2010 manual says I shouldn't hook up anything more than 180W to my 12v power outlets.

Does that directly correlate to the wattage of the inverter? I see some folks here with 400 watt inverters and they do not seem to be spontaneously combusting.

BL: Is a 400 watt inverter safe for the F150?

 

180W is what the outlet and circuit is rated for. It is also 12V DC with ~14V with the engine on. The truck uses DC power so the outlet just taps into the existing power on the truck.

The 400W inverter is AC and needs to be hard wired to the battery. It is a separate piece of equipment that transforms the DC into AC power. The 2011+ trucks have a 150W inverter in the console.

 

that is close to 15AMPs
180watts divided by 12v
plus you will have inrush/surge when first powering on what ever is plugged into your 120v side of the inverter.

you will want to check your amp draw of your actual inverter, on the input side - the 12v side. if this is something you will use a lot, you might want to think about a perminent install. possibly a bigger inverter, possibly an aux battery which will charge when vehicle is running, however wont run down your main battery used to start the vehicle.
also even a smaller inverter left 'on' even with nothing connected will still draw down a battery. i beleive in the newer models 99 and up? will shut down aux power to allow you to start your vehicle. and better quality inverters will shut down when battery voltage gets too low to run it properly.

i would always go a bit 'bigger' than you think you will need, within reason. incase that rare need comes up.

also dont go cheap on wiring, if installing a bigger model.
plan ahead for the install and , FUSE FUSE FUSE!!.. dont need the pickup burning up.

good luck with the project.

 

Hm.

I'll be using an inverter sparingly. For instance, recharge a laptop or perhaps a small cooler a handful of times a year.

Do you guys recommend a 200 watt plug-n-play then?

 

75w cover most laptops. My MacBook air is 35w I think. I'd base your size more on price. You can get 300w on sale for $20. What are you willing to spend vs the chances your goi to use it to say run an electric saw?

 

I would not plug any inverter bigger than 180w into a power outlet, as the book says. Go ahead and get a larger one, but use an alternate connection.

 

When buying an inverter I would carefully check to see if it's suitable for the application. Amateur radios, computers and other electronics like a near perfect sine wave .This is what the Honda inverter generators give. A modified sine wave and especially a cheap square wave will give you problems !

 

Im glad i read this thread, but i do have a question for you guys since you know what your talking about (sorry, not trying to hijack the thread, but its related). I was looking at purchasing a 425watt Diehard inverter and use it to power a small pancake compressor, it says it draws 2amps. So if im correct it should only need 240 continuous watts. I was just going to plug it into the cigarette plug, but by reading this thread I guess il use the alligator clips to clamp it to the battery itself. I only plan to use it a few times a year to blow up my 35in tires when offroading, and maybe a few friends. Does anyone see a problem with this? I know it will probably draw more, at start up, but i think this invertor said it can handle like 800 startup watts, or something to that affect.

 

The first problem you're going to run into is start up current as you have mentioned. I would not be surprised if the compressor actually draws 2 to 5 times it's rating current during the first split seconds of start up. It would quickly drop down after that. Starter caps will reduce this, but you don't have much room with the numbers you have provided.

That may or may not trip the limits of the inverter. You mention that it has peek 800W output, that will definitely help.

Also, motor loads shouldn't be used on modified sine wave AC (just about all inverters in this wattage range). You'll be find for short periods of time, but it really does put extra stress on the motor.

In my opinion, it might work. But YMMV.


(Off topic). For very similar reasons you don't put regular light dinner switches (SCRs) on ceiling fans. As you dim the circuit down, you start chopping off the beginning (or end) of the sine wave, it's starts to look like a square wave. Incandescent light bulbs don't care, but motors do.

 

^ xciton
Thanks for your help, that dosnt sound very promising. I've already mentioned these things to my wife for christmas, should I be expecting to take these back? I could probable get more specs on the compressor and inverter if that would help.

I guess I should just buy a high flow compresser that runs straight from the battery.

 

This is the compressor
http://m.sears.com/productdetails.do...r=00917610000P

 

If you just need an air compressor why not get one of those combo units that have a jump back, compressor, flashlight, weather radio, can opener and kitchen sink? They plug into your cigarette lighter to run the compressor and can pump up your tires without buying an inverter? As a bonus you can get a jump if you leave the radio on for too long.

 

I have one of those, there way too slow to blow up my 35's back to 60psi. If I go that route I would get a high flow compressor, still not as fast and around $70. I figured with my setup I could also use the compressor for things around the house and the inverter for laptops and stuff, basically multiple uses.

 

Unless you want to run wires directly from the battery you will be limited to the 150-180W range. If you want to power a laptop a little inverter that plugs into your cigarette lighter works fine. I have a 75W that I bought for something like $10 a long time ago. I've powered more laptops than I can count with it. (You would be amazed what people will buy you a beer for on a trans-Atlantic flight)

All of these will have the wave clipping issue that was described above. For this reason I would stick with something made for DC or you will just burn the motor up.

 

The inverter I would be using had both the cigarette plug and alligator clips to hook straight to the battery. I knew nothing about the wave issue until I read this thread, my plans arnt looking too good. its would be a waist to blow the motor on it by going through an inverter. I guess il be looking into a high flow compressor. Thanks for the input guys. Any other thoughts welcome.