Show me your inverter

[HeavyDuty]

Which one do you have and how many amps can it handle?

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[UtahShooting]

Which one do you have and how many amps can it handle?

My kids use the 110V outlet at bottom of rear console to charge their laptops on longish trips. That's all I got.

 

[Brett Fields]

GoWISE Power 1000W Pure Sine Wave Inverter 12V DC to 120V AC with 2 AC Outlets + 1 5V USB Port, 2 Battery Cables, and Remote Switch (2000W Peak) PS1002,

2x 100ah lithium batteries, charged by the redarc 40amp bcdc.
Last camp, we ran a 12v video light for hours, a fridge, charged a bunch of electronics, then powered 2 CPAPs over night for me & my buddy. In the morning, I was down to 77 percent.

Two more thoughts here...

First, I only used the two 100Ah batteries cuz I already had them. They take up way too much space. If I was starting starting over, I would use a single 200Ah battery.
Keep in mind, you may not need 200Ah of lithium. I sized my system to run my fridge, my CPAP, and whatever other electronics for a long weekend pluged into an inverter. I'm working hard to get everything running off 12v so I don't have inverter overhead.

Second, I could have used a smaller inverter. I have a 1000 watt pure sign wave unit. With most everything running off 12v, the inverter becomes more of a backup tool for the "Just in case" scenario. With a smaller unit, maybe I could have mounted it more creatively.

Lastly, I've not yet made any provision for cold weather use.

FWIW, my CPAP is a Philips Dreamstation with the OEM 12 volt accesory cable. My old machine ran off an 18 volt power supply.

 

[CO2Ranger]

GoWISE Power 1000W Pure Sine Wave Inverter 12V DC to 120V AC with 2 AC Outlets + 1 5V USB Port, 2 Battery Cables, and Remote Switch (2000W Peak) PS1002,

2x 100ah lithium batteries, charged by the redarc 40amp bcdc.
Last camp, we ran a 12v video light for hours, a fridge, charged a bunch of electronics, then powered 2 CPAPs over night for me & my buddy. In the morning, I was down to 77 percent.

Two more thoughts here...

First, I only used the two 100Ah batteries cuz I already had them. They take up way too much space. If I was starting starting over, I would use a single 200Ah battery.
Keep in mind, you may not need 200Ah of lithium. I sized my system to run my fridge, my CPAP, and whatever other electronics for a long weekend pluged into an inverter. I'm working hard to get everything running off 12v so I don't have inverter overhead.

Second, I could have used a smaller inverter. I have a 1000 watt pure sign wave unit. With most everything running off 12v, the inverter becomes more of a backup tool for the "Just in case" scenario. With a smaller unit, maybe I could have mounted it more creatively.

Lastly, I've not yet made any provision for cold weather use.

FWIW, my CPAP is a Philips Dreamstation with the OEM 12 volt accesory cable. My old machine ran off an 18 volt power supply.

This guy inverts!

 

[Synfulz]

This guy inverts!

And he's not a introvert. ??

 

[Brett Fields]

This guy inverts!

Not so much....
The only use it got on the last trip was my buddy's CPAP. He didn't have a 12v adapter.

What's *not* in those pics is the 12v 30amp Anderson connectors now mounted just in front of the Redarc BCDC. I plug a 12v extention cable (with Anderson ends) into that and run it into my tent. No 110v AC required.

 

[benocalvert]

This guy inverts!

@Brett Fields - Thanks for the pictures of your setup. How have you connected the RedArc charger's blue wire to an ignition source on your truck? I'm working on getting mine hooked up.

 

[Brett Fields]

This is more than I wanna type on the phone. When I get home later, I'll break out the laptop....

 

[Brett Fields]

@Brett Fields - Thanks for the pictures of your setup. How have you connected the RedArc charger's blue wire to an ignition source on your truck? I'm working on getting mine hooked up.

Note the orange rectangle above the gray box. It's the Wolf Haus 12 volt adapter with pigtail.

Wolf Haus

I extended the open end and brought it up through a factory hole. It's attached to a terminal strip that's positioned under my BCDC1240. Now that strip will have power when you start the vehicle. My only gripe is the delay on the 12 volt power circuits. (The circuit staying on after shutdown) The bed power circuit is identical to the 2 cig lighter circuits in the dash. All three fuses are next to each other under the hood.
When my off road guy ran the 4 gauge cable from the front, under the vehicle, to the rear, I asked him to include a run of 18 gauge along with it. I was gonna use that for ignition power. My problem was that I couldn't figure out a clean way to connect it to any ignition source. I read other peoples stuff, but nothing apealled to me. The bed power circuit became the best option for me. My compressor uses that circuit for ignition power also. I read somewhere that the delay can be changed using Forscan. I haven't looked into that though. FWIW, I attached that wire to the terminal strip and ran that power forward to use under the hood.

Concerns:
With that delay, the BCDC continues to charge the aux battery even when the truck is off. It hasn't been a problem though. I think the BCDC stops if the source power gets down to a certain point.

