Inverter question

And don't laugh!

When you use inverters hooked to your vehicles, does the vehicle have to be running? Or does the truck battery power an inverter battery?

Runs on battery power new. But if your truck is running it wont drain your battery.

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

I run an 1100 watt and it'll run a hour or two cutting up scrap before I have to start my vehicle. I let it run about 15-20 min.s and it's good for quite a while longer.

If you're gonna go that route, it's best to have a deep cycle battery. Optima is the first brand that comes to mind but there are others.

Otherwise, I would leave the car running so you don't shorten the lifespan of your battery.

if your only running an inverter every once in a while and not using for extremely long times a regular battery will do just fine, however if you are going to be using an inverter over say 1500watts on a consistent basis i would say invest in a good deep cycle battery or get a good voltage monitor for your electrical system because a deep cycle battery can tolerate being drained to far a few times as long as its recharged correctly, however a standard car battery if drained below its voltage threshold never regains its full charging capacity.