The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club

[Landcrusher]

What can you tell me about inverters, chaps? I want to put one in the new build. 'What do you want to run, LC?" Well, I don't know yet. I just look forward to the day when someone says 'Oh if only we had 240v'.

I know nothing about them, except through electrickery they turn battery acid into real squiggly wave power. Do we have to connect them to direct to the altimeter or can we scotchegg them to the fag lighter wires? The more oompah they have, clearly the more ££ they cost and apparently they won't run certain devices. I wouldn't use one without the main elastic band running as I think it would flatten the crankenstarter pretty quickly.

Experience really appreciated.

Professor LC
_________________
HDJ 80 but still a 90 owner at heart (yeah right!)

[Google]

[RADIOTWO]

[wildsmith]

Even a relatively low power inverter will need quite heavy gauge wiring to the battery to be safe. I know some of them come with cigarette lighter plugs but even a 150 watt inverter is pushing your luck connected like that. They will work without the engine running but, the cheaper ones especially, do need a fairly high input voltage or they shut off. I think some of the input voltage ranges quoted might be a bit optimistic judging by my experience with the little ones. I had a 2KW continuous in the back of my 80 and that coped much better with lower input voltages than a 300W one that was in the front but it needed very heavy gauge cables to the aux battery about 2 foot away.

I haven't bought one for a while now so I don't know if any of them are still square wave. This is usually what causes compatibility issues, the waveform of the AC output, with domestic 240v being a pretty pure sign wave. Some devices cope with square wave and some don't.
_________________
Jon m0zxj

01 UZJ100 lifted (AHC & 40mm BL), ARB locked f&r, cryo'd 4.88's, TJM front bumper, 12k goldfish, sliders, rack, snorkel, 35's, storage, aux power etc.
93 HDJ80 sold
94 HDJ80 RIP

[Landcrusher]

Thanks so far Guys. That's given me a bit better steer. I have a triple battery set up with automatic isolation blah blah so providing some power, with HD cable isn't a problem. I already have that laid on. My compressor is wired in on an Anderson socket and that draws 38 amps. My rear winch power cable is 40mm2.
I don't have a specific need, but seems daft not to put one in whilst it's all in bits.

Bigger is better and look for sine wave. Yeah?

LC
_________________
HDJ 80 but still a 90 owner at heart (yeah right!)

[wildsmith]

[garystockton]

WAECO make some nice ones - steer clear of  the cheap Chinese variety.  And refer to the electrickery 101 post, because for this you should use large cable  

Seal it up nicely to keep the smoke in    

Also, you do need to decide what you want to do with it - charging batteries, running notebooks is fine, but running a kettle, for instance, is just not really worth it - draws way too much juice.  And running power-tools is probably a bit iffy too.  But there are times when it's useful!

Also - go for the biggest you can afford (they do get expensive) but the smaller one's aren't much use for anything except maybe a small 1.5v battery charger or camera battery charger, etc.

Must admit, I've always had one previously, but I'm not sure I will fit another one - most of the on-board electronics I want comes in 12v or 240v anyway.  But I admit, it still seems like a good idea!!  You may want to consider a solar charger too, just to keep the batteries topped off if you're camping / stopped for a while and running the inverter.

Cheers
_________________
I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
- Terry Pratchett

[lucky]

150W will power a laptop (well actually about 75W will power a laptop, gte 500W and above if you want to run stuff like a TV off it.

Wire directly to the battery with at least 8WG cable. The bigger the cable the better but the harder to run and more expensive.

if its a big inverter, make sure it can keep cool, a 3KW one will generate a lot of heat (as well as running you battery down damn quick). I have seen some installs that defy logic and probably promote cooking with the LC as your heat source - i.e flames and stuff coming out the back of the truck .

Make sure it has an undervoltage cut out to avoid it draining your batteries (mind you - shouldn't be an issue in your setup unless maybe you are running a fridge that you want to make sure will still run in which case making sure the TV etc doesn't mean that all you food gets spoiled is quite important.

