Wiring a printer to the truck
 

I'm a landscaper and I am constantly giving estimates. Usually I go to the location, take notes, come home and on a night I'm not too busy type it all up and come back the next day and stick the estimate in the person's mailbox. I want to speed up the process, and I don't like giving people estimates in my sloppy handwriting.

That all being said, I wanted to wire up a printer to my truck. I looked into battery operated units, and they sell for about $400 which is way too much. I wanted to wire up a cheap printer to my truck so I can bring my laptop with me and print wherever I am. I've never wired up a thing in my life, so how would I go about doing this?

Can you use a household printer with an inverter?

yea, you can get a cheap printer on sale for 50 bucks roughly. use a 40 dolalr power inverter and then you're all set.

i saw something at best buy that plugs into your cigarette lighter and has electrical sockets on the end..is that a power inverter?

Is that the thing that plugs into a cig lighter? I was hoping there would be a way to do it straight to the truck, to keep everything neat and hidden. My only cig lighters are in the center console.

go to pep boys and grab a 12v power source. you can tap that into the power wire of your factory cig lighter. then you can mount the after market power supply anywhere you want. go grab a power inverter and call it a day. the power source is like ten bucks

Yes, thats a power inverter.

Yes, thats a power inverter. You should have 3 cig lighters. What else are you using.

Yep. Power inverter seems to be the answer. :nod:

or you could use a Mr. Fusion





i use a cig lighter plug in inverter for my laptop, just make sure you get one rated for the amps of your printer

I bought an inverter from Wal mart which you could hook up directly to your battery. i wouldn't recommend the ones Wal Mart carries because the thing didn't work. Just letting you know there's that style out there.

if you go for the more expensive inverter, you could run your printer and charge your laptop :nod:

wire it up to a fused lead from the battery with the proper fuse and wire for the rated amps and wala, no fires!

be sure the inverter as enough watts to power the printer 400 -800 watt inverter have 2-4 AC plugs for more stuff to plug in.
get the printer first then check the specs to see if it will work.

i can get you a new printer on the cheap if you want form my job
and if you need help with wiring my friend can do it even hide the printer for you lol
have the James bond printer in the dash lolol