I've had my new Rubicon Unlimited for about a month now. In that time I've been slowly adding modifications to it in support of my use for the vehicle. I'm a member of the Jeep Expeditions Group out of Phoenix Arizona. Our group was formed about 2.5 years ago with the common interest of exploring the back roads of the greater SW with stock Jeeps. We go on 2 to 10-day "expeditions" where we camp out and site see. With that said, I am building my JK as an expedition vehicle with the focus on adding modification to aid in camping and exploring the back roads in ease.

One of the modifications I just added was a DC to AC power inverter to run 120VAC devices. It came about in just a few days after I found out that my wife would like to have a hair dryer along as we camp out. (In my attempt to get my wife more involved in my Jeep'n experience, this is her first trip with me - my Scrambler is too crude for her to even consider going in so we bought the JK - When Momma is happy, everyone is happy.)

I sized the inverter based on her hair dryer being rated at 1850 Watts. I purchased a Harbor Freight 2000/4000W Chicago Electric inverter. It is a no frills unit with two AC outlets, a On/Off switch, alarms for under output voltage and over temperature, and LED bar graphs for voltage and current. No provisions for remote control but the price was better than any other one I could find, $169! I purchased an installation kit for a power amplifier at Fry's Electronics which had 1 AWG wire for $50.

As you search the internet you quickly find that power cables are very expensive as they come in a pair; one positive lead, one negative lead. The power amp kit had 17 feet of wire for the positive lead and a short 3 foot piece for the negative lead. Not what I wanted but since I had measured the distance of where I wanted to mount the inverter to the battery, I needed just 7 feet. The plan was to cut the 17 foot piece into two 7.5 foot pieces. I believe that power amp manufacture could care less about creating ground loops by having multiple return paths for the negative power to return to the battery. I wanted to maintain the inverters connectivity back to the battery with two leads, one for positive and one for negative.

The other short coming of the power amplifier kit was the ring terminals provided in the kit. They fit the 1 AWG fine but did not connect to the inverters input terminals as the connection post have a bigger post. I ended up buying 2 ring terminals at Ace Hardware with enough material on the tongue to allow me to drill a bigger hole into the terminal. The other end of the cables fit the battery terminal connection posts OK, no modification needed. I purchased some heat shrink of the proper diameter to shrink into place after I soldered the terminals onto the cables. The heat shrink is more cosmetic to hide the burned insulation caused by the heat of soldering.

HINT: you need a lot of heat to allow the cable to draw the solder into the wire and bond to the terminal. Apply the heat with a blow torch but only to the tongue area of the ring terminal. Getting the flame too close to the cables insulation with burn up the insulation and make a mess. I put the cable into my bench vice with the end of the insulation at the end of the vices jaws. This way the vice soaks up the heat and helps reduce damage to the insulation. I also used flux on the wire to aid in drawing the solder into the terminals wire pocket. Apply the heat shrink after the solder joint has cooled and you can clean off the flux. Mark the cables positive and negative for easy identification later.

I determined that the best place for the installation of this inverter was under the front passenger seat due to the physical size of the inverter. I had to pull the seat out to allow for determining where to drill the mounting holes. Remember to unplug the seat sensor connection under the seat and to remove the seat belt attachment to the side of the seat.

I pulled back the carpet to expose the floor. I found that there was a rubber plug in the floor under the seat to allow the cables to access through. I placed the seat back into position as well as the inverter and then marked locations on the floor where the inverter would set. I then pulled the seat back out and marked the location for the mounting holes.

Be careful when drilling your mounting holes as the plastic gas tank in below where you are working. You have about 2 1/2 inches between the bottom of the floor and the tank. One of my mounting points was right over the area where my cables would run. I placed a round head bolt on the underside right where the cables would run so as not to nick the cables if they would rub. The rest of my mounting locations I used self-taping screws. Because the floor is uneven in this area, I used rubber feet as stand offs at 3 of the 4 mounting points. Only one spot laid fat against the floor.

I ran the cable through the hole one at a time and along the inside of the frame rail up and into the battery area of the vehicle. You can see where to push the cables through and up into the battery compartment. Be careful not to short out against the battery terminals. Take the battery out to be safe. I had installed the dual battery tray from Benchmark the weekend before and was connecting the inverter to the auxiliary battery. I then place a rubber grommet around the access hole to prevent rubbing through the cables with time.

Once the battery cables are run attach the cables to the inverter while observing the correct polarity at the inverter. I then worked the cables until I got them to lay flat. This took some time and I final had to cut out the back section of carpet just under the seat at the rear so as to allow everything to lay flat. I also figured since the input air fans are on the bottom of the inverter I didn't want the carpet blocking the input flow of cooling air. Maybe with higher stand-offs away from the floor you can retain the carpet. Or use a mounting plate on top of the carpet to help maintain the distance between the inverter and the bottom of the mounting surface to allow proper air flow.

I then filled the access hole with high-temp RTV to prevent moisture coming into the cabin. I then mounted the inverter. At this point I found a nearby grounding point near the center transmission hump and ran a ground wire from that point to the case ground on the inverter.

At the engine compartment, I installed the 250 Amp fuse holder from the power amp's kit and fuse to the top of the battery holder along side Benchmark's battery isolator. I then ran the wires to the fuse holder connecting the positive side first then finally connecting the negative side last. Before making the connect, make sure the inverter is OFF! Even with the inverter off, I did experience a spark as I applied the final cable to the auxiliary battery's negative terminal.

Go back and tie-wrap the two inverter cables along the frame into place to prevent movement. Go back and make sure all connections are tight.

I then the got my wife's hair dryer and plugged it in. Turned on the ON/OFF switch and tested out the hair dryer. I also had purchase a power monitor at Harbor Freight that tells you the Watts, Volts, Amps, power factor, and other functions of your load. I put that in between the inverter and the hair dryer to monitor voltage, frequency, and current draw. I ran the hair dryer for about 2 minutes on low pulling about 4.5 A. I check for hot wires at the inverter and in the battery compartment. All was good so I switched to the high setting on the hair dryer. It now pulled 14 amps. I let it run for about 7 minutes again checking for hot cables. Everything was working OK so I unhooked the hair dryer and reinstalled the front seat. Remember to reconnect the seat sensor connection.

This modification took me about 6 hours to install. I could have probably done it a lot faster if my neighbor hadn't come over asking what I was doing and that I had to go to the store for ring terminals. The biggest time consumer was determining the mounting locations for the inverter and seeing if I could keep the carpet under the inverter.

I hope this was of some help to you and a source of encouragement to try this project for yourself instead of going to the local stereo shop for a hack install job. Good luck.

 

Nice job. Thanks for sharing.

 

I had been wondering where I would mount and inverter. I don't think I will need anything as big as that but your writeup is great because it uses the same benchmark design tray I have on order. Thanks again,

 

I've been wanting to do something like this but im always worried about getting water in/on the inverter. Plus on a 2 door its hard to put much under the front seats due to passengers kicking them. Maybe you would have some other ideas.

 

I have the exact inverter and I need to mount mine as well. Already have an amp under my passenger seat...this will have to be under the driver's seat Thanks for the great pictures!

 

well one hole drilled in mu finger later, my inverter is in. works fine no hot wires no blown fuses and the jeep still runs.. Thanks to everyone for your help.

 

Nice write up! What size fuse did you use?