Inverter question
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Inverter question
Hey all, Happy Thanksgiving and I hope everyone is doing well. I have a question about power iverters.
I am wanting to mount a power inverter in my truck bed tool box to do a couple of things.
1- I have a small kobalt 2 gal air compressor that I would like to be able to cycle to refill the tank. it is 120v pulling 5.7 amps per the manufacturer making it around 684 watts. the use of this compressor will be very light duty, making sure that air pressures are good and topping off air in my airbags, truck tires and trailer tires.
2- otherwise i will use the inverter with a power strip to keep cordless tool batteries charged or for small things that need to be plugged in when needed. but otherwise it will just be for the compressor.
more often than not the truck will be running when using the compressor, and the tool box will always be open when the inverter is on to be used for the compressor.
question would be, what size inverter would be needed to adequately cycle the compressor? would a small deep cycle battery be needed just to take some of the load off the two batteries up front?
I thought about getting a 12v system, but they are quite limited and very expensive. I also want the option of removing my compressor out of the tool box to use at the motorcycle track when I am on shore power with the rv.
advise and guidence are much appreciated.
Thank You
Nick
I am wanting to mount a power inverter in my truck bed tool box to do a couple of things.
1- I have a small kobalt 2 gal air compressor that I would like to be able to cycle to refill the tank. it is 120v pulling 5.7 amps per the manufacturer making it around 684 watts. the use of this compressor will be very light duty, making sure that air pressures are good and topping off air in my airbags, truck tires and trailer tires.
2- otherwise i will use the inverter with a power strip to keep cordless tool batteries charged or for small things that need to be plugged in when needed. but otherwise it will just be for the compressor.
more often than not the truck will be running when using the compressor, and the tool box will always be open when the inverter is on to be used for the compressor.
question would be, what size inverter would be needed to adequately cycle the compressor? would a small deep cycle battery be needed just to take some of the load off the two batteries up front?
I thought about getting a 12v system, but they are quite limited and very expensive. I also want the option of removing my compressor out of the tool box to use at the motorcycle track when I am on shore power with the rv.
advise and guidence are much appreciated.
Thank You
Nick
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Joined: Jan 2001
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From: Virginia
The problem with motor loads on an inverter is the starting surge of the motor. People who want to run small 120v window A/C's on an inverter run into the same problem. You will probably need to double your inverter capacity to just get the compressor motor started.
They do make a soft start unit to help with this situation. It can be wired into the A/C to ease the starting load, don't know why it could not be wired into the compressor the same way. Here's a link to an example.
https://www.microair.net/products/ea...nt=30176048267
They do make a soft start unit to help with this situation. It can be wired into the A/C to ease the starting load, don't know why it could not be wired into the compressor the same way. Here's a link to an example.
https://www.microair.net/products/ea...nt=30176048267
Fleet Owner
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 24,323
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From: 0,0,1
Minimum 900 watts with 6 AWG conductors feeding it. You don't need the deep cycle batteries unless you start using the compressor with the engine off.
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