2000 Watt Inverter Mounting: Underhood? Waterproofing?
 

So I bought a 2000 watt inverter to operate my new 1800 watt AC pressure washer.


If I mounted the inverter behind the seat in my cab, or in my toolbox right next to my pressure washer, then it would be out of the water, but I would need to run 20 feet of 2 AWG cable to it.

If I mounted it under the hood, I would need a fraction of that much cable, but it would be in the heat and the water.

Anybody have one of these big inverters under their hoods? I'm thinking I could somewhat waterproof it with a little ducting and a couple mesh screens.

But, I'm thinking that since I already have 4 gauge going to the 800 watt amp behind my seat, I could tie the inverter into that, and then upgrade the wiring to 2 or 0 gauge if needed. I'm not planning on using the amp and inverter at the same time...

Hope this works better for you then it did for me. I tried this so I could run power tools and water pumps out in the fields. I mounted mine in the tool box. No matter what I plugged into it the reset switch would pop as soon as I turned somethin on. I couldn't get it to run anything.

Another alternative, if you want to mount in under the hood is to us use a waterproof Pelican box:

Pelican™ Products | Survival Stories

You can keep it waterproof by using gland seals for your cables.

I would put it in the cab with some 0 gauge a welding supply store (look online too) is a good place to get 0 gauge.

Alright, I've revised my design.


I put the inverter behind my seat. I put an Optima behind my seat. I connect the Optima to the inverter with 2' OO cable. I connect the Optima to the 4 gauge wire that was connecting the amp to the battery in front.

The 4 gauge wire keeps the rear Optima charged, while the OO cable provides a few seconds of ~200 amps to the inverter.


So, time for an electronics quiz.


If I have a totally drained Optima, and I connect it to a charged and charging Optima with 20 feet of 4 AWG wire, what happens? Is the dead battery going to suck so many amps through the 4 gauge that things start melting?

If the front battery was a red top, and the rear battery was a deep cycle, would the deep cycle keep the cranking battery from draining?

Why are you even bothering with an electric pressure washer? Gas ones are a lot more powerful and you don't have to worry about all that crap.

4 gauge is rated for 135 amps, so In theory you could melt it down since the yellow top is rated for 175ish? But anyways why would you hook up a dead batt to a good one? Just charge it so it doesn't drag the other batt down so hard...

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Plus is the truck going to be running or is this so you can use it with the truck off?

Say that I have a deep cycle on my pimp-daddy 2400 watt stereo, and a starting battery for my pimp-daddy 2.0 liter Honda VTEC yo.

The positive poles of each battery are tied together with a wire, that has a relay in the middle of it so that I can isolate the batteries from each other.

So I disconnect the batteries and listen to Sarah McLachlan on my radio until the deep cycle is very discharged. Then I start my VTEC (yo) and flip the relay to connect the batteries.

A large current is going to go through the wire connecting the batteries, right? How big of a current? How large of a wire do I need connecting the batteries so that the current doesn't melt the wire? That's my current question (har har).

This way, when I'm driving down the road, I don't have to set cruise and crawl through my rear window to pullstart the pressure washer in my toolbox.

Typically the truck is going to be running, but I'd like to be able to use the inverter without it running in case I'm camping or listening to tunes or something.

Never mind, I knew I should have never even asked.

All the second batt is going to be good for is just that listening to music, because since the truck will be running the second batt is only goin to add more stress to a possibly over worked alt. So if your worried about not having enough juice for the pressuder washer and inverter, I'm be looking for a larger alt. As for melting cables what the amperage of the batt your going to be charging? :pca1: