Refrigerator in the truck
#11
My last mentor had a 2006 or 2007 KW T2000. He had a mini fridge in the truck, and not sure it was something he put in himself, or if it was standard equipment. Either way, he told me on the first day i was in his truck, "...this switch here, powers the fridge...it never gets turned off..." And for the 4-5 weeks i was on his truck, it never got turned off. and we never had a problem with the truck not starting.
As far as your inverter goes, one thing i remember from when i worked in a truck stop, was the shop guy there telling me that just because you had a 1000 watt inverter, dont mean you can run several items that would total 1000w. You will greatly reduce the life of your inverter, and might pose a fire risk. If you have 1000w...i'd run it up to about half capacity. You will get the most use out of it, and you wont have to worry about fire..................unless the guys who install it are complete idiots.
#12
Rookie
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Buckeye, AZ
Posts: 23
I have an 5 cubic foot(IIRC) dorm sized fridge/freezer.
It runs the batteries down to the low warning level in about 8-24 hours. Depending on how hot outside it is. I also have a Blackrock APU, it's junk and loud as a reefer. Get the Tri-Pack.
#13
Senior Board Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: East Central IL between the corn and the beans
Posts: 4,977
Many if not all of the actual 12v fridges have built in low voltage shut downs.
A few inverters have it also, but most do not, and dorm sized 110v fridges certainly don't. IMHO, if the truck is going to be shut down more than an hour or two you should power down your inverter.
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#15
Member
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: western PA
Posts: 154
this is probably your best bet, when they work they work great, cools down to 35 degrees. if you plan on sleeping with the truck shut off and it gets down to 40 or below, unplug it because it will freeze whatever is inside.
#16
Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Oneida, TN
Posts: 79
I ran a fridge off a 1500 watt inverter in my 2005 Freightliner and never had a problem starting after a normal weekend (34-48 hrs) parking, but I did have to get a jump start a couple of times when I'd left the truck for a four day weekend, like Thanksgiving and Christmas. When I was upgraded to a 2008 I could still fire up even after four days downtime, so I blame the problem on the age of the batteries in my older truck.
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#17
Board Regular
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Columbus, OH
Posts: 460
Every time you completely discharge a lead-acid battery, you significantly shorten it's life! If you let it happen, they'll NEVER be as good as they were before. The only way to fix this is to replace the batteries...which happened when the rest of the truck was replaced... I strongly suggest not letting this happen to your new batteries!!!
#18
Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Oneida, TN
Posts: 79
Or perhaps the problem was the DRIVER who ran them down?:lol:
Every time you completely discharge a lead-acid battery, you significantly shorten it's life! If you let it happen, they'll NEVER be as good as they were before. The only way to fix this is to replace the batteries...which happened when the rest of the truck was replaced... I strongly suggest not letting this happen to your new batteries!!! Whatever, seems to me it would be simple, cheap and better for all concerned if the company would just run a little wiring around the drop yards to run trickle chargers, but of course I'm talking about the same outfit that would rather pay a tow truck to come out to their Atlanta facility 3-5 times a week to pull tractors out of potholes than to invest in the few loads of gravel it would take to fix the problem. Our motto: Save Money At All Cost..
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"Build a man a fire and you keep him warm for an evening, but SET a man on fire and you keep him warm for the rest of his life." - Terry Pratchett |
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