Antpwr
New member
Alright guys here it is, now first off i will state that placement of the inverter is up to you, just remember the longer the distance between the battery and the inverter, the larger the wire has to be to carry the current, so costs will depend on this.
Costs to me, because i had pretty much all of this at home already for years, was the $80.00 for the inverter, but if you had to buy all of it this is what i think i would cost:
Outside outlet cover $8.00
20 amp home grounded outlet $5.00
8ga wire bout 4 ft $10.00, power and ground
10ga wire $20.00 (depending on length) for outlets
Wire loom about $10.00
Electrical connector assortment (butt, spade, ring) $15.00
Power Inverter 800 Watt $80.00
Switch $8.00
Grommets $4.00
Material for plate $8.00
Electrical tape $2.00
Difficutly is minimal, as long as you have some basic knowledge of wiring and fab skills
Ok now the fun part lol, first things first, you will be buying an inverter at whatever the cost, and then ripping it apart, these are great devices, however when you rip into it you will see that the wiring is actually very tiny for what its supposed to handle. So if you do not feel comfortable destroying something you just paid for then please dont do this.
The inverter that i got had 3 outlets built into it, some have 4 some have 2, just depends on which one you guys decide to go with.
What you are really doing to the inverter is just extending the outlets that are built into them, so this means lots of wire, gauge depends on length from inverter, crimps, connectors, solder and soldering iron. After you have your outlets taken out of the inverter, wires marked, make a plate to cover up the holes where the outlets were, with a provision for a big enough hole for the wiring to go through.
Next place your inverter into the location you have already picked out, mine went under the hood, in a nice high try place that doesnt see that much water, from there you need to run the wiring into the vehicle to the places where you choose to put your outlets.
I chose one upfront on the passenger side, for the wife, 2 in the rear seating, for the kids, which all i did was fab up a plate for the outlets to rest in, and 2 out back in the cargo area for really whatever.
After the wiring is run to the first location, you are going to piggy back off that location of the outlet/s and then on to the next one and so on, really not all that difficult, just time consuming.
The only thing i recommend doing is getting rid of the switch that comes on the inverter and just connecting the wiring together, and putting your own swith in the dash, just wire it into the positive cable running to the battery.
Now as far as the actual home outlet, because the inverter only came with 3 outlets, i needed 2 more because of how many i wanted to the only thing i did was take some 12/2 wiring that i had laying around and wired it from the home outlet to the last inverter outlet.
And i will tell you that it works great, i had a cell phone plugged in upfront, laptop, dvd player int the middle 2 and a lamp, and work light plugged into the rear outlets, never overheated, or blew the fuse. Just keep in mind that this runs directly off of the battery, so a weak battery or alternator, will obvisoulsy give you some problems.
I hope this helps, if you guys have any more questions just post here and i will try to respond asap, and i will try to post more detailed pics.
Costs to me, because i had pretty much all of this at home already for years, was the $80.00 for the inverter, but if you had to buy all of it this is what i think i would cost:
Outside outlet cover $8.00
20 amp home grounded outlet $5.00
8ga wire bout 4 ft $10.00, power and ground
10ga wire $20.00 (depending on length) for outlets
Wire loom about $10.00
Electrical connector assortment (butt, spade, ring) $15.00
Power Inverter 800 Watt $80.00
Switch $8.00
Grommets $4.00
Material for plate $8.00
Electrical tape $2.00
Difficutly is minimal, as long as you have some basic knowledge of wiring and fab skills
Ok now the fun part lol, first things first, you will be buying an inverter at whatever the cost, and then ripping it apart, these are great devices, however when you rip into it you will see that the wiring is actually very tiny for what its supposed to handle. So if you do not feel comfortable destroying something you just paid for then please dont do this.
The inverter that i got had 3 outlets built into it, some have 4 some have 2, just depends on which one you guys decide to go with.
What you are really doing to the inverter is just extending the outlets that are built into them, so this means lots of wire, gauge depends on length from inverter, crimps, connectors, solder and soldering iron. After you have your outlets taken out of the inverter, wires marked, make a plate to cover up the holes where the outlets were, with a provision for a big enough hole for the wiring to go through.
Next place your inverter into the location you have already picked out, mine went under the hood, in a nice high try place that doesnt see that much water, from there you need to run the wiring into the vehicle to the places where you choose to put your outlets.
I chose one upfront on the passenger side, for the wife, 2 in the rear seating, for the kids, which all i did was fab up a plate for the outlets to rest in, and 2 out back in the cargo area for really whatever.
After the wiring is run to the first location, you are going to piggy back off that location of the outlet/s and then on to the next one and so on, really not all that difficult, just time consuming.
The only thing i recommend doing is getting rid of the switch that comes on the inverter and just connecting the wiring together, and putting your own swith in the dash, just wire it into the positive cable running to the battery.
Now as far as the actual home outlet, because the inverter only came with 3 outlets, i needed 2 more because of how many i wanted to the only thing i did was take some 12/2 wiring that i had laying around and wired it from the home outlet to the last inverter outlet.
And i will tell you that it works great, i had a cell phone plugged in upfront, laptop, dvd player int the middle 2 and a lamp, and work light plugged into the rear outlets, never overheated, or blew the fuse. Just keep in mind that this runs directly off of the battery, so a weak battery or alternator, will obvisoulsy give you some problems.
I hope this helps, if you guys have any more questions just post here and i will try to respond asap, and i will try to post more detailed pics.
