Previa Power Inverter

[steveasmith]

Hi - I have a 91 Previa and want to hook up a 300W power inverter to run laptop while on a road trip. I was thinking of not plugging it into the lighter as I want to run my cell phone off the lighter socket.

What do you recommend? Should I take a fused lead off of the Battery?

Thanks

[Master_Simon]

You could do this unless the fuse box is closer, it might be better to have it wired to a switched feed, that way it can't be left on accidentally, the works van I used to have was wired that way.

But be warned unless you are very sure of your inverter and it's ability to suppress surges and spikes, I would definitely diss the lappie before starting the car, you lappie may not have the required smoothing to cope with that, as additional insurance why not grab one of those surge suppressing plug tops from a diy store?

I would also be wary of using an invertor if there was a Battery in the lappie which would be charged, an inverter does not produce a pure sine wave it is a pseudo sine wave, this can affect some recharging circuits and their batteries.

We were warned not to use our invertors for any of our rechargable kit, which in fact was most of it!! :(

Hope this helps, hope it is not too late to help!!