[packerbacker]

I use an inverter for my job, I use it several times a day, It is a 12 volt 2300 watt.
My question is, I ordered duel batteries on My Transit, Will I need a 24 Volt inverter?
I really don't know how this works, I have a 12/24 Volt trolling motor on my Bass Boat that I can switch from 12 or 24 Volts, Guessing its different on a Van??? I did find on my research that the Batteries on The Transit are under the Drivers seat, This will save me a lot of money, That heavy duty cable is very expensive and I attach the inverter to the partition. Currently purchasing everything I need for my uplift and don't want to buy the wrong inverter.- Thanks

 

[Longboard]

They should be in parallel, otherwise the entire vehicle would have to have 24 volt systems. Would be cool though, wiring would weigh less!
One day 24 volt systems will be a reality in even passenger cars, but not yet in the Transit.

 

[VanMan]

How about the 36/42 volt systems that use the flywheel for the atlernator/starter.
Printed curciut for alot of the wiring. Surprising what the wiring weight is in a vehicle.

BMW has done it

 

[Mc2guy]

I use an inverter for my job, I use it several times a day, It is a 12 volt 2300 watt.
My question is, I ordered duel batteries on My Transit, Will I need a 24 Volt inverter?
I really don't know how this works, I have a 12/24 Volt trolling motor on my Bass Boat that I can switch from 12 or 24 Volts, Guessing its different on a Van??? I did find on my research that the Batteries on The Transit are under the Drivers seat, This will save me a lot of money, That heavy duty cable is very expensive and I attach the inverter to the partition. Currently purchasing everything I need for my uplift and don't want to buy the wrong inverter.- Thanks

PackerBacker,

The best approach is the following:

1) Confirm that Ford has installed a voltage sensing relay between the first (primary starting) battery, and the second (auxiliary) battery. The voltage sensing relay will allow you to use your auxiliary battery without worrying about draining your starting battery and stranding you. It also ensures that your starting battery gets charged first when the vehicle is turned on. If Ford did NOT install a VSR between the two batteries, you can find them on Amazon for about $80.

2) Connect the inverter directly to the auxiliary battery using as short a wire lead as possible, making sure to add a fuse or breaker on the positive lead. The breaker should be rated for the max amperage rating of the inverter or wire at 3-5% voltage drop, whichever is less. Be careful too that you aren't drawing too much current from the battery. Most lead-acid batteries can either provide short bursts of high current (starting a motor), or a slow, low-current discharge (trolling motor), but not both. Make sure you have the right kind of battery installed for your application.

3) It's not required, but I like to install a voltage meter on my Auxiliary battery just so ensure the battery is fully charging and that the stable, no-load, voltage at full charge is sufficient. These are cheap and can be a good and early indicator if you have battery or charging issue. These are $5-10 and are wired directly to your aux battery. You can go with a full blown battery monitor, but that is overkill in your application, IMO.

Good luck.

 

[Dale_R]

My Wagon is to have a factory installed 180 watt (maximum) inverter. The Owners Manual says the inverter will shut down if it detects a load over 150 watts. It is not to be used for compressor-type refrigerators or power tools.

 

[orton]

First you need to determine how the two batteries are installed. Is one a starting battery and the second an auxilliary battery? Or are they connected to act as one battery? Does anyone know? My suspicion is they are not separated into vehicle and house batteries.

The inverter can act to limit the draw from the alternator by selecting the correct size inverter. You also may want to only use the inverter with the engine running so you are using alternator power and not just the battery power.

On my Sprinter conversion I have two inverters. The 1000 watt "house" inverter is connected to the house battery. The 600 watt "vehicle" inverter is powered by the Sprinter electrical system. The "vehicle" battery has a relay between the vehicle battery and the inverter. The relay contacts close when the engine is running. The "vehicle" inverter can not operate with the engine off.

The Transit conversion will be similar except the "vehicle" inverter size will be increased to 1000 watts. 120 volt power from the "vehicle" inverter will have 3 uses: Provide 120 volt "shore" power to the "house" inverter/charger/transfer switch to charge the house battery or heat shower water electrically or operate a 750 watt electric baseboard heater in back of van. My house 12 volt system is completely independent from the Sprinter. It is not even grounded to the chassis.

 

[orton]

My Wagon is to have a factory installed 180 watt (maximum) inverter. The Owners Manual says the inverter will shut down if it detects a load over 150 watts. It is not to be used for compressor-type refrigerators or power tools.

Is the factory 180 watt inverter a modified sine wave or a pure sine wave inverter? 150/120 is 1.25 amps. Compressor refrigerators draw about 4 amps.

 

[Dale_R]

Don't know, Orton. Everything they tell us is on page 103-104 of the Owners Manual. I'm not enough of an electrician to know.

 

[Chance]

How about the 36/42 volt systems that use the flywheel for the atlernator/starter.
Printed curciut for alot of the wiring. Surprising what the wiring weight is in a vehicle.

BMW has done it

The 36/42 Volt standard was a great idea in my opinion that wasn't adopted as first envisioned due to the very high cost to convert from 12/14 present systems.

Even though hybrids and other electrical advances complicated the conversion somewhat, I'd still like to see it take place anyway. Some are now pushing for a 48 Volt (presumably 56 Volt charge) standard instead to facilitate mild hybrid power trains on a budget. Those fuel savings might help justify the high conversion costs. Either way it would be nice to have 36 or 48 Volt inverters instead of 12 Volt. Required wiring size would be much smaller.

