Power Inverter, Indoor Car Shows

Indoor car shows require you to disconnect your battery, but allow you to hook-up to a AC to DC power inverter to obviously power your vehicles stereo, TVs, neons, etc during a show.

I spoke with a tech at Grainger and he asked the obvious question of how many amps am I drawing from my equipment.

I tried to do some digging around to calculate what kind of amperage I am drawing for my system. I'm running into trouble trying to find all the specs for my equipment and to find out what kind of inverter I need to purchase.

I have a KX800.2 Kicker amp (120Amp fuse) a KX600.4 kicker amp (80amp fuse) and 22 Liteglow neon lights throughout the car, 7.5 Pioneer in-dash, 2 4" Boss headrest TVs, 60W strobe lights x 4, and Liteglow neon underbody kit.

Can someone point me in the right direction? I don't mind buying a higher model, I just want to make sure its powerful enough to run the car during these shows, and of course be safe.

Any help would be appreciated, I apologize in advance for my lack of knowledge in this area. A simple link to a recommended inverter would be great.

Here is a link to a recent somebody asking that SAME question...

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Apologize for the duplicate post.

I did figure out I am drawing about 233 amps, which isn't as much as others. However, I am having trouble finding a decent inverter.

I called Grainger and they don't have anything to handle that.

Any suggestions??

If you are asking for an inverter, no, they wont. An inverter converts from DC to AC. You need to convert from AC to DC. Known as a "power supply", it'll be MUCH easier to find, and will be significantly less expensive.

Tripp-Lite makes some very nice DC power supplies, regulated and filtered, so no noise.

You'll need at least 4 (I'd recommend 5) of the PR60 units. This will give you 192A continuous, (or 240A with 5) and 240 peak (300A with 5). These can be parallelled with no problems at all, I've done it many times. I also think Grainger is a distributor of these items. Here is a yahoo search I did just right quick to get you some results for buying these toys... Good luck to ya!

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

You can also look into this companies gear, I have used all their controllers and power supplies very nice stuff. They have larger power supplies than listed, if you give them a call ask for Mitch Thompson he'll set you up.

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I knew I had to go from AC to DC, I wasn't using the right terminaology.

Your replies and time are very much appreciated!!!

I forgot to mention, I did ask the Grainger Tech for a AC/DC power supply. He said he didn't have anything that could handle the amps I am drawing. He didn't mention anything about running supplies parallel. I'm looking for a easy set-up, without lugging 5 of these power supplies around to these shows.

So there's not a single DC power supply out there big enough to run my equipment?

try the link I posted I got my 150 amp power supply from them, I am bettin' they have a bigger one than that.

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I won't say there ISN'T one, but if you find one, it's gonna be BIG (more like HUGE), HEAVY (as in about the weight of a CAR... OK, slight exaggeration, but still, REALLY heavy, I'd guess 120 pounds to start), and expensive. Smaller would probably be better, easier to move around, even if possibly a bit more expensive than one single 300A 12v supply. Also, one HUGE power supply will probably not be available in 120v supply voltage. Something that big will most likely be a 240v input. Not all venues are gonna have 240v 20A service to every stall.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

haemphyst wrote:

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I won't say there ISN'T one, but if you find one, it's gonna be BIG (more like HUGE), HEAVY (as in about the weight of a CAR... OK, slight exaggeration, but still, REALLY heavy, I'd guess 120 pounds to start), and expensive. Smaller would probably be better, easier to move around, even if possibly a bit more expensive than one single 300A 12v supply. Also, one HUGE power supply will probably not be available in 120v supply voltage. Something that big will most likely be a 240v input. Not all venues are gonna have 240v 20A service to every stall.

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That makes sense. I'm trying to explore my options and thats why I am trying to ask the right questions. Please don't take my questions as I am second guessing your suggestion.

I will look around and see what I can find. Including the link Jeremy provided. I thank you guys again for your replies, I will post back and let you know how I made out.

My 150 amp power supply weighs less than 20 pounds and is the size a shoe box...........Did you check out audio authority, I know they have what your looking for....It cost me $385 plus freight......I would throw a wager that my 150 would have no problem powering you toys at a car show.......

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kinitik is now offering products that will meet your needs, if you need more info on thier line of chargers lok at thier site. Kinetikaudio.com and contact a regional rep near you

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2009 0-1000 Trunk WR 154.0DB 2009 1001+ Trunk WR
2007 USACI World Champion
2007 World Record
2006 USACI Finals 2nd Place

xtremej wrote:

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My 150 amp power supply weighs less than 20 pounds and is the size a shoe box...........Did you check out audio authority, I know they have what your looking for....It cost me $385 plus freight......I would throw a wager that my 150 would have no problem powering you toys at a car show.......

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Jeremy, I contacted audio authority and let me first say they were very helpful! However, the unit they carry only can stand a 100 amp draw. The unit can be wired with a second unit to total 200 amps. Not bad at all, BUT the plug for the power supply is for a 20 amp outlet. It primarily designed for show rooms, etc., people who can wire-in the 20 amp outlet if needed, and not for moving to different shows, as I do.

They did refer me to another company...I will check them out.

So far looks like the triplite is an option.

Here's another question. If my 800.2 amp has a 120 amp fuse and my 600.4 has a 80 amp fuse, if I don't run that many amps to my amplifier can that mess my amp up?

No it shouldn't hurt your amps, if your playing it full bore for awhile you'll see a performance drop. You'll have it powered through the battery so you can play it loud for a quite a bit before you'll see a power drop. I know at most show they have it in the rules that they don't want the stereo on loud all the time, just to show it off then turn it back down. There is a local show where I am at where they banned turning it up at all, if you do they won't  allow you in the show for 2 years. I don't participate in shows that conservative anymore, but what I am sayin is you might want to look into the rules for the show your looking into attending or being in.  Food for thought, I had 2 concept 1210 class d sub amps powered off my 150a power supply with a optima yellow top for storage, I played them for about 20 minutes pushing 4 12's. they have 4 40 amp fuses in each. I had no problems, I have a monitor top capacitor on my display and  the lowest it dropped was  14.2 volts while the subs were shaking my showroom apart. What I am saying is unless you plan on leaving it blasting all day long you may be able to snag a 150 or 100 amp supply and be ok.

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Most shows I am attending are high profile shows that do not have any requirements for turning up your system. Although, try competing with Kicker and some other vendors for a loud system...lol

Back to the issue...I have to disconnect my battery for these type of shows, hence the reason I wanted a powerful enough power supply to power my equipment (if I decided to show-off my system for a short while).