power inverter placement

[teckman02]

i have a 400 watt cobra power inverter and i am having a hard time finding a good place to mount it.... i want it in a placed that it is easy to get to from the front seats.

 

[LibertyOrDeath]

On the floor under the passenger seat or somewhere in this area.

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[teckman02]

i thought about putting it there but my girlfriend does not like it in that spot and i don't want to drill into the center console

 

[Atrus]

Can it fit between the console/firewall? What I mean is under the dash, behind the console there's a decent little area.

 

[AMPlibby06]

i also have a cobra, and i mounted mine on the right kickpannel on the passenger side. riht in front of the door. ill post some pictures if i get time.

 

[jnaut]

I just keep mine in the rear cargo area. Most things I plug in have enough cord to reach all the way to the front seat. Not "cool" as if you had it properly mounted in the front area, but it works.

 

[Powerslave]

Ejectit.com has one today, small enough to fit in the space to the left of the front 12V power outlet. It also has a USB port for charging and powering USB devices. It was 22.00 last I checked

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[jnaut]

Ejectit.com has one today, small enough to fit in the space to the left of the front 12V power outlet. It also has a USB port for charging and powering USB devices. It was 22.00 last I checked

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150 watts. Not going to power much with that. I have a 350 watt (800 peak) and after owning it for several years I've come to the conclusion that a 350 watt is a BARE MINIMUM. Very few power tools can be run off 350watt and even my laptop could overload it if I ran it AND charged it at the same time. I could run the laptop off the inverter if it was fully charged, or charge the laptop with the laptop turned off, but never both.

The first time I got annoyed with my 350 watt inverter, my basement garage and driveway were flooding and the power was out. I needed to get my shopvac working to suck up all the water before I had a major disaster on my hand. Being a somewhat resourceful old lad, I thought "Hey, I'll back my kj up to the bottom of the driveway and run my inverter. But before I did, I checked the shopvac's amp rating-- way too high. Plus I've been places where I needed to run power tools-- nothing fancy, a drill and skill saw, and all drew too much power. I strongly recommend an 800+ watt inverter if you plan on doing anything beyond charging batteries, laptops or running very low current devices.

 

[Powerslave]

I can't run ANY power tools (Hammer drill, Reciprocating Saw) with a 400Watt inverter, so I had to buy a good 1200 Watt, and that works grand. Sure, you can mount a small one up front for simple stuff, like some cars today come with, like my Pontiac Vibe... It's always nice to have the low powered one available for charging phones, MP3 players, laptops...

For what you want, like running power tools, yeah, you usually need to connect right to the battery anyway, so mounting it, is wherever it fits. I had one in my Van, I mounted it with GOOD double sticky tape to the driver side panel right behind me. It powered the DVD player with DD5.1 built in AMP. I wired 2 LCDs, & 5.1 speakers. LCDs ran off the 12v supply. The 300Watt I used powered the DVD player/amp just fine. It never fell off either, it was stuck there GOOD... I later used it to power my Xbox media system in another car...

 

[jnaut]

For what you want, like running power tools, yeah, you usually need to connect right to the battery anyway, so mounting it, is wherever it fits.

Did your 1200 watter require a direct connection or did it have an optional connection for lower current devices? Even my 350 watt came with direct connect cables for the battery, but I never really need them because most of the devices don't pull enough to overload the cigarette lighter connection.

I know the really big inverters have a direct connect only option. Just curious.

 

[Powerslave]

My 1200 only came direct connect terminals, AND, did not come with any cables for a connection, AT ALL. So, I bought a cheap set of Jumper cables, removed the clamps from one end, stripped the wire, and screwed them into the terminals. This one has an LED indicator for how much power is being used, so you can see it spike when you start a power tool.

My 300 Watt and 400Watters came with both a lighter plug, and direct connect. I was going to use a 2nd battery, with an isolator, to just power an inverter, but it was not needed. I was able to fit a MARINE battery in my van, and I could leave stuff on for eight hours... Left my lights on over-night once? Started right up...