I am going on a trip and would like to use my car’s cigarette lighter for multiple accessories such as GPS, Cell Phone Charger, Radar Detector, Laptop charger, and Portable DVD Player. To use all of these accessories through my cigarette lighter adapters, would my car’s alternator use some of my gas as well? Does the car’s alternator use gas on a normal basis? If so, how much gas would it use? Would there be any disadvantages of using all of these accessories at the same time using a cigarette lighter splitter? Thank You!

A:                My main concern if I were you would be blowing the cigarette lighter fuse running all those componets at once.Keep the electronics to a minimum and find which fuse is for your lighter and carry a couple extras and as someone mentioned earlier it would be smart to have a mechanic do a “trip check”
Y’know if this is your car you can hard wire someof those gadgets in with their own fuses

A:               no dude!! your alternator has enough to knock you dead if they wanted to execute you! but when it decides it is worn it is your worst friend! overheating loss of power! bummer on a long trip! but no it likes you and your toys! doent matter if you got honkin big *** rv or small rig! they pretty much have lot of xtra support ! have nice trippin been there done it! kool!!

A:                    I would not be concerned about the gas. I would be more concerned with the battery. The cigarette lighter is connected to the battery.

A:                  the car’s alternator works only when the engine is running. it provides power to the engine for combustion and it also runs the electrical components of the vehicle and recharges the battery. running some (i wouldn’t run all the accessories you mentioned all at once) of the accessories will be ok but you want to make sure that you don’t overload the system and blow a fuse. also it doesn’t use fuel but it does work harder with more stuff to power.

A:                  The alternator is the electrical on the car it doesn’t use gas. You will use more gas for say a/c but if you use the cruise control it will help to off set that . But as for all the accessories as long as your alternator is working well you shouldn’t have any problems

A:                 Technically, the alternator is gas driven, but its not per say. The alternator is a seperate unit that is bolted to the engine. It is driven by a belt, that is driven off of the crank pulley, that turns when the engine is running (using fuel, this is where I mean technically). The alternator is keeping the battery at a constant charge, I wouldn’t worry about wasting any gas on the alternator because it is always running when the engine is running, it is hooked up in time to the engine, as the engine turns, the alternator generates current to keep the battery charged.
There is no extra fuel involved in the alternator running. However, I would be concerned of running all the extra power drains. If they (are used at the same time and) have a large(r) power drain, the alternator may not be able to create enough electrical energy to keep the battery charged up. This may cause the battery to go dead, or this may overload the alternators maximun compasity and burn your alternator out. Before you go on the trip, i would suggest having an chraging system check, and a vehicle inspection preformed to make sure your vehicle is in proper running order and wont leave you stranded in the middle of no wehre