Yep. That Honda is cheaper and quieter to operate, maintain and replace if the truck is stationary.

 

Yup, pretty cool too. 3000 watts of power and never an injector or ficm repair. But hey, it is only 2.4 HP and maybe 3 flbft of torque eh. I love to listen to it pumping out the power whilst by the campfire. And if the power goes out, I can still fungus tv, sat box, fridge, stove, lights and a blender.

 

I'm about to do this in my truck. Didn't know there was a factory option (mine is 2005 lariat) but it sounds like the factory inverter is under powered anyways. I have a 1000 watt TrippLite inverter that I've been schlepping around for a project just like this.

So Far I've decided the following:
1- Will be mounted under rear Crew seats (front are power and my inverter won't fit under there.
2- Going to run 6ga wire with a circuit breaker in-line from the battery to the rear along the frame. There is a rubber grommet entry point going into the cab right where inverter will go.
3- Going to run an on/off switch to one of the upfitters
4- Going to put 4 outlets in the center console: 2 facing the back and 2 facing front.
5- going to wire in a weatherproof box into truck bed so I can run stuff outside

Someone mentioned using the chassis as ground for the inverter. I wanted to do that because, well heavy gauge wire can be expensive. Everything I have read on wiring inverters though has been explicit that a negative needs to come straight from the battery. Something about chassis ground not being true ground and double grounding. Can anyone clarify this point?

 

I wish they put in a real inverter. At least tell you that it is useless in the brochure.

 

I failed to mention a few things to my wife when I asked her to marry me too...
Sorry...I know, the inverter does kind of suck. That is on my list before we go on our big trip in July.

 

My experience would indicate...... A ground wire to the Battery is better because..... The chassis ground may have some "not so great" connections that will make a huge difference with high current loads. A dirty connection will cause a large voltage drop and create heat.
Remember, "Save a dollar.....Then spend $10".

 

Are you trying to say, you "Inverter" is useless, and you didn't warn her

 

 

Not sure what you mean...... Poke Her Face ??

 

Oh..... I got it now

You are trying to say, Your Inverter Does work !!

 

lol...yes. Just being a ****.

 

Well, I think I'll stick with my wimpy portable one because it really does do all I need but I do want to say thanks to you all. I was feeling like maybe I'd missed a really great option but now I don't feel bad at all.

And every time I park next to my fence and have to slide out the door on the other side, I'll be glad I don't have that inverter (and center console).

 

well, you should have gotten reverse. It is a lot more handy than the inverter.

(joking)

 

bwahahahahaha!

 

That's my next thing is to add outlets at the rear of the vehicle, opposite the 7 and 4 pin connectors but in the same general area. I already have the aluminum NEMA enclosure and the liquid-tight non-metallic conduit (aka SealTite) ready to go, just have to do it sometime. Better than throwing extension cords out the window, especially since my truck back window is a solid one-piece that doesn't open.

I did home runs to reduce the current carried on the vehicle chassis itself - it would have been in addition to whatever loads are using the vehicle body/frame as a return path already (set up at the factory). You can do it, but then beef up the negative "ground" bonding between the battery(ies) negative terminal(s) and the metal body/frame components. Otherwise you'll get a voltage drop across the 'weakest link' - whatever it is - when the system is drawing current. Conservation of Energy laws mean that whatever energy you 'lost' there is still somewhere, and is probably now thermal energy heating something up that shouldn't be, which is the problem. Remember something that only draws 1 amp at 120V is going to take 10 amps at 12V when you run it off the inverter... and probably more because the inverter is not 100% efficient.

It's kind of like if you had a building electrical circuit installed using EMT or RMC conduit - that's metallic pipe - from a 'does it work' standpoint you could probably use the pipe itself as the ground and neutral (both should be bonded together somewhere) and then just run a single hot wire through the pipe... but then the pipe and all the boxes would be current carrying. And of course it's not code compliant.