2000 Watt Removable Inverter Installation

[TimeOutside]

Wow! Ok. That is some big cable. THANK YOU.

Glad to help.

PS. I would have gone with a 3000 watt inverter myself, but when I saw the cabling that would be best I decided against it. My Renology says it will handle a 4000 watt surge, but it won't. I have a dust collector that surges to 3200 watts and it trips the inverter. But it will handle the 2800 watt surge on my camper's air conditioner just fine. I don't have anything I have run that takes over 1000 watts (excluding surge). Our microwave and coffee maker take over 1000 and less than 2000. But we haven't ever run those. And we won't unless we have an extended power outage. 2000 watts is sufficient for us.

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[MakinDoForNow]

Glad to help.

PS. I would have gone with a 3000 watt inverter myself, but when I saw the cabling that would be best I decided against it. My Renology says it will handle a 4000 watt surge, but it won't. I have a dust collector that surges to 3200 watts and it trips the inverter. But it will handle the 2800 watt surge on my camper's air conditioner just fine. I don't have anything I have run that takes over 1000 watts (excluding surge). Our microwave and coffee maker take over 1000 and less than 2000. But we haven't ever run those. And we won't unless we have an extended power outage. 2000 watts is sufficient for us.

Put a "soft start" capacitor on the ac to handle most of the surge.
ETA: oops the dust collector needs the capacitor not the ac. Put the whole circuit on the capacitor (?).

 

[TimeOutside]

Put a "soft start" capacitor on the ac to handle most of the surge.
ETA: oops the dust collector needs the capacitor not the ac. Put the whole circuit on the capacitor (?).

Selling the dust collector, as I don't need it anymore. But one was on the shopping list before.

 

[paneubert]

Spamming this to all the "Mav as a generator" threads I know about.

If anyone is interested in how to permanently disable the 30 minute max idle via ForScan (so you don't need to go into the screen menu and disable the max idle every time), I think I figured it out. I will edit this post once I have absolute confirmation.

 

[JJTech]

I'm thinking about doing this on my 2025 XLT, mounting the inverter permanently behind the seat. Any further advice? Has the Renogy 2000W inverter been holding up nicely?

 

[cablecarcruisader]

I'm thinking about doing this on my 2025 XLT, mounting the inverter permanently behind the seat. Any further advice? Has the Renogy 2000W inverter been holding up nicely?

I am using my renogy 2k that I previously ran on a camper van conversion. I probably have over 150 hours on the inverter with some pretty big loads. Hasn’t skipped a beat. I think the biggest issue was the lead acid batteries that came in the 2023 and 2024 Mavericks.

 

[TimeOutside]

I'm thinking about doing this on my 2025 XLT, mounting the inverter permanently behind the seat. Any further advice? Has the Renogy 2000W inverter been holding up nicely?

Zero issues with my Renology. But I'd be cautious about heat dissipation with it behind the seat.

 

[JJTech]

yeah, I’m slightly worried about heat dissipation as well…
but I figure whenever I’m running a heavy load I can just put the seat down and leave the windows cracked.
mounting it mostly for convenience and so I don’t lose my under-seat storage lol

 

[Maverick123]

... But it will handle the 2800 watt surge on my camper's air conditioner just fine ...

Oooh, this'll be handy when we're boondocking and it's too hot to sleep without A/C

The truck will run occasionally, but we won't be able to hear it anyway over the noise of the AC

 

[JJTech]

Anyone have any good ideas for tying it to the run/start relay? I assume that the run/start relay itself isn't rated for directly pulling 200A (plus it would be a pain to run heavy gauge wire from)...

I guess I could probably put some kind of microcontroller that monitored the relay state (and possibly the voltage) and controlled the "remote" line of the inverter. Not sure I would trust a random Amazon relay with breaking that high current?

Note:
According to the wiring guide, the DC/DC step-down is rated at 265A and fused at 300A; so I figure it should be relatively safe to pull the full 2000W; especially since if it is at 14.5V then it is only 138A, leaving 127A for everything else.

