powering laptop in truck?

[Dumbass17]

so i will be spending alot of time in my truck being bored out of my mind on the worksite, haha.
i have my trusty work laptop and a flash drive i can fill full of movies

i have a ac to dc invertor in the truck already that plugs into the cigarette plug but it only allows me to watch maybe 1.5-2hours worth of movies and my days will be 10hrs+

so,
what's the best way to get more life out of my laptop (besides running the truck, cause i tried that and would have to run the truck for probably 2 hours to fully charge the laptop again).

would adding a second battery benefit me at all?

or would an adapter specifically designed for the laptop and powered by the cig lighter work better?

[topmade]

It's a work truck, just leave it on and screw greenpeace haha. You can get a piggyback battery and/or a battery that replace the CD drive if it's available for your laptop. If you get larger capacity batteries they will definately help, maybe an extra movie each. Using an inverter or specific cig cord is the same thing. Try disabling background services or applications that you don't need running especially wireless and bluetooth. Blow all the dust out that might be in it if the fan is constantly on and put it on a solid surface so it gets good air circulation. Adjust the screen brightness. Also I'm not sure, but does it use less energy if the movies are on the internal drive?

[Dumbass17]

well it's MY personal truck that i use for work haha.
i'll try those tips, thanks

[sgt_hawk]

You could throw secondary(or two) 12 Volt battery in the back seat and just wire your inverter up to the two. then wire them into your recharging system.... Maybe with a Switch on your dash that disconnects your Main battery(like the one under the hood) so you can still start your car if you run the two dry

[sxtasy]

I replaced my two stock batteries with 2 red top optimas. I could run a laptop all day and crank my stereo and subs all day and have no problem starting my truck after.

[livinlarge89]

You could try something like this

http://www.chemistryland.com/CHM107/Energy/ElectricCarWindTurbine.jpg

In all seriousness though, maybe just a solar panel that you could use when you're just sitting in the truck would work

[Machi]

Originally posted by sxtasy
I replaced my two stock batteries with 2 red top optimas. I could run a laptop all day and crank my stereo and subs all day and have no problem starting my truck after.

where can you pick up those optimas? how much are they?

thanks