98 Dodge Durango electrical enhancement.

I am looking for a system to let me be able to run my trucks accessories off a small generator. I currently use this truck for fire company related duties which require the accessories to be used for long periods of time without having to move the truck. I do not like having to keep my engine at idle and the fuel use with a high idle would kill me. It is common for my systems to draw around 35 amps but could go 80 or more amps given the situation. Time frames of use on average are around 4 hours. Any input would help.  
<We only live once. Enjoy it or die.>

Small generator is going to use fuel too. You're better off just running the engine.

You can't expense the fuel since it's for company use?  
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Long Travel 4 Wheel Drive - The Best of Both Worlds!

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a/c or d/c amps? dual alternators with a uhhh dang, grey matter...the jeepers use a dual battery isolator dont they? or just get a reciever hitch thingy and weld up a cradle for the pup fron or back...maybee?  

A small generator should not use as much gas as the 318 that is in the truck.  I also want to save some where and tear on the trucks engine.I looked up in my RV supply catalog for a dc converter and charger. The system I looked at was rated at 45 amps dc and uses 750 watts 120v ac. However I do not know if that type of system would have any adverse reactions if installed off the trucks battery. I would like to use a 1000 watt generator for most operations. For the larger loads I could just run the trucks engine. AS far as expensing out the gas I just do not want to deal with the paperwork.  
<We only live once. Enjoy it or die.>

there are some issues ive heard about sine and square wave issues when using some stuff like a laptop or other electronic equip. are you running flood lamps?  

I think i am being misunderstood. I want to run the ac generator to power the converter to get 12v dc power to run my lights and radios while on scene at emergency calls.  
<We only live once. Enjoy it or die.>

Sounds like a giant pain in the ass for minimal gain... but that's just me.  
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Long Travel 4 Wheel Drive - The Best of Both Worlds!

Questions? Comments? Concerns? PM Me!

Ahh, I see. forget the sine wave thought then, it would be cool to run a genset to power the auxiliary lighting. Northern tool @ equipment ...i think thats the name o the catolog has generatoir heads ready to hook up to a gas or diesle little motor...there are some gensets available w/ 12 volt outputs. think coleman has one and there are others .18 wheelers reun diesle frame mounted setups...but pricey.
how bout a weighted flywheel hooked to an heavy duty alternator? ive run as high as 200 amp ones on my big truck before. look into the local power equipment 18 wheeler repair shop to get leads on rebuilders in the area? the only problem is figuring the hores requirments for a lawn mower motor to drive it...and speed at which the alt needs to turn to achieve.
this is a large and far out scenario using a huge alt. i imagine you could find a gm alternator or dodge one...the newer trucks have 160 and up in the 04 and up rams.
good luck to ya! and happy wheelin  

ok i used to work at a dealer and we worked on city and emergency vehicles and here is what they did. A run led lights B run (as a secondary batt) optima battery and have that only for extended use stuff optimas last along time but are very hard to recharge so keep the reg battery for starting and have an isolator in between them, the clowns in the city i worked for had the po po radio attached to the pa on for hrs along with the lights and laptop and all the other stuff and never had a problem starting the vehicles

fyi they have devices for batt that will kill power if the battery gets too low  
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You know I love you all (in a manly non sexual way) Spawn_X

OK input good so far. I have thought of getting a second batt with an isolator. How would that be done as i am not really familiar with them. I would love to upgrade to led but for now out of my price range. The tomar 930n will have to do until i need to change colors. That promotion is expected in the next year or so. With that in consideration i am not going to drop $1000 + only to have to do it again when I switch from blue to red lights. That's the one downfall with led you can not change colors easily. With that said how long can i expect the optima to run the 30 or so amp load for?

PS. I do not want a device to kill the power when my truck is in the middle of a 4 lane highway. That may not be pretty.  
<We only live once. Enjoy it or die.>

Bump  
<We only live once. Enjoy it or die.>

I wouldn't mess with Optimas for something like that, get yourself one or two size 27 deep-cycle RV/Marine batteries (I've found the Delco Voyager to be of exceptional quality among this type). These have just under twice the capacity (each), and are about half the cost. Being it's not going to be subjected to high shockloads or run upside down (like it would typically see in a comp buggy), IMO, an AGM-type battery like that just isn't needed.

Use a isolator to eliminate the chance of the truck not starting from running the accessories too long (the isolator installs under the hood and has separate charge feeds for the truck battery and the auxiliary battery).

On the subject of using a generator and DC converter, I don't see that causing any harm, but make sure the DC converter won't be damaged by the voltage from the alternator backfeeding into it when the engine is running (maybe put a big fat diode in series with the power lead coming from it. An RV converter should be fine as well, but you'd have to rewire all your accessories over to it).