power supply

[Bruce Yeaton]

Guys and gals, I'm looking for a power inverter power supply to run off my DC in my truck to run my onboard battery charger to charge the batteries on the boat.

Any idea of how much wattage I need to do this?

I'm camping in two weeks and I either need to buy a generator or the power inverter to keep the batteries charged all week. There aren't any hook-ups at the campground.



Thanks!

 

[Rich Stern]

Bruce, you didn't mention how many amps your charger is. I have a 6 amp Guest (2608). The documentation says it uses 1.6 amps/110-130vac at full DC output. That translates to about 200 watts AC input (amps * volts), give or take a few. It would be safe to assume that I could power my Guest charger with a 300 watt inverter.



Couple of caveats: Your charger may not like the modified sine wave AC that an inverter puts out. For that matter, it might not like unfiltered power from a genset, either.



Another possibility: Swap your truck battery with your trolling battery at the end of the day, jump start the truck from the original truck battery, go for a drive (or just run the motor...but alternater might not put out enough in idle) to charge up the trolling battery.



One of those inexpensive, no name 1000 watt generators that put out 10 amps AC for charging a battery might be your best best. Loud, but if you need it...

 

[Bruce Yeaton]

Thanks Rich.

My onboard is 10 amps and my regular battery charger is 12 amps.

I didn't think swapping the truck battery and charging the deep cycle was a safe charge from the alternator...and that's a long drive after a good day of fishing



I'll do some more research based on what you've said here and find out about the sine wave.



Thanks

 

[mike chip]

To lessen the amoun tof time it takes to charge at the end of the day look into a phase charger. Mine will keep enough charge on my batteries all week, so i never need more than an hour or so, if that.

mike