Power INvertor

[zonianbrat]

Does anybody know what all would be involved in the installation of one? I want some normal plug-in power in the rear of the truck and not sure how to go about it. I am a electral tard and have no idea what I am doing so any help would be appreciated. If you guys are down to help I will have a mod day at my place to install one. I will provide "homemade" beer. I just need to know what will be involved with it before I commit.:cool:

[Packman5280]

depends what you want to run off it. Ryan has one that plugs into the cigarette lighter and we used it to charge the laptops at GONE. worked great, but it got a little hot. wouldn't want to leave it by itself for fear of burning the truck down. If you want to do much more than that, you should wire one through a relay to the battery, and switch the relay off the ignition.

[zonianbrat]

depends what you want to run off it. Ryan has one that plugs into the cigarette lighter and we used it to charge the laptops at GONE. worked great, but it got a little hot. wouldn't want to leave it by itself for fear of burning the truck down. If you want to do much more than that, you should wire one through a relay to the battery, and switch the relay off the ignition.

That sounds good I would definetely want to run one permanently. But as I said I have no idea where to even start so I would want someone else there to help and supervise, especially since if I did it wrong I could burn down my truck.

[Lance T]

...electral tard...

That would be an awesome name for a band! Electrical Tard

I think one of Mike's mechanics put one on his TJ...I think. You could check out his Heep at Mike's shop.

I would like the Mobiweld unit. It is a under the hood welder with a 110 outlet. I checked out a rig with one on it. The dude could run anything 110 including electric impacts which have so much more torque than air. It was cool...

[JayRyan]

...It was cool...

...not as cool as you putting the hose down your pants and blowing yourself...:laughing:

...where that came from, I'll never know.:crazy:

[Lance T]

...not as cool as you putting the hose down your pants and blowing yourself...:laughing:

...where that came from, I'll never know.:crazy:

That boys and girls is why you don't smoke crack! :crazy:

[zonianbrat]

110 is what I want. And I have an electric impact so that would work our perfect. Then I could also plug in the laptop, misc. chargers, sounds like I need to do some research on this, anybody know who sells them for cheap as I am one poor Mofo these days

[Eric P]

What you need to evaluate is the number of amps you would like to draw. This will determine the wattage of the inverter you would need. Watts=Amps X Voltage, or in your case Watts = 120 x Amps. Simple chargers for laptops & cellphone type devices ussually only draw 1-2 amps so a cheapo 150/300peak Watt inverter could be used. These can be found for less than $40.

For an electric impact wrench, I found specs on a few and they are about 8 amps. However, you need to considder some electric engines take a surge of twice the operating amps to get started. For this case 8*120 = 960/1920peak inverter minimum. These go for about $200

Also remember the output of the inverter is limited by your alternator. An X is rated at 80 amps at optimum RPM. Consider at idle you would be at about 90% of optimum or 72 amps. Then you have to subtract all amps required to keep your truck running. 15 amps at the bare minimum, so you are left with ~ 60 amps for the inverter. 60A * 14V = 840 watts.

So for a stock alternator I wouldn't get anything larger than a 1000 Watt inverter. Your battery will take up the slack that your Inverter will draw. With the better inverters, they have a voltage sensor & will interupt power when the input voltage is less than 10.5 volts. This will allow your battery to recharge.

Get a better alternator & you can take advantage of a larger inverter.

For the cabling, go to a car stereo place. If you by a 1000 Watt inverter, figure out the wire gauge needed to supply power to a 1000 Watt amplifier. I think it is 4 gauge. Get a relay & fuse holder that would also fit the same application.

Run a 1 ft wire from your battery to a fuse. From the fuse run less than 2 ft to the relay. Keep the relay & fuse in the engine bay away from heat sources. Run the power cable from the relay to the inverter. Then a ground wire from the inverter to a grounding point near the inverter. The shorter the ground the better. Also from the relay run a 12-14 gauge wire with a 5 amp fuse to a switched power supply. This will keep you from draining your battery accidentally.

If you need help with this let me know & I may beable to stop by & help out with the install.

[tmorgan4]

I've seen quite a few good deals on 2000-4000 watt inverters. See if the impact you have has an amp input rating on it.

[Eric P]

Also the price of the inverter can vary in price based on the power signal coming out.

If you want to run your equipment exactly to the manufacturer’s specifications, choose a true sine wave inverter. With true sine wave, motor loads start easier and run cooler. Some equipment only operate properly with true sine wave power—laser printers, variable speed motors and digital clocks.

If your equipment can accept some voltage fluctuation, consider a modified sine wave inverter. These inverters provide mobile power at a more affordable price and come in a full range of sizes.

[zonianbrat]

Man that is awesome info guys thank you very much. I had no idea what to look for or how to do it. So I probably would have burned my truck to the ground.... This could be a X-mas present to myself so I will start doing some research, to tell you the truth I am not sure how many items I would use it for the biggest probably being the electric impact and I may not ever need to even use it. Still I would like to have the power if I need it. I also usually (my baby girl is only one) camp "alot" so it would be good for some other items as well. Eric, Tyler and whoever else wants to come by once I get this inverter are very welcome as I would like to meet you guys and have a beer and talk nissan and check out Tylers lift.

