I ordered my new 350 with the bench seat in front so it has no inverter. I want one. (I wanted the bench seat more, but still!) Has anyone added one and made it look okay? Is any of the electrical in place for the option not ordered?

I don't need a lot of wattage and can probably just plug something into the cigarette lighter, but if someone has a good setup they'd like to share, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

I wonder if there is a way to turn the one in my truck into something usefull. The one thats ther is wworthless. Being able to plug a power tool in would be nice.

 

Corn, I was thinking the same thing. I'd like to find out where the inverter is actually installed and replace it with a 750 watt unit (understanding of course, it would need a new supply from the battery(s)). Would still wire the output to the exsiting 120 outlet. Hmmmm......

 

The 150W inverter is located in the console below the rear set of cup holders. Agree that the thing is puny, my only concern is the 12v wiring to the thing. If you go up too much in wattage, you may have to run some heavier wiring all the way back to the fuse block. Surely you will have to use a larger fuse (ckt breaker). Not sure without pulling the manual how much it is fused for.

jammer

 

Thou I have the factory console with inverter, I think a larger capacity inverter would be much more practical.

How about running new wire thru the firewall plug directly to battery(in line fused) instead of trying to tie in to the factory fuse block. Perhaps the larger inverter could be under dash mounted. Or if you have the factory console maybe it could be mounted in there.

 

I second this approach. I'm a contractor and if I wanted to run power tools off an inverter from my truck, rather than say a generator, I would install a large one with bus wiring from battery to unit with it's own circuit breaker, probably mounted outside the truck due to heat. As to matching what the OP was looking for, I just got a small one from Staples and place it in the console and that powers my laptop which is what Ford intended.

 

To run anything more powerful, you would need atleast a 1500 watt inverter. In round figures, that's 12 ish amps. Won't run a skill saw but a small drill, charge cordless batteries ect. You would definately need to run the truck on high idle. This should be wired outside the cab with #1 gauge positive cable, heavy #1 gauge ground to frame. It will have to be in a place where it can cool itself. My smaller one has a cooling fan, it pulls a lot of juice, I just clamp to the bettery with shorter wires and idle the truck, it will deplete a battery in minutes. Now I have the genny, I do run it off the trailer batteries and charge smaller stuff as I know I can run the genny to charge up the batts later. Watch your wire size on 12 volt size, if they are getting hot, you need bigger cables or shorter cables.....

 

Electrical engineering 101:

P=I*E (power = amps X volts)
Transformer (for example) Pin=Pout
therefore: 12 volts in to 120 volts out = 10 to 1 ratio
That means 10 amps on the 12 volt side to equal 1 amp on 120 volt side
for the factory 150w inverter:
150=x*12
150w=12.5 amps at 12v

if you want to do 1500 watt inverter:
1500=x*12
1500w=125 amps at 12v

so if you want to run a 1500w inverter you will need to supply 125 amps at 12 volts.

of course, all inverters are less than 100% efficient, therefore, a 1500w inverter will require more than 125 amps due to losses in the inverter; nothing is free!

jammer

 

I "installed" a 300W under the front middle seat. These is a plug in there. Pretty sure 300W is about all it can handle (25A at 12VDC). Runs the kids TV and charges the laptop. Anything bigger you will have to pull some wire from the battery.

Thanks

 

I picked a large capacity sine-wave unit primarily for the surge capability and the voltage/frequency stability. I'm never running it at 100% rated output, ever.



As mentioned in the post above (or above-the above), low current on the AC side still translates to quite a bit of current on the DC side for the same amount of power with thermal loss tacked on to it. Those banks of ICs can dissipate quite a bit of heat when loaded down for long periods of time, hence the 4 fans.



Write up:
2.5kW inverter, RF equipment, Rack install (Note: Many images to load) - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums

 

Thanks guys. Darren's "installation" is probably what we'll do. With my power needs I really shouldn't overthink it. Kids get real noisy when their toys go quiet!

 

I did the same as Darren32 but in my case I ran the hot wire from that 12V plug in the compartment to one of the upfitter switches so that I can turn the power bar in the back seat on and off.

 

If you are powering any kind of sensitive devices get a sine wave inverter.

Most inverters are "modified square wave". These are basically pulsed DC positive and negative to mimic an AC sine wave. It can really mess with some electronics. Laptops should be OK on them as the power supplies for them regulate their output anyway (cleans up the modified square wave AC in its conversion to DC).

300 watts is about the smallest size inverter I would run. This still won't power much in the way of power tools. You'll need twice that, at least, to run any kind of tool doing much work.

 

I have a 600 watt sine wave inverter (not installed inside the truck though).
I too recommend the sine wave.
Expensive but you get what you pay for.

 

I have an 1800 watt inverter in my toyhauler, and pulling 1200-1500 watts from it will suck down my dual 6 Volt batteries in a hurry. It will run the microwave for a couple of minutes so I don't have to start the genny, but not for 10+ minutes.
I don't think you'll save anything idling the engine to run a large inverter in a truck - save your money on the inverter and buy a little Honda 2000i generator.