Thread: Need help for some reverse thinking...

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Hey all. If you have been following our coffin cruiser thread then you know what we have been up to. I really want to add a fogger to it and plumb it out the pipes. Here is my ?. Since the tractor is 12 volt and the fog machine is 110. how would i make this work and what to use? I think i would have to add another battery to handle the fogger but that should not be a problem. Any ideas...?

Power inverter, just make sure it can handle the fog machine

700W at 12V is 60 amps! you may be better off with a PTO generator

Id like to 2nd the power inverter. Just like to add use a good quality high strand count cable and make sure your ground is on bare metal and be sure to use the right guage (what manufacturer reccomends) wire and length. Also fuse it.

Phoenix UK is right. Not sure what engine your mower/casket has, but the output of the built in charging system on most small engines is only 10 - 15 amps at best. (There are a few that go as high as 20, but not many.) Even a 400 watt fogger would draw more than 30 amps. Add to that the loss of the inverter, and you'd have a dead battery pretty quickly. If you were so inclined, you could add an inexpensive car alternator to the PTO output of the mower that would easily handle the draw.

edited to add: I love the casket, btw!

I wonder if there is any way you could fabricate some sort of chamber for the tractors exhaust to pass through using the exhaust as your "heater" ? If that was hot enough to create the fog, then you could just inject the fog juice into the chamber or pipe using something simple like a reservoir and a windshield washer pump ???

Just thinking out loud........

To figure out the amps take 700W divide it by 120Volts = 6 amps or less. As long as you have a good 2nd battery for the inverter. I don't think that there would be a problem.

get another battery and a power inverter is my suggestion...where are you going to be driving it??

Thanks for the info. Strapping on a alternator would be easy enough but i am not sure if i want to get into that now with having to set the haunt soon. That may be an option for next season. Why i could not think of a power inverter is beyond me (DUHH) My neighbor has a new 12v car battery that i can borrow and i priced inverters. near a 100 for something decent. The only problem i see is mounting the battery. The coffin can not take the weight so i would have to come up with some sort of platform mounted to the rider. If all goes right, the cruiser will be leading a parade at my sons elementary school. All the classes do a walk around outside to show off their costumes. I went to this school a life time ago. My 2 older kids went their. They are now 18 and 17 and this is the last year my little one will be going. he moves on next year. It has been a tradition for as long as i can remember. I love this little school and would love to lead the parade.Sad to think it will be the last parade we will be at.......

i would recommend a small 400watt fogger max, you will then only need an inverter that can handle around 500watts i have a regular car batt and a 300watt inverter that i use with a small 100w pa system, a cd player and a small 30w guitar amp. i have never been able to use the full charge on the battery at one time and i have gotten at least 6 hours out of it once.

look at the amp hour rating of the batt: example a 60AH battery should give you 1 amp for 60 hours or 60amps for one hour so with a 400w fogger this would be 400/12 = 33.3 amps so a 60 amp hour batt could run that for one hour with a half charge left. you never want to run a battery all the way down unless it's a deep cycle battery or the battery will crystallize and be unusable.