A fix to heating your box truck.

[SRI Cleaning]

No you would need a very very large battery bank to be able to run an inverter at 1500 watts all night, plus your alternator would never be able to charge that battery bank.

Would an isolator and a couple of Optima Gel batteries work?

In theory yes, but not when drawing 1500 watts all night. A typical alternator will put out about 1600 watts max and thats when running at full rpm. so if you draw 1500 watts from a huge battery bank for 8 hours, then the alternator will have to generate that same power for more than 8 hours (much more when counting for inefficiencies). So even if it was feasable to run your truck at high rpm for 8 hours.....you would kill the alternator because they are only designed to run at max output for short periods to replenish your battery after starting your truck.

 

[tmdry]

[quote="SRI Cleaning":1nllt20v]No you would need a very very large battery bank to be able to run an inverter at 1500 watts all night, plus your alternator would never be able to charge that battery bank.

Would an isolator and a couple of Optima Gel batteries work?

In theory yes, but not when drawing 1500 watts all night. A typical alternator will put out about 1600 watts max and thats when running at full rpm. so if you draw 1500 watts from a huge battery bank for 8 hours, then the alternator will have to generate that same power for more than 8 hours (much more when counting for inefficiencies). So even if it was feasable to run your truck at high rpm for 8 hours.....you would kill the alternator because they are only designed to run at max output for short periods to replenish your battery after starting your truck.[/quote:1nllt20v]

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[SRI Cleaning]

No problem!

 

[Royal Man]

Sounds like a $15 electrical cord would be a better option.

 

[Connor]

Sounds like a $15 electrical cord would be a better option.

Reminds me of an internet myth.

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they discovered that ball-point pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat this problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 million developing a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300C.

When confronted with the same problem, the Russians used a pencil.

 

[SRI Cleaning]

haha thats hysterical