However, the 12V battery is only fused at 200A. I need to figure out where this fuse is physically located- if the inverter is directly tied to that spare battery post, will it be on the wrong side of that 200A fuse? I'll have to look for it physically, the diagram is no help.

I have attached the high current power distribution diagram, as well as the battery load shed description.

 

[BlueSpec1]

...
Note:
According to the wiring guide, the DC/DC step-down is rated at 265A and fused at 300A; so I figure it should be relatively safe to pull the full 2000W; especially since if it is at 14.5V then it is only 138A, leaving 127A for everything else.

However, the 12V battery is only fused at 200A. I need to figure out where this fuse is physically located- if the inverter is directly tied to that spare battery post, will it be on the wrong side of that 200A fuse? I'll have to look for it physically, the diagram is no help.

I have attached the high current power distribution diagram, as well as the battery load shed description.

The 200A fuse for hybrid is on the side of the battery post bus.
So the spare stud is fused by this fuse. The cable connected to the fuse runs back to the high current junction box at the bottom of the BJB.

2022 to 2024 Maverick Hybrid

2025 Maverick Hybrid:

 

[JJTech]

The 200A fuse is on the side of battery post bus. So the spare stud is fused by this fuse.

I see. I’d prefer to be on the other side of that fuse, but I guess as long as I add my own 200A fuse to protect the battery it should be fine…

I assume that the 4000W surge rating is with internal capacitors in the inverter, and that it won’t actually try to draw potentially 300A?

Spec sheet recommends fusing it at 250A, assuming worst case 80% efficiency at 2000W that’s 208A at 12V and 192A at 13V? So a little headroom, but not much.
Only worry is that existing fuse would be passing 200A for inverter + charge current of battery…

 

[MakinDoForNow]

I see. I’d prefer to be on the other side of that fuse, but I guess as long as I add my own 200A fuse to protect the battery it should be fine…

I assume that the 4000W surge rating is with internal capacitors in the inverter, and that it won’t actually try to draw potentially 300A?

Spec sheet recommends fusing it at 250A, assuming worst case 80% efficiency at 2000W that’s 208A at 12V and 192A at 13V? So a little headroom, but not much.
Only worry is that existing fuse would be passing 200A for inverter + charge current of battery…

Note. Under load shedding 2 the electric booster heater has the ability to request the PCM to increase ice idle speed and it handles its own load shedding. Your pulling more than it does so you will also need to request advanced ice RPM??? OR NOT??? I believe when the booster heater is operating the ice does not cycle but remains on. Presumably to lower the charge/discharge current rate of the HVB. ALSO NOTE that the 12v Buss can have as high as 15.6v which I have seen on rare occasion in the winter on my 2022 hybrid Lariat. Lots of time 15.4v. be sure your inverter can accept that high an input voltage (maybe 16v???)

 

[JJTech]

ICE idle speed is not applicable for the hybrid— that is strictly relevant for vehicles that use an alternator (i.e. EcoBoost)

On the hybrid, you have the full capacity of the DC/DC as long as the HVB is charged.

And since the generator motor is capable of much more than the DC/DC can step-down, there should be no issue pulling the maximum load indefinitely
(in fact, it will most likely only need to cycle the engine idling 50% of the time, as noted by others)

EDIT: and yes, the Renogy inverter is rated for 10-16V input

 

[JJTech]

Well, I did it!
Discovered that there were a bunch of brackets behind the seat, and I was feeling lazy, so I just put it beneath.

The positive wire is under spec’d because the proper fuse holder I ordered hasn’t arrived yet, so that’s gauge 4 wire with a gauge 4 fuse holder I had from some old audio gear. Will upgrade to 1/0 before testing full load.

I was able to fit the lug underneath the already occupied post *before* the 200A fuse, so I should be able to safely pull the full 250A. And the poor 12V battery won’t be in any danger.

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