Upgrading 400W inverter possible?

[uh50]

Information from the link in my post above at Add 120v Power to Your Vehicle With an Inverter - Instructables.

The article states:

The alternator is the component already in your vehicle that creates 12 volt power. Generally, you should choose an Inverter than draws no more approximately 50% of what your alternator is rated for:​

​

if your alternator is 80 amps you won't want to draw much more than 40 amps with your inverter.​

​

40 amps @ 12v =480 watts. In this example, a 500 watt inverter is about as big as you should go.​

​

Car & Driver says the Maverick alternator is rated for an output of 190 Amps. Given the example above, 190/2 = 95 Amps x 12 volts = 1140 watts. So, adding a 1200 watt inverter should be ok, but you would have to provide wiring and fuse protection from the battery.

Sponsored

 

[Old Fart]

It's enough to raise my home built high-low camper but it's obviously a modified sine wave because the A/C was struggling.

 

[Shwalamazula]

I need to look into this. I have a Jackery battery bank that I use for camping. The charging bricks say on them that they can pull 5A. I put a kill-a-watt on one of them to see what was being drawn and the load was 2.5A - 3.0A, so well within the loading for the vehicle. If I wanted to charge the power bank faster, I can plug in a second charger, but that would increase the load to 5A - 6A, which would not be supported by the vehicle. If it was 400W at each outlet and not 400W total, I would be sitting pretty.

 

[Decayed]

You could probably go up to a 1200 watt when the truck is running, you would be using the alternator for power though. You're still just pulling from a 12V car battery, which is not deep cycle and not meant to be run for a long time, and lead acid batteries dont do well when cycled below 50%. So best bet would be power station or solar generator setup in the bed if you need more power.

Agreed, a separate solar generator type setup is probably the best. If you need to run tools get a big external inverter and clamp it directly to the battery. The internal wiring isn't meant to take high amp loads.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

You will not plug in a 400 or 700w inverter to a cigarette lighter. They pull too much power and will blow the fuse. A 400w will pull around 40a.

Also the power points are not wired for cigarette lighters. There is an add on for a cigarette lighter with plug that should have been ordered if you want a cigarette lighter when you ordered your truck. The power points look like and are sized for all the chargers etc that were designed to fit the cigarette plugs.

 

[bgn]

I need to look into this. I have a Jackery battery bank that I use for camping. The charging bricks say on them that they can pull 5A. I put a kill-a-watt on one of them to see what was being drawn and the load was 2.5A - 3.0A, so well within the loading for the vehicle. If I wanted to charge the power bank faster, I can plug in a second charger, but that would increase the load to 5A - 6A, which would not be supported by the vehicle. If it was 400W at each outlet and not 400W total, I would be sitting pretty.

My Delta 2 refuses to charge on the AC, even when set to a max draw of 200w. Seems to not like the inverter in the truck.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

I need to look into this. I have a Jackery battery bank that I use for camping. The charging bricks say on them that they can pull 5A. I put a kill-a-watt on one of them to see what was being drawn and the load was 2.5A - 3.0A, so well within the loading for the vehicle. If I wanted to charge the power bank faster, I can plug in a second charger, but that would increase the load to 5A - 6A, which would not be supported by the vehicle. If it was 400W at each outlet and not 400W total, I would be sitting pretty.

I would have to check but I believe the jackery has a cigarette style plug but the middle sized one will take 11 hours to charge with vehicle. The large one takes 22 hours. Note the bms in the jackery will charge at a reduced rate during the last 20% of the SOC of it's battery. This is to reduce overheating the battery and allow the surface charge to penetrate further into the "plates". That's why the last 20% can take as long a time as the first 80% to charge.

 

[Mymaverick2021]

I ordered the hybrid with a 400W inverter, and I just saw an article that listed what could be run with it. To be honest, it seems like very few things that will be useful to me. Especially when it comes to charging tools. Is there any way to upgrade the inverter? Can that be done? I’m not sure the limitations of car electronics.

I concur looking back at how lame the inverter is for what you can power with it I wish I wouldn't spend the 150 bucks

 

[Shwalamazula]

I would have to check but I believe the jackery has a cigarette style plug but the middle sized one will take 11 hours to charge with vehicle. The large one takes 22 hours. Note the bms in the jackery will charge at a reduced rate during the last 20% of the SOC of it's battery. This is to reduce overheating the battery and allow the surface charge to penetrate further into the "plates". That's why the last 20% can take as long a time as the first 80% to charge.

