tareed94

Has anyone upgraded the power inverter in their truck? Maybe I'm asking too much of a power inverter in a truck, but it can't even run the little Stanley 1 gallon vacuum I just got from my parents. It pulls a MASSIVE 5 amps (600W). Just curious if it's possible to bump it up to around 1200W-2000W (obviously some wiring will need to be redone). Not sure what systems are in the truck that might restrict this. I'm in an apartment, so utilizing power from a building is not possible.

All Hat No Cattle

With the restrictions listed in the Owners Manual, who knows what the limits of the control system and dash plug-in are?

If I did it, I would add a 2nd inverter and wire it directly to the battery with the fuse right at the battery.

Just for a 600 watt continuous load they recommend 2 AWG wire.

https://www.altestore.com/howto/reco...-or-fuses-a62/

And for a 2000 watt inverter, well, good luck.

dbmachine

Good post. I was about to get a portable small vacuum as well for cleaning out the truck having kids. I Will have to research more for something that isn't gonna overload the circuit.

Scotsskier

You must remember that just because it is a low amperage at the 120v you still need 10X that on the 12v side. 600w is 600w so (even without any losses) you are drawing 50A on the truck side....

And yes, for 2000w you are going to require 167A on the 12v side, so you are gonna want a pretty heavy duty cable...

tvsjr

I guess you *could* try to drop a bigger inverter in... but you would need to upgrade the input wire, the output wire, and the outlet. So, there wouldn't be much left!

Even a high-end inverter like a Xantrex Prosine is only about 89% efficient. And, what's killing you with the vacuum is inrush current... it may be 600 watts steady state, but it likely surges to at least twice that. So... 1200 watts / 89% efficiency = 1,348 watts / 12VDC = 112A. You're going to need 1/0ga. minimum for that... and, combined with the truck's normal power draw, you won't be able to maintain that at standard idle - you'll have to idle the truck up.

I have a nice Dewalt battery-powered vacuum that works pretty nicely for its size. It'll run 30-45 minutes on one battery. Perhaps that's a better option?

todd92

2000W? Put a Honda or Yamaha generator in the bed.

tareed94

Sounds like I'm asking for too much power from the truck. I figured I'd need to redo the wiring to the inverter, upgrade the alternator and associated cables, and very likely redo the wiring from the inverter/power plugs. Probably more trouble than it would be worth.

Mfitz

I like the idea of upgrading the inverter, but I would be satisfied with being able to recharge cordless tool battery packs. How the system won't do this in a pickup truck is a huge disappointment. Anybody have an estimate of how many watts would be required to charge Makita and Dewalt 14v batteries?

Also, will the truck's inverter charge a laptop? I haven't tied it yet but I thought I remember somebody saying it would.

Familyguy

I have used the inverter to charge my laptop. Works fine. I have also used it to power an Xbox One S and a PS4 slim. I could not get it to power the non-S version of the Xbox One.
https://www.f150forum.com/f118/home-...d-help-375426/

gebo21

I use it for my laptop when playing w/ FOREScan, and I have also run 2 Dewalt 18v chargers at the same time(not while charging laptop)