Looking to purchases a power inverter that is OK to use through the cigarette lighter port. I only want to use it to charge a few cell phones, power a pump for my bed when camping, and power a boombox radio as well. Any suggestions on brands and models?

Also,

If I run an inverter like described above, charging a few cellphones, without the car on, how badly will that kill my battery, will it be able to last a total of 3-4 hours across 3-4 days?

Any info is appreciated

 

You need to figure out the wattage draw of the things you want to plug in and buy one that meets or exceeds that. It will drain the battery. How long it will lasts depends on how hard it has to work to power whatever it is you want to run off it.

 

Do what I did: Buy an inexpensive modified sine wave inverter of no more than 150 watts or so. You can plug it into the cigarette lighter without overloading the vehicle wiring and will have adequate power for cellphone chargers, curling irons and to power a laptop.

The Dodge supplied inverter is rated at 150 watts and is adequate for the above uses.

Note that there are certain things that won't work well with the inexpensive "modified sine" inverters such as electronically controlled electric heating pads or blankets that otherwise don't take much power.

As far as how long you can run it without killing the battery, well, that depends. Automotive batteries are great for delivering a huge whack of power for a few seconds, but not so great at continuous draws. And many vehicles will disconnect the 12 volt plugs when the iginition is off, partially to prevent deep discharge of the battery.

 

Just by a power-pack with built in inverter. It has it's own battery. That way, it's extremely portable, provides ac and dc, can jump a car battery, and some come with an installed compressor. Besides, cellphones do not use ac to charge, they use dc. The most efficient way is direct connection to your cig lighter or usb port.