Yup, but the DC adaptor only draws something like 100W. I need to check if the Jackery will draw from the DC plug and the regular charging ports. It's not ideal, but I could use one of the regular bricks to draw 300W - 350W off the vehicle's AC inverter and plug into the DC outlet too. That would bump me up to 400W - 450W without making any modifications.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

My Delta 2 refuses to charge on the AC, even when set to a max draw of 200w. Seems to not like the inverter in the truck.

The inverter in the truck is not a pure sine wave and your delta 2 apparently wants it. Use the 12v direct to charge and save the conversion losses if possible. Also note that the DC to DC converter in the hybrid maverick I have apparently with a deep cycle 12v battery puts out 14.7 volts (it will be up to 1 volt less depending on SOC of the on board 12v). Perhaps if whatever you are plugging in to the 12v bus in the maverick was designed for a max input voltage of 14.2 or 14.4 it could see the 14.7 as an over voltage and refuse to accept it. I know for a fact that some of the cigarette style USB chargers will not work because of their design parameters

 

[MakinDoForNow]

Yup, but the DC adaptor only draws something like 100W. I need to check if the Jackery will draw from the DC plug and the regular charging ports. It's not ideal, but I could use one of the regular bricks to draw 300W - 350W off the vehicle's AC inverter and plug into the DC outlet too. That would bump me up to 400W - 450W without making any modifications.

What is the input expected at the solar input port. Maybe you could use the fuze position for the 30amp "after market brake controller". ????? And feed it in there. Maybe after changing voltage or ?
Ok looked on jackery and found this review
I love my Jackery. We use it during camping trip, mostly to re-charge the e-bike battery and for the coffee maker. The only point of criticism is the fact that it does not charge at 200W with both panels, but only with ~130W. I contacted Jackery support and the reason seems to be an internal limit of 7.5A input current of the Jackery battery, to avoid overheating during the charging process. Combined with 18V solar panel voltage, this gives 18V x 7.5A = 135W. They do not mention this in the specs or anywhere else. Not a super-big deal but I would appreciate more upfront transparency.

 

[Shwalamazula]

What is the input expected at the solar input port. Maybe you could use the fuze position for the 30amp "after market brake controller". ????? And feed it in there. Maybe after changing voltage or ?

I am not sure what the voltage is on the solar input ports. The main charging ports are the same as the solar ports. The power bricks put out 48V to charge the pack. My solar panels put out 20V, and the car adapter is obviously 12V, so there is some kind of voltage regulator in the pack. I might be able to just straight-line a fused barrel plug in parallel with the main battery, so that the DCDC just makes up for the extra load.

 

[bgn]

The inverter in the truck is not a pure sine wave and your delta 2 apparently wants it. Use the 12v direct to charge and save the conversion losses if possible. Also note that the DC to DC converter in the hybrid maverick I have apparently with a deep cycle 12v battery puts out 14.7 volts (it will be up to 1 volt less depending on SOC of the on board 12v). Perhaps if whatever you are plugging in to the 12v bus in the maverick was designed for a max input voltage of 14.2 or 14.4 it could see the 14.7 as an over voltage and refuse to accept it. I know for a fact that some of the cigarette style USB chargers will not work because of their design parameters

I've gotten about 90-100 watts off the 12v. The Delta 2 maxes at 8 amps-ish.

Not a big deal the AC doesn't work. It's a big battery and I have some solar too, but thought I'd try.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

I am not sure what the voltage is on the solar input ports. The main charging ports are the same as the solar ports. The power bricks put out 48V to charge the pack. My solar panels put out 20V, and the car adapter is obviously 12V, so there is some kind of voltage regulator in the pack. I might be able to just straight-line a fused barrel plug in parallel with the main battery, so that the DCDC just makes up for the extra load.

I read on jackery site where someone claims they called jackery support and 7.5 amp was max rate that their bms would allow to charge battery to control heat.

 

[Shwalamazula]

I read on jackery site where someone claims they called jackery support and 7.5 amp was max rate that their bms would allow to charge battery to control heat.

That sounds about right. My bricks draw 2.5A - 3A each at 120V, which is 300W - 350W. Input voltage being 48V would put it right around 7.5A max. That would put me at 30A for a hardline to the 12V system. It may be better to just put a bigger inverter in, since I would need to have a boost converter to get full capability out of the system.

Sponsored