[tmorgan4]

If we do this in Fort Collins I have no excuse not to go. I MIGHT even have new tires by then. We'll see. :)

[cscherrer]

...not as cool as you putting the hose down your pants and blowing yourself...:laughing:

...where that came from, I'll never know.:crazy:

Dood you are STUCK on stupid! :roflmao:

[Lance T]

Thanks dudes, good info. :thumbsup: I want one too.

So, I need to produce 1.21 jigawatts (gigawatts) and be traveling at 88mph to get this baby to work...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/nl/9/96/Flux1.jpg

[JayRyan]

:roflmao:

Funny AND informative


:roflmao:

[zonianbrat]

Sweet glad to hear your on board Tyler, and anybody else who wants to come over. I am heading to TX for Turkey day so I will gone for about a week. I think I am going to talk my dad into going with me to the electronics store to search one out. Maybe I can find one on sale!! If I do then the mod day will be real soon!!

[tmorgan4]

They also had a few fairly large ones the last time I was at Home Depot. I can't even remember what brand they were though, looked decent. I'll be gone for Thanksgiving as well. Going on a cruise. :D

[elementalvoid]

Costco has one (http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11176891&search=power%20invertor&Sp=S&Mo=1&cm_re=1-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&N=0&whse=BC&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=All&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=power%20invertor&Ntt=power%20invertor&No=0&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1) but it may or may not fit your needs. Based on what Eric said, at 1750W it is probably too much for your truck.

[zonianbrat]

Yeah maybe a little bit of an overkill but thanks for the suggestion. I will be looking in TX. Next question is where I want to mount it.

[Eric P]

Some place were it can breath. These get hot under load very fast. I would keep it out of the engine bay to protect it from water.

Just because the inverter has a power rating, doesn't mean that it always is providing the power rating. You can get a larger one & only use a portion of it power and be fine. When there is no draw from the inverter, it only uses 0.5-2 amps. If you only need to draw 300 Watts from a 1500 Watt inverter, the inverter will only draw the need amperage to supply 300 Watts.

You just have to keep in mind that your battery will drain fast if you are powering more toys than your alternator can support. This will cause your toys to turn on & off as battery power is avaliable.

[zonianbrat]

I will mostly be using it for small things like cell-chargers, laptop charger, maybe a blender now and again. Mostly small appliances. Although It would be nice to be able to power that impact if I ever needed it. Eric you have some great info hopefully if I can get this going you can come by for the mod day.

[JeffW]

.............wouldn't want to leave it by itself for fear of burning the truck down. If you want to do much more than that, you should wire one through a relay to the battery, and switch the relay off the ignition.

Yes, they get hot because they use lotsa power. Another reason (besides heat) not to leave them unattended is that you will not be able to start your truck when you get back.


All Eric's advice sounds great.

I will mostly be using it for small things like cell-chargers, laptop charger, maybe a blender now and again. Mostly small appliances. Although It would be nice to be able to power that impact if I ever needed it. Eric you have some great info hopefully if I can get this going you can come by for the mod day.

The important thing is how many watts you need. It will mean the difference between buying a $50 plug-in model and undertaking a more involved project and replacing your alternator and battery. I've even seen folks run multiple batteries, but not in an X. I feel comfortable with ~200W out of the cig lighter, because I've seen it done with no issues. I recommend buying an inverter with 50% more "payload" than you need. They get hotter than a Texas tamale at max draw.

Good luck.

[Switters]

Bump:givemebeer:

How about some follow up on this. Did the install happen?

Eric P, awesome info man.

Zonianbrat, a blender? shaken not stirred dude.

[CurleyMan]

In the Truck I use an inverter everyday and every night. Infact it probably runs two hundred fifty something days and nights every year. It's 1000 watts and Man i swea i have never gotten close to maxing it out. Right now i've got an air filter, cell charger, laptop, ipod charger and my drill charger hooked up to it. Anyways i'm a little late with the advise but 1000 watts is a crap load. And i would never ever use any wire thinner then 2awg for a 1000 wattt inverter. That my friends is what causes fires...... For the car and pickup i just use 500 watt inverters which plug into the lighter and have fuses built into the adapter. Anyways just my two cents a couple months late

[CurleyMan]

Eric could be and probably is dead on with the 4awg. I just bought a kit for hooking it up and it came with 2 awg???

[tmorgan4]

I can't believe the price of wire now. I walked into NAPA expecting to pay $3 a foot for 2 gauge, and ended up being almost $8 a foot! The worst part is, I don't need the 6 foot piece I just wasted $50 on. Anyone need a short piece of 2 ga.? :cool:

[nissandoms47]

yeah wire prices are crazy, I went to the vato to get wire to rewire all my lights and stuff, 12 gauge is 20 bucks for a spool of it! it was crazy, at least i got another punch on my gift card dealy thing.

[Ditchfinder]

I can't believe the price of wire now. I walked into NAPA expecting to pay $3 a foot for 2 gauge, and ended up being almost $8 a foot! The worst part is, I don't need the 6 foot piece I just wasted $50 on. Anyone need a short piece of 2 ga.? :cool:

hey, go to ebay and click on stereo install products you can get that shat in bulk. I have made several orders and have 2,4,6 and 8 gauge sitting around just becuase I might need it later. :)

[tnichols]

I have just some inverter from walmart that was 60bucks and i run my ps2 off it all the time.
I have never had any issues with the battery being dead , but I have a Red top and caps for my amp.
It works flawlessly