We had an enquiry today from a majorette troup about supplying their music on a carnival route. Any ideas on power source? It would be from the back of a Peugot Partner if it goes ahead. Gen, battery, what?

Generator would be best, but don't forget you will need a PPL licence if you are playing music on the move.

Got one.

We don't have a trailer but do have a towbar unless we can hire a gen on wheels it would be in with me, not sure if that's a good idea. there's got to be a safe way of doing this

Get a van or flatbed truck then

Have your gear clamped to as many areas or your veihicle to reduce motion of cds and yourself while mixing etc.

Don't thnk he'll do much mixing mate

I stand corected

Samll generator, just remember it will run out of petrol though

I really need help finding a mobile power source that can be used on the move, to power amp, mixer & twin CD.

I want to do this gig as it sounds like fun but unless someone can help me with a feasable solution looks like we're going to have to turn it down. HELP!

Why not a generator them, and an extension lead ?

Is it a Civic parade?If so do you have any Military bases nearby?
You could approach them and ask them to help,4 ton lorry,genny etc.
The military are usually quite keen to appear to be mingleing with the "locals".
It's worth a try.

You would ideally use a genny in a large van, the one here is not suitable as you cant even stand up in it.

We did this years ago, used a pre-recorded cassette to save the vynil ( remember that anyone?) from jumping. We were fortunate enough to get a local haulage company to let us have a flatbed.

Bear in mind : GENNY FUMES!! HEAT OF GENNY and of course PETROL IS HIGHLY FLAMMABLE! Check your PLI.

We've declined the job, too much of a headache. Just couldn't find a way of powering the rig whilst moving & we wern't going to buy / hire a bigger van for a non paying job. Shame, it sounded like fun.

Other methods of creating small amounts of power would be to use an invertor. Of course you couldn't run much off it, but a 500W one would run a 150W Slave amp, CD Player and Mixer. An invertor is a device which connects to a 12V battery and boosts the 12v input to mains voltage output, with no noise, fumes or petrol, and the unit itself is about the size of a small CD player.

If you did decide to take this route, then make sure that you used adequate wiring between the invertor and the Van's battery, a 500W unit, allowing for heat losses would draw around 40A from the 12v wiring so no connecting it to the Cigar Lighter socket . You would also have to make sure that the system is correctly fused at the battery end to protect the wiring in the event of an overload.

I have used one of these in the past, and found it to be very stable, just remember to keep the engine running! .

I have in the past used succsefully just one of the small portable camping type petrol generators "1000 Watt max" it run a 2*100watt amp, CD player , mixer & a front screen lightbox, just dont use your "best equpment" though , I also used a plug in spike protection between the genny and the power lead.

It run for 5 hours without a refill

Just started looking at invertors yesterday, seen a 1200w one which would connect directly to a seperate battery. Any Ideas on batery life? 400w amp twin cd & mixer would be used.

You need a splitter attached to main battery to keep the 2nd one charged while moving. These are available from good caravan suppliers.
I used to run the circuit in a motorhome this way.