I have a new 800 watt inverter that I was planning on installing in the truck. Where is the best place to pull high current 12 volt power from? I was contemplating pulling from the RED battery box over the power steering pump.

Any ideas for where to put this inverter??

Power from the battery do you have a center console? I've hear there's lots of room under it.

Put mine under the rear seat on the "Hump" good access and doesn't get kicked.

mine pulls power from the battery and is mounted under the back seat. 1000 watt xantrex. i did run 00 cable though.

to properly hook up your inverter, you want to use HEAVY gauge wire so you have maximum current flow, and dont overheat/overload the powerwires to your inverter. i am putting in a 2000+watt inverter into my truck once it gets here. your local stereo shop should be able to help you with whick thickness "awg or gauge" wire you will need to do this right. you will also be wanting to connecting directly to one of the main battery tap points on the truck, there should be one in a red plastic box on the drvr side with a "GND" bar next to it, that power tap area should be a great spot for putting your power wire with a lug on the end.

I have a 1000 watt in the camper that I wired up with #1 welding cable. That was the right size for the distance.
For those with it under the back seat... where did you bring the cables into the cab? I was thinking the console, but might not due to the heat...
Thanks!

I have a 750W invertor on the hump under the back seat. I used high-power stereo cable from an audio place.

I tapped in inside the red box like you mentioned. I used a 75A 12VDC waterproof breaker from a marine store, located under the hood very near the connect point. You need about 1A per 10W of invertor (due to the inefficiencies of the invertor).

Don't skimp on the cable. With 800W, you need 80 reliable amps.

I also tested mine. After finishing, I put 750W of load (with light bulbs) on it for about an hour..just to make sure the supply wire didn't get warm (it didn't).

Breakers and fuses protect against shorts, not undersized wire!

Also, choose nice and flexible cable with a fine braid. Makes installation much easier.

Welding cable is fine, but check the gauge. Welding cable is used intermittantly and is not used in conduits where there is no airflow. The required wire gauge depends on whether or not it will get airflow for cooling.

A good marine store will have a table listing required wire gauges for different amperages.

Thanks for the intel. I am still looking for a good place to bring in the wires. I am thinking that the best thing to do is drill and seal a hole into the floor near the hump under the seat. Concur??

Cit1991, what size wire did you use for your 750w inverter?

As for welding cable, all cable that I have used and see in usage is very fine wire strand stuff. It needs to be very flexible for the welding application. The main limiting factor for cabling is the insulation that is used. It is the insulation that carries the heat rating and will determine how full you can make a conduit or overrate your circuit design. Welding cable usually has a rubber insulation like that of our battery cables. In a free air environment it is fine for its application.

My table lookup has #1 guage wire good for a 3% voltage drop in 15feet, where any increase in wire size gives diminishing returns yielding equivalent drops. The rule of thumb in circuit design is that you want less than 5% voltage drop. Voltage drop = heat dissapated. #1 wire is good for power transmission of 119 amps as well. I

Later.

Hey guys, I'm wondering if an Inverter is used to use 110 plug in power instead of running the batteries bown??
I'm setting up multiple amps and lot's of speakers, and would like to plug in a extension core for electrical power when we sit out at the camp fire playing Lynard Skynard Live in concert on DVD, don't want to loose those bateries.
Thanks for any info you can give.

There still going to run your batteries down might not as fast, get deep cycle bats. and it wouldn't matter if ran them down.

From experiance, make sure that when you hook into the red box that the nut stays tight. If not, you will get a short and that causes big problems. I lost $70 in bulbs one night. Just something to remember.