Inverter Mystery..

I bought a 3,000 watt inverter from a truck stop.. one of those yellow plastic ones. It was temporary until I got my real inverter I bought online.

Anyway, the yellow inverter worked fine until I overloaded it and then it wouldn't work so I returned it.

I installed the one I bought online, but it would not turn on. I checked all the connections and determined that the RED line was functioning correctly and the GROUND wire was indeed connected to the trucks frame, so the problem must be with the BLACK line.

The Black line goes under the truck but is not connected to anything, just hanging in the air. So I'm confused as to how the hell the yellow inverter worked in the first place???

 

The Black wire goes under the truck but is not, and never has been connected to anything. It just hangs there in the air.

There is already a proper fuse on the RED line.

I overloaded the yellow 3000watt inverter with a 900watt hot plate. (but this isn't important)

 

If that were the case, then why wouldn't my new inverter turn on when I attached all the lines? (POSITIVE, NEGATIVE, and GROUND)

The new inverter is indeed functional, by the way I connected it directly to the POSITIVE and NEGATIVE terminals of my truck battery, and it turned on.

 

I was unsure of that myself. But I assumed it was due to the fact that the inverter is NOT a PURE SINE inverter unlike my new inverter and maybe maybe the hot plate went over the peak wattage. I figured that combination overloaded the 3,000watt inverter, which was working fine up until that point. I unplugged everything else from the inverter before using it with the hot plate.

 

Are you saying that the 3,000 watt inverter worked because all it needed was the POSITIVE connection and GROUND wire connection?