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what inverter to get

M

Maz

NAXJA Forum User
Location
LaCanada, CA
I am thinking about adding an inverter to the XJ. Either hard wired or removable to use with different trucks, if that's doable.

Any brands that are good, and any to avoid? What wattage inverter are you all using?
 
what size inverter do you want to run, physical space and watt output wise?
what do you want to run with it, mitre saw at the cottage or blender at the beach?

things you may want to think about and specify when your asking. you can hard mount or it can be temp no matter the size.
 
beakie said:
what size inverter do you want to run, physical space and watt output wise?
Click to expand...

Physical size I am not sure about. For now, I want to run a laptop, but once I have an inverter on-board, I am sure the females in the family would want to bring along things like a hair dryer which is very power hungry.
 
Hey All:

I run a 1500 watt under the rear seat, it will run my drill,grinder etc. It will almost run my small wire feed welder. If you use it lots or continuously upgrade your alt.

SIXER
 
If you actually want to run your laptop off the inverter, rather than just charge the batteries you would do well to get a pure-sine inverter. Pure sine inverters put out electricity that is the same as what comes out of the house socket. A pure sine inverter will cost 2 to 3 times as much but will provide better power and not burn up your gadgets.

Smittie
 
Smittie said:
If you actually want to run your laptop off the inverter, rather than just charge the batteries you would do well to get a pure-sine inverter. Pure sine inverters put out electricity that is the same as what comes out of the house socket. A pure sine inverter will cost 2 to 3 times as much but will provide better power and not burn up your gadgets.

Smittie
Click to expand...

Good tip. I did not know that. All my laptops (old hand me downs) have dead batteries. What brands have pure-sine inverters?
 
Before your local females decide to try to plug hair dryers and suchlike in your inverter (most of those plugs now have inline GFI circuit breakers - they either won't trip [no ground path to speak of] or won't fit [the boxes are good size - like small wall warts]) tell them to check out outfits like Flying J or TA travel stops. There are an awful lot of 12VDC accessories to be had, and I'm fairly sure they have hairdryers.

Most inverters will choke on the "pure inductive" load provided by power tools as well - so if you plan to use your inverter with power tools, make sure you have a small lamp - incandescent, 15W or so will be enough. That should help the inverter keep itself going. I'm not sure about the "pure sine" inverters (haven't used one yet,) but I know most common inverters (using a "modified sine" or a straight square wave) will choke on motor loads.
 
we run our laptop off a 450 watt in the semi i think its a cobra around 30 or 35 dollars at the truckstop with no problems for over a year now also phone chargers and other lo wattage loads at the same time also have a 2000 watt coleman we run a microwave and george foreman grill off of its tied into 3 12v elec wheelchair batts in parallel which we charge with the 450 watt inv with a 2 amp trickle the charger has 3 amp settings 2 12 and 75 amp start boost i ve used the 2000 watt to power the charger to charge the truck batts when they went dead {cant imagine why}lol
 
Smittie said:
If you actually want to run your laptop off the inverter, rather than just charge the batteries you would do well to get a pure-sine inverter. Pure sine inverters put out electricity that is the same as what comes out of the house socket. A pure sine inverter will cost 2 to 3 times as much but will provide better power and not burn up your gadgets.

Smittie
Click to expand...


cheapo 30$ 400 watt inverter runs my old dell laptop perfectly fine and have used it many times, thats with the inverter plugged straight into the cig lighter and no battery in the laptop.
 
I have a 4500 watt and a 500 watt in my yj

why 2 you ask well the 500 watt runs the lap top and charges cell phones etc no problem is small and hidden in the center console the 4500 watt is bigger and under the seat for plugging tools and such in to, yes it may be overkill but I can run my blender and the tv & dvd player off it at the same time no problem and my batteries last 3 days doing so while the smaller one will kill them in about 6 hours. Ive even used it to power my weld pack 100hd a few times. paying for a bigger more efficient one makes a world of difference when you actually use it for a week long trip with the wife and select friends
 
If all you want to run is a laptop, I picked up a couple of 175W XPower inverters at Coscto last month - they may still have them. Not a bad little unit/kit for ten bucks - works on vehicles and commercial aircraft with DC power outlets.

12VDC in, 120VAC and 5VDC out. There's a standard outlet for your 120VAC stuff, and a USB outlet for charging cellphones, MP3 players, and the like. One stays in her car, one stays in my "mobile office bag" (where I keep all my USB cables, card readers, ...)
 
Smittie said:
If you actually want to run your laptop off the inverter, rather than just charge the batteries you would do well to get a pure-sine inverter. Pure sine inverters put out electricity that is the same as what comes out of the house socket. A pure sine inverter will cost 2 to 3 times as much but will provide better power and not burn up your gadgets.

Smittie
Click to expand...

Why? The power supplies in laptops, computers, and most electronics is a switching-type that doesn't care what the input looks like. Basically it just uses the input to charge a set of capacitors, which feed a set of transistors that chop up that dc voltage, feeding it to a transformer to smooth it back out to a nice clean dc voltage.

For motors and stuff that just has a step-down transformer, you should try to get at least modified-sine wave or true sine wave. The poor waveform will generate extra heat in the motor or transformer windings.
 
I know this is off the Canaidian site, but it is a smokin deal. I run this in my work van and it powers my microwave nicely. I have one in my XJ and it powers my Porter cable pancake compressor for use on the trails. Great for airing up and air tools.

http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10306969&whse=BCCA&Ne=4000000&eCat=BCCA|20483|20738&N=4009738&Mo=38&No=1&Nr=P_CatalogName:BCCA&cat=20738&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-CA&Sp=C&topnav=

152754c.jpg


C2002_1.gif
 
Thank you all for the tips. Apparently there is more to getting an inverter than I thought. So I'll have to self educate some more before I pick one up. The little one 5-90 posted about, from Costco, should do for now.

Thanks again
 
lawsoncl said:
Why? The power supplies in laptops, computers, and most electronics is a switching-type that doesn't care what the input looks like. Basically it just uses the input to charge a set of capacitors, which feed a set of transistors that chop up that dc voltage, feeding it to a transformer to smooth it back out to a nice clean dc voltage.

For motors and stuff that just has a step-down transformer, you should try to get at least modified-sine wave or true sine wave. The poor waveform will generate extra heat in the motor or transformer windings.
Click to expand...

Correct - but you do end up getting some electrical noise from most common inverters. The "pure sine" from the AC wall outlets doesn't do that, but most inverters I've had will (you really only notice it when you're listening to the thing, and use a high source volume. That tells me it's there, but most of it is filtered out by the brick. However, the filtering isn't perfect.)
 
I have a 400 watt Black and Decker inverter mounted under the seat with outlets wired into the back of the console where the ashtray used to be. It runs my laptop, cell phone chargers, etc. I ran an angle grinder off of it for small jobs, but it didn't run at full speed.

So, just recently I bought a 700 watt from Harbor Freight for $45. I mounted it in the back to use for tools. It runs my electric torque wrench, 3/8" drill, and grinder really well.

This may help you decide how big of an inveter you need:
http://www.donrowe.com/inverters/usage_chart.html
 
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