 

[Chance]

Is the factory 180 watt inverter a modified sine wave or a pure sine wave inverter? 150/120 is 1.25 amps. Compressor refrigerators draw about 4 amps.

Not to drift but that seems like a lot of power for a refrigerator the size that would go in an RV van.

I can see 4 AMPS at 12 Volts but not at 120 Volts. That would make a fridge use almost 500 watts which is as much as a small window AC.

I'd expect an RV fridge to be under 1 AMP at 120 Volts. I'm going by memory of specs I've seen and may be quite wrong. A current draw around 0.4 A at 120 V would seem about right if I was guessing.

 

[orton]

Not to drift but that seems like a lot of power for a refrigerator the size that would go in an RV van.

I can see 4 AMPS at 12 Volts but not at 120 Volts. That would make a fridge use almost 500 watts which is as much as a small window AC.

I'd expect an RV fridge to be under 1 AMP at 120 Volts. I'm going by memory of specs I've seen and may be quite wrong. A current draw around 0.4 A at 120 V would seem about right if I was guessing.

Should have stated 4 amps @ 12 volts DC. 0.4 amps @ 120 volts AC.

 

[79Ranger]

Inverter is a modified square wave type.

Got to watch startup current on any motor, typically it is 4 to 10 times what full load current is.

 

[alarmist]

150 watts seems tiny. Like not even enough to run one power tool battery charger.

 

[orton]

I will not order the inverter from Ford, Too small and not pure sine wave. I have a 600 watt pure sine inverter powered by my Sprinter electrical system. Transit will have a 1000 watt inverter powered by the Transit. I will have two 1000 watt inverters. One powered by the Transit and one powered by the house battery. System works great.

 

[Whitedog]

I will not order the inverter from Ford, Too small and not pure sine wave. I have a 600 watt pure sine inverter powered by my Sprinter electrical system. Transit will have a 1000 watt inverter powered by the Transit. I will have two 1000 watt inverters. One powered by the Transit and one powered by the house battery. System works great.

Orton, I will be installing an inverter in our Transit and I need some advice. We have a 2000 watt inverter from our old rig and the boss wants that installled, but it sounds like this will be too much. We will have four 120 volt outlets used mostly for charging cell phones or laptops. I think this inverter would be overkill, but since we own it already will we be overloading things if we only use a small percentage?

I see that we have an engine running ground signal available under the drivers seat for a relay so it can only come on with the engine running. We also have 60 amp connectors on the side of the seat. I was reading the upfitters book and it says not to hook up directly to the battery so would i be able to hook up to that 60 amp connection for the inverter?

 

[orton]

Orton, I will be installing an inverter in our Transit and I need some advice. We have a 2000 watt inverter from our old rig and the boss wants that installled, but it sounds like this will be too much. We will have four 120 volt outlets used mostly for charging cell phones or laptops. I think this inverter would be overkill, but since we own it already will we be overloading things if we only use a small percentage?

I see that we have an engine running ground signal available under the drivers seat for a relay so it can only come on with the engine running. We also have 60 amp connectors on the side of the seat. I was reading the upfitters book and it says not to hook up directly to the battery so would i be able to hook up to that 60 amp connection for the inverter?

A 1000 watt inverter specifies a 150 amp fuse. The 2000 watt inverter probably requires a 300 amp fuse? My Motorola Android phone draws 60 watts or about 5 amps. You could use one of the 60 amp connectors on the seat base to run a 300 watt pure sine inverter that would allow 4 people to be charging at the same time. I would think that would be adequate. Morningstar makes a very nice 300 watt pure sine inverter. Use a relay to prevent inverter from running with engine off.

I am not an expert but suspect a 2000 watt inverter would be too large for the Transit electrical system. It has about 3000 watts from the HD alternator when running at the correct rpm (whatever that is). Do not know how much of the 3000 is consumed by the Transit.

 

[Longboard]

If the passengers are plugging their a.c. phone chargers into the 110 volt outlets supplied by the inverter does it matter if it's pure sine or not?
Just curious because I'm still not clear on when pure vs modified matters.

 

[orton]

If the passengers are plugging their a.c. phone chargers into the 110 volt outlets supplied by the inverter does it matter if it's pure sine or not?
Just curious because I'm still not clear on when pure vs modified matters.

It has been stated that some electronic devices do not like a modified sine wave. I do not have any direct experience to support that statement.

I used a pure sine "vehicle" inverter because I was afraid of powering my 1000 watt Magnum pure sine inverter with modified sine wave power. Did not call Magnum but did not want to take a chance. Just more money to do it right.

 

[Longboard]

It has been stated that some electronic devices do not like a modified sine wave. ............
I used a pure sine "vehicle" inverter because I was afraid of powering my 1000 watt Magnum pure sine inverter with modified sine wave power. Did not call Magnum but did not want to take a chance. Just more money to do it right.

Ok, I was thinking of the ac phone charger as a transformer and that the phone wouldn't know the difference as to what the input to the charger's quality of voltage was. But since the ac chargers these days are not really transformers anymore (they weigh like NOTHING and I'm guessing "pulse" the voltage instead?) maybe they too are sensitive to the wave quality?

 

[Whitedog]

Does anyone have an opinion on a good brand of inverter?