I am looking at getting:
Amazon.com: Prowatt SW1000 1000W True Sinewave Inverter: Home & Garden

or

Amazon.com: Wagan 2203 Elite 1000W DC to AC Pure Sine Inverter: Home Improvement

Thoughts on these models?


Anything I should know before I install?
I am assuming I need to run a dedicated wire from the battery directly to the unit. what about a fuse?
Does it matter what Battery I run it from?
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Xantrex is well known manufacturer, while I have never heard about the other one.
You will need about 200 amp fuse. Those are available at RV supplies. You can also find old style fuse with flat bar connectors and drill holes for bolt in them. Those are still available in commercial electrical shops.
Short cables and good air flow is highly recommended.
I used to have older 1000W inverter on the boat. Had run 1500W toaster with it. The inverter would overheat and shut down after 5-7 minutes, but that was all I needed most of the time.

 

Is this OK to run off our truck batteries? I am also running an amp that draws maybe 30 amps.

Anyone know a cheap place to get wire?

 

To get the good airflow on Superduty where would you put the inverter? I assume under seat doesn't have good flow - & I guess under hood is out - They cannot handle the weather & heat of motor could they?

 

They both look like good units.

If you need it to provide full output, you'll be drawing well over 100A so you will need dedicated power cables of 2 AWG or larger if the wire run is anything more than a couple feet. Use connectors and wires normally used for starter motors and you'll be OK.

It will run fine off your batteries - for a couple/few minutes (at full power). To avoid damage to the batteries, you really should run inverters of this size only while engine is running. And at full power, you will likely need to have engine at 1500 or 2K rpm for the alternator to keep up.

If you want to run more than a couple hundred watts of AC when engine is off, you should investigate AGM or a separate bank of deep cycle batteries. Typical wet acid starting batteries do not like being discharged more than 25% of capacity very often.

Location: These units will almost certainly be equipped with fans. As long as all of the intake and exhaust vents are not obstructed, it may be OK under a seat. Good units will have an automatic thermal shutdown as well.

I get most of my wiring materials from Waytek (waytekwire.com). They specialize in parts for low to moderate volume manufacturers, like trailer builders. Good stuff at good prices. And great service.

 

For cables go to the nearest golf carts shop. They can also clamp the connectors, although I had no problem to solder them with my plumbers torch.
You are not saying how you are planning to use the inverter. No matter engine on, or off, you will not be able to run it at full power for more than few minutes.
For limited use -behind the seat location is a good one. If you plan to use a saw, just put it on the bed when you use it. Also the forklift quick electrical couplings are pretty cheap and make for very convenient use.

 

Not sure of the use for this just yet. I would like to be able to use it for charging my laptop and random uses when out and about. Maybe I should get a smaller one. I always have to go a little bigger then I think I will need. I plan on putting this under my front seat, it has a heat sensor on it so if it is getting to hot then it auto shuts off. If I find it doing that very often I will find a new place for it. Does it matter which battery I run it from? Our batteries are hooked in parallel or series?

 

Batteries are in parallel for 12V.
For a laptop all you need is 100+W inverter that you can plug into cigarette lighter. For occasional use, or laptop battery charging in the sedan I am using 90W small inverter that I plug directly into the lighter socket. Cost me $9.
In the truck where I use laptop most of the time, I have 250W inverter that runs out of lighter socket as well. That one has noisy fan that can be annoying in the car, but you will never hear it in diesel truck

 

Something I think gets overlooked with inverters is the RF hash they put out. If you run any kind of radio this could be a major problem. However, if you don't need to worry about it and/or know the limitations and can live with them you're fine. My inverter gets in to my radio BIG TIME. I can't transmit because the RF from the transistors switching the AC in the inverter gets in to my radio (through the power to the radio/from the inverter). It's horrible.

That said, I use my inverter for all kinds of things. Most of the times it is running a battery charger for AA's or running a laptop. I also run some power tools off of it (carefully or the start up current shuts it down).

My inverter is a 350 or 450w Coleman. It is a pretty cheap inverter, I think I paid about $25 for it at Odd Lots (if that tells you anything...).

I will say, though, that the true sine wave inverters are the better ones. Most of them are square wave like mine. The difference is the period of voltage change. A true sine wave inverter is 60hz with, exactly what it says, a "true" sine wave created by an oscillation in a tank circuit. A square wave switches full + to full - in nearly no time without the more complicated tank circuit. Its like 60hz + and - DC, if that makes any sense.

Most electronics really should have a sine wave power source. That having been said, I have never really worried about mine all the times I have used it - which isn't much because the RF crap it puts out... Its there if I need it though.

There are some fancy inverters you can get for alternative energy supply too - upwards of 48vDC, not just 12 and 24vDC (I am sure there are some versions even higher). They are more expensive, but in the interest of alternative energy - the higher the voltage of the power system the more efficient the power conversion. Bringing up the input voltage from 12v to 48v makes converting to 110vAC that much easier - less power loss. The flip side of it is the power generation source - whether that is solar, wind, hydro... etc. The voltage of the power generation source has to be higher than the full charge voltage of the battery system that stores it, otherwise the system will never charge. Its like putting two equally equipped and powered trucks in a tug of war. The side that is stronger wins. If you have the same trucks on both sides no one goes anywhere. You always want the input power source to "push" in to the storage system. A cheap wind power option is to take a DC generator (or a high voltage DC motor run as a generator) and use power diodes to only allow the voltage to go one way. That way the batteries can't run the turbine like a fan, even if it would be cool, wasting electricity when theres no wind. Once the voltage of the generator surpasses that of the charged batteries the current flows in to the batteries. Now, if the wind blows too hard you're screwed but it will get you around the complicated charge controllers...

Sorry for the rambling.. got on a roll.