One other thing - however and wherever you mount it make sure you can pull out the plug easy in the case of emergency - again you will be amazed at some of the installs that mean that you have to move quite a bit just to get the plug in and out - such as drop the tailgate - dumb idea as it just adds time to a problem.
_________________
1999 Land Cruiser Amazon VX Active 4.2TD Auto
Gloucestershire 4x4 Response
Landcruiser-rocks

[Wandering Willy]

I know tis is not the answer you were looking for, but a lot of small gadgets can be supplied directly from the car's battery via a suitable adaptor. I have these for my mobile phone and laptop. This avoids using an inverter.

You can also get USB fitting chargers so lots of small gadgets can be kept topped up this way.

A good adaptor will filter out the nasty spikes and crackles you tend to get in car electrics and this will protect the device being used if you want to use it while charging and running the engine at the same time (i.e. while driving). A cheap adaptor may just have a small resistor to drop the voltage while letting all the electrical noise through as well.

If you think about it, you are taking a source of 12V DC and converting it to 220V AC only to convert it back to 6 - 12V DC (whatever your gadget needs). It is a bit unnecessary.

Also, the same adaptor can be used in any car - you don't need to fit inverters to each of them.

Of course this won't work for mains equipment.

If you put:

"car adaptor" charger

into Google it comes up with many links to web sites where you can get this sort of kit for phones etc.

Willy

[wildsmith]

[Landcrusher]

[garystockton]

I would have thought that all that's left now that needs 240v really are power tools of some form ....
Pretty much everything else can be got to run from 12v - e.g. my iPhone has a 12v USB charger, my laptop has a 12v charger, my lights are 12v fluorescent, the fridge / freezer is 12v or 240v, the tyre pump is 12v, the blow-up (wait - enough   )

Anyway, the point is, sooner or later you'll need one - I know what this is - it's toy-time again   .  So get one, sine-curve smoothed, the best and biggest you can (and aspire to 'he who dies with the most toys wins' strategy       )
_________________
I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
- Terry Pratchett

[lucky]

To be honest I think a lot of them are for charging up 249 V devices like cordless drills, two way radios and then also fridges, TVs and Laptops.

One advantage is that you need to carry less adaptors. At the moment I have so many power adaptors in the car need to carry a bag just to put them in. Things like laptop, wireless screen, Handheld CB, cooler box, PDA, phone etc etc..

When I build my drawers I will be building in a small Inverter - I don't have the need for anything above a 150W unit but may well fit a 500W one just in case.
_________________
1999 Land Cruiser Amazon VX Active 4.2TD Auto
Gloucestershire 4x4 Response
Landcruiser-rocks

[Landcrusher]

I do have a 240v petrol genny. Wonder if I should just build that in?    

The way it's going, I'm going to have less room inside than I did with the wooden crate affair that I'm replacing. It's really about gaining more width. The depth is exactly the same. But the area over the wheel arch will now be usable. I may stick a moderate unit in. 3 meggawhat? might be useful, but might be difficult to actually live with in terms of powering it. Something like a 500 or 700, just for emergencies might be the more sensible option. Just there in case I need it.

LC
_________________
HDJ 80 but still a 90 owner at heart (yeah right!)

[lucky]

How about another option which I'm thinking of using instead of the inverter. I bought one of then Halfords portable powerpacks which have a 240V output (300W), standard cigarette lighter output (also the input for charging), a light and a compressor. Costs about the same as the same sort of size inverter and has all the other bits. You can keep it charged in the vehicle and can then use it as a jump starter. Also if you are camping you can always bring it in your tent to power a TV or suchlike. I might just use this and build a space to fit it in, then you don't need o carry a separate compressor.
_________________
1999 Land Cruiser Amazon VX Active 4.2TD Auto
Gloucestershire 4x4 Response
Landcruiser-rocks

[wildsmith]

I will fit the big one from my 80 in the 100 but only because I already have it with cables, will have a battery very near by, and have space for it. If any one of those were missing I probably just wouldn't bother  
_________________
Jon m0zxj

01 UZJ100 lifted (AHC & 40mm BL), ARB locked f&r, cryo'd 4.88's, TJM front bumper, 12k goldfish, sliders, rack, snorkel, 35's, storage, aux power etc.
93 HDJ80 sold
94 HDJ80 RIP