Has anyone come across a DIY aftermarket power inverter install for an IS350?

The goal here is to get 110-120V power into the console or close. If I was to do it I'd run something significant power wise, which may require running from the battery if there aren't suitable wires.

 

Just like you said.. run suitable (fused) wires directly from the battery to a place where you feel comfortable mounting the inverter.

 

You need to research power inverters first. Depending on the draw of the item you are planning to run, you may need a bigger inverter than you could mount inconspicuously in the cabin in the first place. For smaller draws, they actually make cigarette lighter inverters. If memory serves me correctly (it often doesn't) around 800w is the largest inverter you can typically get without having to hard wire off the battery. If you go larger than that, you are looking at an inverter that will likely be the size of a loaf of bread and would be hard to hide. With that said, most electrical items have a lower peak amperage than you may think, unless you are wanting to power something with a heating element in it.....

 

I have an inverter that I use for camping that's about the size of a super small stereo amp and it provides plenty of power to run a laptop, etc. It would fit under the seat just fine. In the console.. I dunno. I would say the under the seat or up in the passengers side footwell would be the best.

 

Remember, the OP didn't disclose what he would be running with the inverter. A laptop likely only draws 75 watts. There would be no reason to hard wire an inverter if he were going to run a laptop. Thread is nearly pointless without the missing vital info. Lol.

 

If its for any kind of normal use, I would definitely take a hard wired inverter over a cheap cig lighter plug in type.

..assuming that it's for a laptop type consumption. If its for a minor accessory then yeah.. def overkill.

 

Hey sorry for the post and run!

What do I want to run? Probably the biggest thing I might run is a heated or cooled cooler. They seem to run around 600W only though from the Cobra reference chart.

https://cobra.com/detail/cpi-1575-1-...r-inverter.cfm

I looked up the Cig and Power systems. They run 15A fuses at 12 volts, so that's good for around 180W My laptop cooked the cig one pretty much instantly. =p

I am going to assume that an inverter is only about 80% efficient (safe side). My laptops input specs are 240W (120V @ 2A), so that would require a 300W (240/0.8) draw with an 80% efficient inverter.

So the laptop is short term. I think I would like to go as big as I can without running wires direct from the battery, 800W as suggested above? If it comes to running wires anyway then I'd like to run probably a larger inverter, around 1200W. Also I would prefer the inverter in the trunk as electrical whinning drives me nuts and most lasger inverters seem to do that.

Hope that helps out with the advice giving?

 

o.O dude, maybe you should just get an RV lol

The 80% efficiency is pretty typical of most inverters. You should be able to see it from their specs if there is one. The highest current wire I know about is by the driver side fusebox which is a very big white or greyish wire that's 80A (I was told but didn't verify), but I'm not sure what else is running on it wire the car is running.

 

lol

Yeah, I may be a hill billy and I'm driving YOUR car. haha


So I was under the passenger side dash replacing the fuse for the cig lighter. There is what looks like a pass through for the firewall and the battery is directly on the other side and up a foot and a half. Seems to me the most intelligent place for an inverter would be in that passenger dash region, and then just run AC cabling to where you want. I was thinking of running something into the console and giving it an OEM kind of look.

Anyone ever gone this route? What have you guys been doing with AMPs, which are really the same problem?

 

If you want to connect directly to the battery, yes, I saw some thread (but I can't remember what) where by the battery, there is some raised plastic grommet piece that you can just cut off and wire through there so you don't have to drill any holes.