Cold weather: I see you're in Colorado. The BCDC1240 has cold weather protection. Even if you acquire a self heated LiFePO4 battery, (ok to charge below 32) the BCDC won't come back on.
I haven't figured out what I wanna do about this yet. One idea: I'm gonna put a RSI Smartcap on this summer. Maybe I can figure out a way to warm up the back above 32 degrees in the winter.

Again, my two 100 Ah batteries take up alotta space. I love having the power, I just wish it were smaller. If you're gonna be out in the winter, more power means more days without having to recharge. I'm seeing now 300 and 400 Ah batteries that look more space efficient. A few hours running above 32 degrees, and you're back in business.

If you have any other questions, let me know.

Brett

EDIT:
Sorry... reading this back, I realize that I wrote assuming you know about the bed power circuit. If that's not the case, the bed power circuit powers the 12 volt receptacle that accompanies the factory drop in bed liner. In the absence of that accessory, the wire is tied up under the driver side rear fender. There are excellent illustrations in the Wolf Haus instructions.

B.


ANOTHER EDIT:
OK4WD is where I go for anything beyond me. (which is everything except electrical) I got under the truck to start installing the 4 gauge cable and thought "This is nuts!" I had my winch install day coming, so I figured I'd ask them when the truck was on the lift. So much easier. NOT free, but worth it to me. I supplied the cable, they loomed it and tied it up. After I got home, i did some final routing and crimped the lugs with a hydrolic crimper. BTW, if you're gonna do a project like this, it's totally worth getting a proper crimper.
I have a thread going for the electrical up front if your interested.

 

[benocalvert]

Note the orange rectangle above the gray box. It's the Wolf Haus 12 volt adapter with pigtail.

Wolf Haus

I extended the open end and brought it up through a factory hole. It's attached to a terminal strip that's positioned under my BCDC1240. Now that strip will have power when you start the vehicle. My only gripe is the delay on the 12 volt power circuits. (The circuit staying on after shutdown) The bed power circuit is identical to the 2 cig lighter circuits in the dash. All three fuses are next to each other under the hood.
When my off road guy ran the 4 gauge cable from the front, under the vehicle, to the rear, I asked him to include a run of 18 gauge along with it. I was gonna use that for ignition power. My problem was that I couldn't figure out a clean way to connect it to any ignition source. I read other peoples stuff, but nothing apealled to me. The bed power circuit became the best option for me. My compressor uses that circuit for ignition power also. I read somewhere that the delay can be changed using Forscan. I haven't looked into that though. FWIW, I attached that wire to the terminal strip and ran that power forward to use under the hood.

Concerns:
With that delay, the BCDC continues to charge the aux battery even when the truck is off. It hasn't been a problem though. I think the BCDC stops if the source power gets down to a certain point.

Cold weather: I see you're in Colorado. The BCDC1240 has cold weather protection. Even if you acquire a self heated LiFePO4 battery, (ok to charge below 32) the BCDC won't come back on.
I haven't figured out what I wanna do about this yet. One idea: I'm gonna put a RSI Smartcap on this summer. Maybe I can figure out a way to warm up the back above 32 degrees in the winter.

Again, my two 100 Ah batteries take up alotta space. I love having the power, I just wish it were smaller. If you're gonna be out in the winter, more power means more days without having to recharge. I'm seeing now 300 and 400 Ah batteries that look more space efficient. A few hours running above 32 degrees, and you're back in business.

If you have any other questions, let me know.

Brett

EDIT:
Sorry... reading this back, I realize that I wrote assuming you know about the bed power circuit. If that's not the case, the bed power circuit powers the 12 volt receptacle that accompanies the factory drop in bed liner. In the absence of that accessory, the wire is tied up under the driver side rear fender. There are excellent illustrations in the Wolf Haus instructions.

B.


ANOTHER EDIT:
OK4WD is where I go for anything beyond me. (which is everything except electrical) I got under the truck to start installing the 4 gauge cable and thought "This is nuts!" I had my winch install day coming, so I figured I'd ask them when the truck was on the lift. So much easier. NOT free, but worth it to me. I supplied the cable, they loomed it and tied it up. After I got home, i did some final routing and crimped the lugs with a hydrolic crimper. BTW, if you're gonna do a project like this, it's totally worth getting a proper crimper.
I have a thread going for the electrical up front if your interested.

Thanks for all of this info and all of the detail, really appreciate it!

I have a wolfhaus plug in my bed, but I didn't know where it came from until now. The previous owner installed it.

I have the Redarc charger in the bed and connected to the starter battery, just need to now figure out a way to connect the blue wire. I hadn't considered the bed power so this is helpful and much closer than going to the fuse box under the hood.

Thanks again.

 

[Brett Fields]

Yeah. I just couldn't figure out a way to pick up ignition power without it looking like a hack job.
If you don't have the pigtail version of the Wolf Haus gizmo, you could just loosen it up, pull it out, and splice into it. I don't love splice taps, but the current draw you need is so low, it's just not an issue.
Post some pics. Let's see what you did.

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