110v outlets in your prius

[problemchild]

One more upgrade thats needed for the ultimate camping prius is some 110v power. Often I need to charge camera batteries, run laptops, run compressors, DVD movies, make a pot of coffee etc. I miss not having 110v in my car. I used to have an expedition 4x4 diesel truck until fuel prices skyrocketed. Im adjusting to my new featureless surroundings. My truck was loaded with stuff making off road camping a luxury. Ive decided to upgrade my prius with a few items that I miss.

Tonight I bought a 1500 watt inverter I will connect to the car. Im removing the useless spare tire and dropping in a big yellowtop optima battery. Hooked to that will be the inverter. I soldered up a remote switch that will tie to the end of a lighted 110v extension cord. The light tells me if I accidentally hit the power on the inverter.

Heres a couple picture...

[tochatihu]

That donut spare tire is useless until you have a flat. I'd put the inverter and battery somewhere else.

I put 1000 watt modified sine wave inverter into 2001 Prius for similar reasons. By being cautions I was able to drive it to quite remote locations. Not quite all the way to Point Sublime though.

[patsparks]

Yep, that useless spare tyre, who needs it eh?
Stupid thing, you would never need the thing 150 kilometres from the nearest town because your valve stem broke.

[problemchild]

Triple A and a Sat phone takes care of the spare issue. I have a compressor and a tire plug kit that has got me by for 32 years. I doubt I will need more then that. I have plugged and filled dozens and dozens of tires. Its a whole lot easier then switching spares in the rain and dark. Lets not turn this into a spare tire thread.

[seasalsa]

Originally Posted by problemchild

One more upgrade thats needed for the ultimate camping prius is some 110v power. Often I need to charge camera batteries, run laptops, run compressors, DVD movies, make a pot of coffee etc. I miss not having 110v in my car. I used to have an expedition 4x4 diesel truck until fuel prices skyrocketed. Im adjusting to my new featureless surroundings. My truck was loaded with stuff making off road camping a luxury. Ive decided to upgrade my prius with a few items that I miss.

Tonight I bought a 1500 watt inverter I will connect to the car. Im removing the useless spare tire and dropping in a big yellowtop optima battery. Hooked to that will be the inverter. I soldered up a remote switch that will tie to the end of a lighted 110v extension cord. The light tells me if I accidentally hit the power on the inverter.

Heres a couple picture...

A friend did the same thing, only he mounted the battery and inverter in a padded fiberglass instrument case so it is self contained and portable between vehicles.

Works great for weekend camping trips, he hooks it to a charger when he gets home.

[holy_crap]

Originally Posted by problemchild

I used to have an expedition 4x4 diesel truck until fuel prices skyrocketed. .

The Expedition came in a Diesel? I thought only the Excursion came with the big D.

Learn something new every day i guess...

[problemchild]

Originally Posted by holy_crap

The Expedition came in a Diesel? I thought only the Excursion came with the big D.

Learn something new every day i guess...

Nope

I had a 2500HD diesel set up for expeditions. We would take off for 6 weeks and explore as many national parks as we could get to.

[problemchild]

UPDATE AND INSTALLATION PICS

I got the inverter installed tonight. I did not buy an extra battery I hooked it directly to the prius battery with a 60 amp fuse block in between. One good thing I discovered is the small battery is low output and drains quick. But with the power to the car turned on the prius HV battery comes online and charges/feeds power to the small battery. So you dont need to add an extra Optima battery to use the inverter.

Im not sure where I read it but someone here stated that the prius system only charges at 13.6V. This is not accurate information as I discovered while watching the meter the small battery was charging at 14.9v.

So to wrap it up the car has more then enough power to run a big inverter and anything you want to plug into it. I tested it with a coffee maker that pulls 1000 watts and it made a cup of coffee in 3 minutes. It does seem to pull the main HV battery down fairly quick though.

Here are some more pictures.

[KTPhil]

Originally Posted by problemchild

Triple A and a Sat phone takes care of the spare issue. I have a compressor and a tire plug kit that has got me by for 32 years. I doubt I will need more then that. I have plugged and filled dozens and dozens of tires. Its a whole lot easier then switching spares in the rain and dark. Lets not turn this into a spare tire thread.

Looks like you just did.

[hiremichaelreid]

So that's a Xantrex Xpower 1500 ?

I've read up on inverters in the last few days and came across some decent reviews for Xantrex, but got the impression it's "consumer level" and some better ones are available for more money, like $300-400 or so.

I'm expecting my new Prius next week and my first project is a 12 Volt "Priups". I've read that the 12 volt is only good for 1000 watts max however. So I'm thinking of the Xantrex Xpower 1000 ( Canadian Tire ) which is going for $150 Canadian.

At $150, I think it's probably good enough for my application, which is to act as a backup for whatever vital appliance or two we might need in an extended power failure. I'm not sure 1 KW will handle the furnace motor however...