ByThaBay

you guys want to see a full write-up?

midiwall

That's not bad... nice job!

...and that's a GFI outlet, right?

Scottiac

Looks good! Where'd you hide the inverter itself?

(or yes, I'd love a writeup)

tenfourtyeight

That's sweet. Write up!

ByThaBay

The inverter is strategically placed in the engine bay; I'll try to follow write-up guidelines to get all the info posted in the write-ups section. And yes, that is indeed a GFI outlet 'cuz i figured the interior of a pickup may encounter conditions similar to those of a moist bathroom environment.

midiwall

Yeup! That's why I asked.

Nice!

Mad Chemist

Any worries about frying the inverter from water getting in the enigne bay? After the lake crossing I did this weekend, I'd be more likely to mount it under the seat, but other than that, looks like a real clean install.

ByThaBay

well if you're gonna be doing a serious water crossing you will probably want to enclose it in some kind of housing... other than that you could place it somewhere inside.. but I think the majority of pickup owners do not submerge their pickups in such a great amount of water.. so much water that the battery would be underwater too.. the inverter is about as high as is the car battery... I'll show some pics soon. The pics will be pretty detailed, so give them plenty of time to load.

Vato Loco

Thats real nice and clean install you did there, a write up would be great! You should try to paint it the same colour as the dash.

ByThaBay

Here is a shot of a super heavy duty outdoor this grounded 120v AC cable that is plugged into the inverter. I cut off the female end of this cable and attached the wires appropriately to the outlet.



Here is a shot of the thick grounded outdoor cable enclosed in a plastic shell, going through the firewall. Additionally, the remote wire is also passed in with this cable.



The remote wire is hooked up to the switch on the left.



Here is another shot of the inverter. Here you can see that I am using a 30 amp fuse. Since my inverter only provides about 300 watts of power, I found that this fuse was probably sufficient. The One thing I've yet to do is purchase a sealed enclosure for this fuse...

http://www31.addr.com/~atncwind/euge...inverter00.jpg

Here is the relay which is activated by the fog light switch. It is a basic 30 amp relay that I got from radio shack.

http://www31.addr.com/~atncwind/euge...inverter01.jpg

Another close-up of the inverter and how it is installed.



I've been running this mod for over a year and it's one of the most useful things i've done to my truck. I've driven through heavy rain and snow and Have not experienced any electrical difficulties whatsoever.

Always use and OHM meter to be sure you wired everything correctly.

ByThaBay

Indeed I am in the process of finding a good vinyl paint that will match the color of the dash. And about the actual installation of the outlet. What I did was.. I removed the lower part of the dash and in the back there is some kind of grid left over from the manufacturing process. As it turns out the outlet fits perfectly inside of of the grid boxes, and only some minor cutting with a very sharp object is neccessary to make it fit properly. Also, I had to drill two tiny holes to put the screws through; I painted them white to match the inverter.