installing inverter 2012 freightliner cascadia

went over to the auto parts store and they did not have a fuse block but they had a 150 amp in line circuit breaker for audio and electrical and the guy recommended it for the job plus I wouldnt need to buy a fuse if it ever does pop, he sent me over to home depot to find the wire I needed since he was out, I forgot to buy some new rings for splicing the wire for the breaker though so now will need another stop. This "cheap" project has turned into an expensive one, original plans $150 ish and now hitting the $300 mark so far.

 

Yep, wire etc. Cost as much as the inverter.

 

Yep; copper is expensive.

As for the ground (NOT the negative terminal!): That shouldn't carry much (if any) current. I've seen suitable (and cheap!) cables made for lawn tractors at Walmart back with the car batteries/chargers/etc. Maybe just run it to one of the seat bolts.

The #2 AWG wire that you have is right at the minimum size recommended for a 1500W inverter. It can handle a maximum of 200A, so never fuse it for more current than that. You may wish to "splurge" and run #00 (aka "2/0"), so you'll be ready to drop in a 2000W true sine wave inverter down the road.

 

right now im having trouble finding a suitable spot to run them into the cab, spent quite a lot of time looking for an opening, having only 6 feet of length im very limited unless I drilled a hole which I do not want to do, want to install it and be able to remove it later like nothing was ever there.
Right now got everything sitting on the top bunk until I figure it out, rather do it correct the first time.

 

Buy a plastic utility power box from Home Depot (remove the nails). It should be surface mount with a flat plate wall covering. Yould drill your holes into either the lid or sides to hearts content and use some double sticky tape to attach it where you want to have your switch. You could even get a switch that has illumination for when the power is on?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Carlon-1...C-_-NavPLPHorizontal1_rr-_-NA-_-202546989-_-N

Or you could get a cleaner looking box from Radio Shack for $3.50 with lid.
http://www.radioshack.com/project-enclosure-3x2x1-/2701801.html#q=box&start=1

Too bad you already purchased the inverter and wire. A alternative would have been to get a computer uninteruptable power supply ( UPC ). Open the box and remove the internal batteries, then run the power leads to the truck batteries. Granted the power plug is something you dont need in the use you would be using it. Yet on 2kw it would have a power meter for the batteries as well as a low battery voltage cut off. Probably more money than you want to spend tho.

 

yeah this project already ran me close to $300 so far so I dont want to invest too much more at least for now, I will get it figured out what I want to do in the coming days, been running so hard I dont have much time to do much lately.

 

Guessing it's a company truck? Still with Swift?
Anyway, my company installs them for us, and they just drill a hole right above the battery box.

 

I hope there is a grommet on that hole where the wire goes through! Otherwise you can easily get a cab fire when those wires short out.

 

doesnt matter if its a company truck or not, a drilled hole can be hidden under a pulled floor mat...
I do not like the idea of drilling a new hole period, as for the grommet thats a given and I think I even mentioned using one in one of my prior post.

 

I know this an older thread but maybe someone can help. My company will let you have an inverter but because of a few mishaps with people not knowing what they were doing and a couple of cab fires you can only get the ones that plug into the 12v plug. Which begs the question what is the biggest size you could get that plugs in. Don't want to be sneaky and drill holes cause if something were to happen then it's my butt. I saw a couple online that you can wire the plug into the terminals (comes with both a plug and straight wires) but a device claiming to pull 1500 watts through a 12v cigarette lighter plug seems to be fishy to me.