Just curious if anyone has an inverter, how's it set up, how do you like it, any problems??
Anyone running an inverter? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter hayesvegas
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A lot of our club members ran inverters during a Christmas parade. They plugged in all thier christmas lights to them. Most were the small ones that plug into the cig lighter.
2ndGenToyotaFan
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I have a Cobra 800 watt (I think) but it's not installed, I just pop the hood and hook it up to the bat when I need it... It's great, will run a skill saw, which is the main reason I got it. My wife has a 75 watt plug in type, and we use it to charge the labtop while on the road. They are great, but you have to be careful because some items need a "true sine wave" inverter (which are $$$), or they won't work...
I have one of these 750 watt ones from walmart. I gutted the inside of my glove box, bolted it in in there, hard wired it to the battery, and ran household 120v outlet and switch out the front of the glove box. I made sure to buy one big enough to run my makita hand grinder. It also runs my HF shop light great, although my HF electric drill smoked out after 2 uses with the inverter.
This is the only pic I can find right now, but if you need more, I can take them.
This is the only pic I can find right now, but if you need more, I can take them.
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I'm building a barn and need it for skil saw, drill, etc. Thanks for the feedback. Nice setup in the glovebox GRM. I like it.
2ndGenToyotaFan
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Garrett, was your drill a variable speed model? I think variable speed things need the true sine wave inverters.....
Nope. It was a single speed cheapie before HF came out with the variable speed model.
The makita seemed to work ok with it (until I snapped the gears in it).
Hayesvegas... have you thought of investing in a generator? This inverter is great to do small jobs, but if you need to rely on it, I'd pony up. A cheap 2000 watt can be had for $300 (but its loud). You need to look at the load you need to draw, and capacities, such as if your alternator has the ability to keep up with the inverter, or if it will severely draw your battery when you turn it on.
costco, $30 special perfect for laptops, phones and cameras.
i have that one. it is a 400 watt and works great on little stuff like Laptops etc... Though be careful, if you draw more than a certain amount on the cigarette adapter, it can blow your fuse. i found out when running PC and the vehicles radio cassette at the same time.
Ideally you run a direct run from your battery into your cab for the inverter. MAKE SURE YOU PUT A FUSE NEAR THE BATTERY.
I mostly use it in the cruiser which has a half a dozen outlets I wired up to a fused terminal block
shane4x4
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The FJ has one built in, it seems to work ok for me
There was one on one of the new Tacomas and I was trying to use it and it wouldn't even run a small shop vac.The FJ has one built in, it seems to work ok for me
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I can't recall what needs the true sine wave and what doesn't... Or if it'll hurt the item, or just not work.... I know there are lots of threads in the electronics section here about inverters...
$24.99 at costco for a whopping 400 watts, runs a cellphone charger, mac laptop, portable dvd player and camera battery chargers. Pretty much all my needs.
Here I found this info
Inverters
Power inverters take the DC electricity stored in your batteries and invert it to 115 volts AC (we can set it up to make 230 Vac, but this is less common) for use in powering your household loads. There are a number of types of inverters based on the quality of the power that they produce. Square wave inverters are an outdated technology and should no longer be used due to the harm that they can do to the loads they are driving. Modified sine wave inverters (Trace DR Series) are very efficient, have large surge power capabilities and are less expensive than sine wave inverters. The down side is that they have from 30 to 45% THD which can cause a buzzing noise on telephones and stereos and cause interference on televisions. Also some loads such as most laser printers will not run on MSW. Motors run hotter and less efficiently. Electronic battery chargers such as the type used for some portable power tools can be ruined by plugging into MSW. AC water pumps require an old style relay type control box to run on MSW inverters because the new pump control boxes have electronics that are not compatible with modified sine wave power. Stepped sine wave inverters (Trace SW and PS Series) output a good approximation of utility power by stepping from 34 to 52 times per cycle. They have 3 to 7% total harmonic distortion (THD) and run 99.9% of all loads. Sine wave inverters (Exeltech, Studer, Outback) output a true sine wave with THD of about 2%. In many locations such as those that experience frequent brown-outs the output quality of these inverters often exceeds that of utility power. Sine wave inverters run loads the way they were designed to be powered and the loads will run better as a result.
Inverters
Power inverters take the DC electricity stored in your batteries and invert it to 115 volts AC (we can set it up to make 230 Vac, but this is less common) for use in powering your household loads. There are a number of types of inverters based on the quality of the power that they produce. Square wave inverters are an outdated technology and should no longer be used due to the harm that they can do to the loads they are driving. Modified sine wave inverters (Trace DR Series) are very efficient, have large surge power capabilities and are less expensive than sine wave inverters. The down side is that they have from 30 to 45% THD which can cause a buzzing noise on telephones and stereos and cause interference on televisions. Also some loads such as most laser printers will not run on MSW. Motors run hotter and less efficiently. Electronic battery chargers such as the type used for some portable power tools can be ruined by plugging into MSW. AC water pumps require an old style relay type control box to run on MSW inverters because the new pump control boxes have electronics that are not compatible with modified sine wave power. Stepped sine wave inverters (Trace SW and PS Series) output a good approximation of utility power by stepping from 34 to 52 times per cycle. They have 3 to 7% total harmonic distortion (THD) and run 99.9% of all loads. Sine wave inverters (Exeltech, Studer, Outback) output a true sine wave with THD of about 2%. In many locations such as those that experience frequent brown-outs the output quality of these inverters often exceeds that of utility power. Sine wave inverters run loads the way they were designed to be powered and the loads will run better as a result.
