Powering Accessories in my Terracan

AUSTIN POWERS!!!

Sorry, couldn't resist!!!

Inverters are cheap, go that way, then you have TOTAL flexibility.

Cheers

Wolfie

I use an inverter to run all my 240v toys including a laptop. Some say laptops shouldn't be run from an inverter but I have never had any trouble. Except that some inverters will run some laptops but mysteriously not others and vice versa.

Do a search on 'kerio' and you will find heaps of info on this subject.

Garry,

As a fellow Jerry Can owner I would suggest you need a second battery. Detailed below is a post I sent ages ago. I recently did the trip to Robe with my 15 yo son using my fliptop for him to watch DVD's for seven hours on the way and heating pies/sauasage rolls in the 12v oven along the way.

Hardwiring an inverter is only necessary if you don't run a second battery. An inverter plugged into your cig sockets will not, in most cases, run a modern fliptop (10 amps will not do it). You need at least a 300 watt inverter which needs dedicated power ie running off battery clamps on your second battery. That is if you use a cheapo Dick Smith job as I did (I have since upgraded to a 600 watt job from K Mart for $135 now I'll have power to run a drill and angle grinder should I need it).

As for running a fridge, without a second battery, it will end in tears. You've spent aroud $40k on your car, another $700 is a wise investment. Especially if your "small fridge" is a thermoelectric type, those little beasts draw around 4 amps continuously.

I"ve got a great setup. It was installed by Chris at Battery World, Wantirna, Vic. He put a smart solenoid under the bonnet, ran 140 amp cable along the chassis and popped it back into the car attached to an Anderson plug. He then put a 100 amp Lifeline "AGM" battery into a battery box. The battery box has cable running out of it to another Anderson plug so the battery can be removed when not needed or to be used as a mobile power supply. Inside the box he fitted a circuit breaker and two female waeco plugs to the box. He also added a three way cig socket plug with a male Waeco plug on the end to give me three power outlets if needed. The other female plug on the box is used to power my fridge, an Engel which I got him to fit a Waeco plug to as they clip in and stay in. Total cost $700.

AGM batteries have the advantage that they are completely sealed and will accept an extremely high recharge rate, basically whatever you can throw at them. A normal deep cycle will only take about 5 amps, so takes a lot of driving to get them back to full. AGM's of this size are reported to fully charge from near flay in 2-3 hours.

The other big advantage is the portability. Went away two weeks ago to some unpowered cabins up the bush and was able to take the battery into the cabin to power the fridge, lights and laptop to fiddle with my photography.

I can't speak highly enough of the setup."

Good luck,

Jim.

Garry,

I ran a laptop and charged my camera batteries all off a 150watt sinewave inverter across the S/D running the whole time connected to my GPS running oziexplorer and didn't have any probs. The worry would be the fridge mate, I am hoping you are not wanting to use a 240volt bar fridge as one story I heard about.

As you say some shops sell both including my own business, I guess what I'm saying is if I sell both and can get larger inverters at wholesale and am happy with a 150watt/300watt burst sinewave unit, it should do the job for you and as others have said the inverter gives you more flexability.

Cheers

Thanks for all the info guys, it helped heaps. I have just purchased a 600W inverter from Supercheap and will be testing it out this week with a trip to melbourne. The Austin is that I drive an 1961 Austin 7 Mini Countryman for my daily driver. My wife gets the Terracan with the climat control, windows that go up & down, and sounds other than the whine of the gearbox. But I love it and will never sell it.

Garry