Quote:
Originally Posted by jonboy
My truck has heavy duty wires running from the battery box into the side compartment on the drivers side. I installed the inverter there, and then plugged a power strip into it that runs inside the truck. The only thing I don't like, is I have to get out and open the compartment to turn the inverter off and on.
I'm not sure how much it draws, even with the power strip turned off, because it has a fan, and I'm no electrical guru, but I know something is going on in there????. My inverter is a small one 1000w, and it doesn't produce hardly any heat, so it couldve gone inside if my cables would've been long enough.
One of the problems that scares me is if you were to get an arc off those dc leads, you could have a big fire in your truck, so if you run cables through any openings, do it right.
Btw, the inverter I got has lugs on it to just stick the cables into it and tighten them down instead of having to put ends on the cable. This made it easy for me, but you can buy a kit with your inverter to make the install easy.
In the future, I'm going to a large pure sine wave inverter, but for now this one is fine. I'm not having any problem with my computer with the modified sin wave converter.
hope this helps a little,
jonboy
you sure did good with the heavy duty wire... for the switching on and off part...
I took one of my inverters apart, and just extended the cables, and took the switch inside to the dashboard (in my old car that had a car-pc in it) so that's a solution, but only do it idf you know what you are doing...
i'm in no way responsible for anything... not even for what i say. lol...
anyways, the ideal solution is:
go to home depot. buy wireing. for the hookup to the battery, just get at least an 8ga wire, but 4 ga preferred. hook the positive one (preferably red or yellow, but a black will do too if you mark it with red paint) to the combined positive lead from your battery box. On my truck it looks like a power block, that has all the wires running from all the batteries (usually 3-4 batteries) and has one big one running out of the battery box to the engine and other various components. hook it to this one. don't be afraid to take it apart, just make sure you never ever make contact inbetween the positive wires and any ground (the battery box for that matter {sparks a flying if you do})
so lead that in to the cab, make a hole on the bottom of the cab, back of the cab, wherever you see fit. if you have a bed that opens up to have extra storage underneath, than install it there... for easy access, and safe water-free conditions. do the same with a black (ground wire), but do not connect the ground wire to the same block in the battery box, instead look for a good screw that say holds the battery box in place, or any part of it... that'll be a good ground. If that doesn't work, than look for a screw on the frame, or any metal part on the truck... if it is painted, you're better off scraping some of the paint off for better contact.
now that you have both wires in the truck, inside, take some silicone (comes in tubes, pastes, whatever shape or form, but is has to be silicone) that you can smear/run across where the hole is to the inside of the cab, so you can make sure no water or other crap for that matter get inside...
once you done this, just hook up your inverter to the wires (red-red, black-black, {just kidding... lol... you know this already}) and boom, you got an always on inverter.
a few tips:
If you want to run say a microwave in your truck, you will need at least a 1000W pure as in continuous power inverter, not 1000W peak. usually they advertise the peak power to sell them at a premium, but you'll see that in small print it says continuous, and it's usually a smaller number, that's he actual number you need to figure.
(a little inside: peak means that on actual startup it's able to do say 1000W's, but only for a short time before it's overheated. Continuous is usually 750 or so on a 1000w peak unit, so it'll give off 750 continuously w/o a problem, and w/o overheating.)
also keep in mind, that you can run the inverter, and say a phone charger all nite, even a laptop w/o draining the batteries (depending on the quality and life in the baterries) but if you want to use serious power (microwave) than you'll need to run the truck. even if you're using it only for a couple of minutes... under full load the inverter will suck some serious juice...
if you leave the truck for a long time, say for the weekend when you leave for home, than make sure you have the inverter off, b/c it'll drain the batteries. there is a 99% chance of this. overnite, maybe a day and a half should br ok. but a couple of days definetly not...
ok... i think you guys are bored by now, so i'll shut up. I'm thinking that when i'll get my 1500W inverter and install it, i'll take pics, and write upo a tutorial...
cheers
BND