FirstToy

did you ever build your off road kit. I'm going on the Hungrey Valley ride, and I want to make sure I"m prepared. If you did what are you carrying?

Victor

 

Bear in mind that I consider recovery gera stuff to get the truck unstuck, not to fix it or keep me alive and well and such. Here goes;
-Cheap 25' Yellow strap from Lowes
-Explorer ProComp 30' 20000lbs strap
-4' chain with choke and grab hooks
-48'' Hi-Lift with jack kit
-Baseboard for Hi-Lift, homemade
-Military e-tool
-D handle shovel
-Saw
-Hatchet
-Gloves Gloves Gloves
-59' 3ton tow strap
-Duel front tow hooks
-Ericson tree saver strap
-100' of 5000lbs rope
-Reciver shackle-Extra 3/4'' shackle
-2 hitch pins and clips
-stock jack tools
-2 ton come a long
-Wheel chocks
-4, 2' "mud boards"
-Broken pencil type air gauge to air down with
The Know-How To Use It All

 

• 8000lb winch
• snatch block
• leather gloves
• 2 d-ring shackles
• tree saver strap
• 2" x 30' recovery strap
• folding shovel
• hatchet
• spare CV axle with 36mm socket
• tons of wrenches, sockets, etc
• mechanix gloves
• towels, rags
• can of fix-a-flat
• couple of pocket knifes
• bottle jack
• 2 maglites
• cordless/rechargable spotlight
• first aid kit
• 2 emergency flares
• CB radio
• bungee cords
• 100' of heavy duty rope
• haynes repair manual
• misc things thrown in my box

im sure theres more...

 

Warn M8000
Front/rear recovery points
3"x10' tree strap
3"x30' recovery strap
Q-beam spotlight
battery jump-pack
jumper cables
duct tape
gloves, gloves
shop towels
lots of handtools
motor oil
gear oil
hi-lift jack
2-1'x2"x6" boards
snatch block
2-d rings
spare bolts, nuts
fuses
zip ties
cheapie air compressor


I'm sure there is more, and more gets added everyday.

 

It really depends on where I go and who's going.... I'll try and carry the least amount of gear as possible. Mostly tire repair kit and a first aid kit, which is kept inside my vehicle at all times. Some go overboard and just bring too much, especially if your going with a large group. You can divide up what you bring and who brings what, no reason for everybody to carry a Hilift jack. Unless I plan on venturing out in on my own or with another vehicle a long way from home, then I'll carry spares and extra supplies.

 

Remember this equation: Watts (Power) = Amps (Current) x Volts (um, potential?).

Lets say that compressor draws 14 Amps at 110 V. This equals 1500 Watts. Your homework is to go find a DC/AC converter (inverter) that can handle 1500 W. I don't think you'll find one. Why?

It will be running off your battery, which is 12 Volts, so 1500 Watts / 12 Volts = 125 Amps. THAT IS ALOT OF CURRENT! We're talking battery-cable current. Certainly, nothing you plug into your cigarette lighter is going to handle a hundred amps.

Electronics being as advanced as it is today, I can imagine that someone out there could produce an inverter that could handle that power, but you're not going to find it at K-mart, and it ain't gonna cost $20 bucks, if you know what I mean...

If you have a CO2 tank of sheilding gas for a welder, you could always put a regulator on it and use it for refilling tires. (hombrew PowerTank)
I have a 12V compressor mounted under my hood that I never use, its from a mid 80's Caddy. To be utilized efficiently, I need another one to hook up parallel. I got this one from a junkyard for $10.

things i carry that havent been listed yet, these four can fix damn near anything to get you home!
duct tape
zip ties
bailing wire
stainless hose clamps

 

Here is a 1500W inverter that is suitable for automotive applications. Here are it's specifications. Note that it only pulls 48 amps of current at 12V, and since most alternators put out 14.4V it will only pull about 40 amps when it is outputting it's full 1500 watts of power.

Still wouldn't hook it up to your cigarette lighter though.



~Bill

post edited due to brainfart in original post

 

Ideas, ideas... I just added crawler#976 and upndair's phone numbers to my recovery kit. Damn you guys are prepared!

 

The description page http://www.analyticsystems.com/products/ivq1500.htm
you linked to does indeed describe a 1500 watt inverter. But the detailed specifications page that they give for this and that you linked to http://www.analyticsystems.com/products/iqs300spec.htm
is for a 300 watt inverter. 40 amps at 12-15 volts will not give you 1500 watts out of the inverter. To get 1500 watts out of an inverter you need more than 100 amps from your battery.

 

My apologies - you are certainly correct. I apologize for my earlier post - I managed to apply the wrong equation at the wrong time - since we're dealing with the power output of the inverter, most certainly in order for the inverter to produce 1500 watts of power, it will need to draw in about 125 amps. There are ways around that requirement that will work for the short term (ie peak output) but if we want that much continuous power, we will certainly require 125 amps to do it with.

I had confused the situation with an earlier problem that basically said an amplifier would draw in more current as the voltage level decreased, and I pointed out that the power produced is not a constant - that as the voltage level decreased that the power output would decrease as well. In the application that you stated the 1500W of power is indeed a constant, and so as the voltage level stepped from 115 VAC to 12 VDC there would certainly be an increase in the amount of current.

Interesting that the manufacturers webpage brings up the specs for their 300 W inverter when you click on the 'detailed specs' link for their 1500 W inverter - I wonder if that was intentionally misleading? Well, I certainly was mislead by it, again, my apologies for the brain.

~Bill

 

Manual winches. Who uses them, and who makes the best ones?