Inverter install

I've got a 1500 watt Cobra inverter coming in and I want to wire it up in the cab. I'm not sure how accessible it would be under the seat. It should fit according to the dimensions. It comes with a remote on/off switch so I can mount it possibly behind the back seat. Not sure how big wire I would need to run, or is it OK for a run from the battery that long. I've seen a second battery install, but I'm not sure if I want to go that route. Any advice, thoughts ? I want a clean install and don't plan on just throwing it in there. Help

 

Needs ventilation.
And 1500 watts is going to be pulling over 120 amps.... You're going to need a LOT of cooling, BIG cables to feed it, and even with an extra battery, it's going to overload your alternator.

 

I understand the ventilation part. The factory installed inverter is mounted under the center console, so I wonder how it is ventilation ?

 

It's only 400 watt.
That's a HUGE difference.

 

Factory inverter isn't near 1500watts.

This project falls under the "you better know what you are doing or you might cause serious damage to your truck" category.

 

You are going to burn your alternator up with that big of a inverter if you use its full capacity unless you change your alternator. With that size inverter you should have at least a 150 amp alternator. While Toyota offers a 130 amp it is not good to push them that hard for long periods of time. My guess is you only have a 60 amp right now.

You would be better off getting a small generator. It would save on gas and save your alternator and wear and tear on the engine. Also keep in mind that for every 33 amp draw on the alternator you will use about 1HP at the engine.

Now about wire size if you insist on using this thing. You could probably get by with # 2 gauge wire depending on how long a run you intend on doing. I would use #1 or larger, but that is up to you. Here is a chart showing what size should be used depending on the run length.
http://www.powerinverters.com/royal-power/How-do-I-hook-up-the-Inverter/12

As for batteries you should use deep cycle and with that large of an inverter three large deep cycle batteries would be best if you intend on using its capacity very long at a time.

Here is some good information that you might want to look over before you do this.
http://www.all-battery.com/inverterfaq.aspx

 

I put in a 1500 watt inverter under the driver's seat. It sits right up next to the floor vents and if it ever gets too hot I figure I can just run the floor A/C and it will cool it down. I had some extra 1/0 guage cable and ran that for the power and ground to the secondary battery (Optima yellow 31 in the cab). Since its hard to get under the seat, I extended the control and plug wiring to the center console so I can control it from there. I probably wouldn't use it to run a fridge full time, but it works for my needs replacing the janky 400 watt stock inverter charging phones and running occasional power tools and shop vac.

Also, the inverter only pulls what you are using. So yes 160amp max, but you will rarely max out the inverter with regular use.

 

Relevant to my interests; subscribed.

If it doesn't take away from the OP's thread...

I thought inverters only drew on demand from the load, and that the more wattage the inverter was capable of, the less heat it would create under a given load.

Obviously, not an electrical engineer. My plan was to run 3 150watt solar panels into 2 batteries, then to the inverter, and the load. No alternator at all.

 

If they are on they are using some power even if nothing is plugged into them. The larger the inverter the more heat because of more resistance and the higher the demand the higher the heat. That is why larger inverters have more and larger fans which also uses power.

 

That makes sense, thanks!

 

Thanks abarber11, I only intend on using it to charge minimal things, golf gps, phones, etc. I don't plan on using it for heavy power tool work. I really don't plan on using it while the truck isn't running, mostly traveling. But like the thought of having the extra power if needed. So i don't expect it to get real hot. If I don't use anything power hungry do I really need an extra battery ?

 

I did the dual setup mainly for peace of mind while camping and because I have a lot of aux stuff hooked up. A second battery never hurts if you have a need for it. For example, if youre running the inverter, alone, 20 miles out of cell reception you might think about investing in a dual setup.

Do you have the tow package by chance? That'll be the kicker because that 130amp alternator should be able to keep up with a moderate load. You can invest in a voltage meter and you can monitor the battery with your load connected and see what kind of voltage drop you get.

 

If hooking up a second battery is another option, where do you keep it. I haven't looked too hard under the hood to know if there is room for a second battery, and would I be wiring it in a series to keep it charged ? Thanks for everyones input, so far.

 

sub'd for future project.

 

More efficient to simply use DC chargers.
It's a waste to use an invertor... you're stepping the DC up to 120v, then dumping it back down to 3-12v in the charger, and wall-wart chargers are not very efficient nor do they handle the poor output waveform of cheaper inverters.

Just build up a nice 12v accessory bus.

 

I travel and play a lot of golf. The DC chargers that come with the GPS won't charge it up enough to make it through a second round. My phone always gives me a message that charging with my DC charger will be slow and recommends me connecting it to my AC charger. I'm just looking for options to alleviate this problem. Might seem minor to most but to me it's a PITA. If I get busy in the evening and forget to charge my phone during the night, the DC charger won't get it to 40 % before I get to work and that won't' make through my long days. This might be considered overkill for some, but I'm always up for a challenge, thanks to all !

 

I keep my dual battery in the cubby behind the rear seats on the drivers side. You dont want to wire it up in series or youll be pumping 24 volts from the dual 12v batteries. You dont really want to just hook them up in parallel either or else you can create problems of the batteries not having the same capacity and charging/overcharging each other so youd have to get two identical batteries of the same age.

