Hey gang, I'm looking to pickup a power inverter and was hoping for some recommendations. (I did a search and found a little info, but most threads were old or didn't work anymore).

I'd like it to have two AC outlets, an on/off switch makes sense to me, and I'll run it off the back power outlet. It will mostly be to charge camera batteries or recharge my laptop. Hopefully I won't need to use it much, more of a "just in case" item.

I think I read that over 400W is a waste, but other then that... Let me know: brands, models, etc. What is good, what isn't worth the money? I'm pretty sure my job will end up paying the bill so I'm looking for quality.

Thanks for your time.

Anyone? I'm interested in this as well. I think that at least one regular power outlet would have definitely been a good accessory for the X.

Can't help you on the brand, I got an Eliminator
which is sold only by Canadian Tire which is not available in the states. I only got a 200W and it works fine for what you want, but it only has one outlet.

The thing you need to know before deciding which model to choose is how much power your laptop and camera charger consume. Then decide if you want to be able to run them at the same time or not. Once you know how much you will consume, you can decide which size inverter to get.

If you go with more than 400W AND draw more than 400W from it, there is a strong chance you will blow a fuse. The rear outlet has a 20A fuse so that is about 240W (12V X 20A). That is why the larger inverters have posts so that you can hard wire it directly to the battery with the right gauge wire and an inline fuse.

Plugging a high wattage inverter in a 20A rated outlet will not blow the fuse on it's own, it all depends on how much power will be drawn from it.

Since they go up in price along with the wattage, there is really no point to buy bigger than what you will need unless you anticipate a larger consumption in the future.

Some of the larger ones in the 3000W and 4000W range are more meant to be used with a battery bank for example in a RV or house where you use house power, a generator or alternative energy to charge the batteries. Then you will be able to run larger appliances or tools when no other power is available.

ETA: Also, power inverters need power to power themselves, the larger the inverter, the more power it will need, so that is something to consider if you plan to run it when the engine is not running as a larger inverter will draw more from your battery.

If you google you will find several articles on how to select one.
http://www.google.com/search?q=choosing+an+inverter

I got the Vector 400w Inverter. Came w/ an AC plug and clamps to hook it directly to the battery. I've used it to power the laptop/gps combo and camera battery charging w/o any problems.

I got it from here for $25 but it looks like it's sold out:
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/cb/cb.asp?a=40416

If you're looking for ultimate quality, be sure to buy an inverter that produces true sine wave power, since this is least likely to cause problems for motors, lighting equipment, and electronics. While I can't say I've ever had any problems just battery charging with modified sine wave equipment (which is what most retail store inverters are) the experts seem to agree that pure sine wave is best, but more expensive. Do a Google search for suppliers; they're not hard to find.

Here's a useful web page explaining this:
Wave forms for inverters

Checker has these on sale:



Comes with 2 quick change cords for 12v outlet or battery clamps.

Got the same one, its done laptop, cell charger and aerobed pump just fine. It stays in the back now. I've been thinking of coming up with a way to intergrate it with the panels.

I picked up a 750W (Continuous) 1400W peak (modified sinewave) I can't remember the name of it right now. But I ran two 8 gauge wires from the battery to just behind the cruise control box where I ran it into two 30A relays and used the cruise control on/off lead to trip the relays.

Just use the cruise control button to turn the juice on.

The 8 gauge wires continue through the firewall under the trim panels to the rear of the truck where I screwed the inverter to the panel behind the rear passengers side speaker.

Edit: Might be a little overkill with 60 amps worth of relays and two 8 gauge wires running back there but at least theres some room left for whatever 12V goodies I might need or have back there.

I have the ever popular Vector 400 Watt model. Works very well.

Keep in mind you can't get 400 Watts from the cigarette lighter outlet.

Power = Current x Voltage (P=IxE), or I=P/E
Current = 400/12 = 33.3 Amps.

What is your outlet rated at? Unless you're connecting it directly to the battery, you won't be able to use the full capacity of a 400 Watt inverter either. But... you'll have enough capacity to run a laptop or similar.



Here's an actual waveform from my inverter:



The modified sinewave runs most electronics just fine. True sinewave inverters cost a lot more, and work better with inductive loads (transformers, motors, microwaves, etc.).

I know you are looking for a regular invertor to run the battery charger and other accessories, but you might consider one of these for your laptop, and then you could get a low wattage inverter for the battery charger.

Universal Laptop Power Adapter Kit

I have one for my Thinkpad T30. It works great.

how do you have internet in your X?

Dosnt everybody have the web in the truck? Just a laptop and a wireless card

Do they have one with a 220 so i can bring a clothes dryer camping?

j/k

11 months later I'm finally ready to purchase so I'm dragging this thread back up from the depths.

Since work is paying me back I'm going with a true sine wave model but haven't decided which one yet. I don't have the skills to hardwire one in so I'm still going with a cig-plug model. I thought I had space under the front passenger seat but realized tonight I don't. (What is that under there?)

Does anyone have experience with inverters made by Aims Power?
http://aimspowerinverters.com

I don't think I'll need much more power than 150W (the laptop draws 85W and the camera battery charger only 19W) so I'm thinking of this one for the small size:
http://www.invertersrus.com/inv150ps.html

Checking the Xterra manual I just found this tidbit:

I'm assuming most people are ignoring the 120 Watt part and using higher rated inverters?

Thanks again for the help guys.

Well just to round out this old thread in case anyone finds it in a future search, I ended up with a Go Power 150 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter:
http://www.gpelectric.com/content/products/ViewProduct/?i=GP-SW150

It has been working great so far [knock on wood]. I've had no trouble running laptops, scanners and charging batteries.

For 99% of users you do not need the much more expensive pure sine wave inverters. Your computer laptop has a brick power supply which takes that AC and converts it to pure DC before sending it to the laptop. I use the cheapest possible modified sine wave to charge and run mine and have for years and years.

The biggest users of pure sine wave are some medical devices and some (older) communications devices (not the DC kind) which are RFI sensitive. Most modern equipment is better designed to handle RFI and EMI and don't require the expense of pure sine wave.

In the house I have a home made 9000 KW USP running into a modified sine wave inverter which runs my freezer, ham radio, and lighting. I'm a communications volunteer in the local community (RACES) so the "ham shack" needs to be on-the-air during power outages.