pick your area of the country & they have all types of stuff on their, click on the FREE button & you will be surprised as to what people are giving away. Again, thanks for the knowledge.