In a dual battery setup most people want to keep the starter battery (stock battery in stock location) separate from a bigger, deep cycle auxillary battery. Your best option is to get an isolator or battery switch so that you can keep the aux battery from draining the starter battery. My isolator is a perfect switch power gate which is essentially a diode that only allows current to pass from the aux battery to the starter battery and not from the starter battery to the aux battery. This way I am able to connect both batteries to the alternator through this isolator. Both batteries get a charge from my alternator but the aux battery drains independently of the starter. Then you can put a fuse box or something connected to the aux battery. I have my lights, compressor, inverter, etc hooked up to my aux battery with no worries about not being able to start my truck.

I did a write up of my setup for another thread...

Main Materials
1.Optima type 31A Yellow Top Battery
2. Perfect Switch Power Gate Single Rectifier. - Its a really good unit. I got lucky and found a new, unused old stock one on ebay for $30.
3. 30' or so of 1/0 gauge cable. Its more than you need, but I figured I could use the extra on for my inverter.I got 20' of red Knukonceptz Fleks and 10' of black 1/0 gauge KCA cable.
3. 2 200A in line water proof fuses. Knukonceptz makes waterproof housings too
4. Battery tray with nylon strap. Mines for a size 27M and fits ok.
5. Ring terminals, random screws, wire loom, etc


The first thing I did was to re-run the factory grounds with 1/0 gauge wire. I have the tow package and I think the 130A alternator can handle my needs, but I wanted to make sure I was getting all I could out of the electrical system. I used this link for reference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO3SgiQF26E


I made a new negative terminal to body wire (the short one), and ran a wire from the negative terminal to frame. There is a hole in the frame below the battery that will accept a 12mm bolt (I did not use the sway bar bracket as they did in the above vid because I didnt want to efff with it). Its the forward of the two holes on the top of the frame. Im not sure if its threaded, but a 12mm bolt fit tightly. I accessed the spot by removing the forward rubber when you look under the driver side front wheel well. I also ran a 1/0 gauge wire from this bolt to the case of the alternator as well to complete the circuit. (Theres 2.5 of the big 3, the 0.5 being the little wimpy neg term to body)

On the positive side, I removed the stock alternator to fuse box wire. Its a 4 gauge wire that runs from the top of the alternator output post (covered by the black or red plastic cover), to the 10mm bolt at the top of the fuse box. Unscrew that nut, tear open the loom and remove the wire completely. You can probably tape it off, but I didnt feel comfortable with it being able to cause a dead short on pretty much anything metal under the hood. I ran a 1/0 gauge wire from the output terminal of the alternator to the anode side of the perfect switch isolator and a 1/0 gauge wire from the cathode to the positive term of the battery (#3 of the big 3)

I used this schematic to wire it all up and put 200A fuses close to each battery. I chose 200A because the alt puts out 130A, but the wire can handle up and over 300A.



Heres mine and the 200A fuse on a little mount that I built.



I ran the 1/0 gauge positive wire from the anode side of the isolator through the front firewall down behind the kick panel and along the door jamb. You have to pop all that plastic off. Theres a thumb screw behind the plastic pedal for the kick panel, and you have to take out the seatbelt to remove the plastic column.

To fit the type 31 Optima in behind the rear passenger's seat, I first removed the passenger seat in the rear. 6 bolts and the seat comes out. Then I pulled out the black plastic cubby and chopped it up. I just basically used a dremmel to cut out the back and bottom of the cubby below the middle ridge where the two bolts connect it to the rear of the truck. You can see the white of the cab around the battery in this picture. That's what I cut out. If I didnt have the JBL sub, I might have placed the battery on the other side for weight distribution.

I mounted a size 27M battery tray from Amazon on the bottom of the cab where I wanted the battery. I tried to make sure the battery was pushed as close to the center as I could. I used size 12 1" sheet metal screws with 1 inch washers and drilled through the floor. Be very careful, your gas tank and all sorts of wiring is up under there as you get closer to the center of the cab. You can reach up under there before you drill to make sure you dont hit anything.



I chose to mount everything in one spot behind the rear passenger's seat so I fit the 200A fuse on the outside of the plastic cubby and drilled through the side. For the negative battery terminal to frame ground, I ran 1/0 gauge wire back along positive wire path behind the rear kick panel and underneath the carpet behind the drivers seat is a rubber plug. I drilled through that plug, ran the wire through it, and grounded that wire to a bolt on the upper outside of the frame. it should be out of the way enough, but you may be able to find a better ground if you are a serious offroader and think it might get hung up.




I added a blue sea fuse box with 4/0 gauge wire and a 100A fuse so that I can run my accessories. There is another plug in the rear middle of the cab under the bigger seat that I will run the wires for my accessories.

Put the rear passenger seat back on and you're done.

EDIT: That is not me in the video, nor did I make the video. I found it on YouTube and it was a good reference for me. Credit goes to the guy who made it.

 

Also, Rich is right too about some of the lighter 12V items. For some of my camping dedicated equipment, i just cut off the wall wart and wire it directly into a fuse box. Also I have an always hot 12V socket hooked up to my fuse box that I can charge minor things. The inverter is nice to have tho when you need some power.

 

I understand that, but 1500 watts is hella overkill for recharging portable items.
That is something that an inexpensive 400w unit could easily handle.

For the cell phone, I stuck the charger in the outlet behind my bed and plug it in when I hop into the shower at night.
The phone is my primary alarm clock.

 

Update…. Installed a pure sine 600 watt inverter. Mounted under the driver seat and ran AC cables to a receptacle mounted on the kick plates on both sides of vehicle. It runs quiet and cool. It hasn't even got warm and the fan hasn't kicked on. So thanks for all input and the 1500 watt was overkill. I might post some pictures later.