[Mickey_D]

Step one. Find a handy dandy inverter for around $10. One of the ones that plugs into your cigarette lighter socket. Dismantle it so you can access the circuit board inside. Solder new wires onto the power and ground connections and attach them into a handy fog light wiring kit you have lying around (ok, I already had one of these ). Now solder wires onto the 110V connections and put crimp connectors on the ends to attach to a $0.44 wall socket from Walmart.

Now empty all your crap out of the center console.



Remove the two screws from the bottom and three from the hinge of the inner liner of the center console. Pull the inner liner out.

Mark off and cut the holes for the wall socket. A Dremel tool with the drywall hole cutter works wonders. Smooth it up with a sanding drum in the Dremel.



Now make the hole for the switch. Push the switch in, screw in the wall socket, use double sided tape to mount the circuit board to the inside of the console. Run the power wires for the switch and relay up the console so you can tap into the cig lighter socket power lead.

It's a tight fit to get the inner liner of the console back in. I had to pry the front edge a little with a jewelers screwdriver, but it popped back in. A couple of the wires on the switch had to be bent over a little as there's only a little more than 1/2" of space between the outer and inner bits of the console. So standard crimp connectors stick out a little too far, unless they're bent out of the way.



I haven't had a chance to fire it up yet as I got called inside to make coffee. I also was getting quite warm out there in the sun and taking apart a section of the dash to get to the back side of the lighter socket just wasn't thrilling me at the time.

And yes, I'm going to put a cover plate over the socket. Just haven't decided whether I want to find an indoor one that has some camping or four wheeling theme printed on it or whether I want to go all utilitarian and put one of those gray outdoor waterproof flip covers on it.

[BLACKzj52]

interesting.
and thatll work jsut fine?

[Mickey_D]

It'll power anything under 100W. Cell phone charger, laptop charger, etc. Anything you could charge off of a USB. Which is perfect for my son's Nintendo DS whenever we're on a road trip. Which was the primary purpose behind me putting it in and why it faces the back seat.

It was a royal PITA for him when he had to string the cord all the way up to the cig socket. The cord on his charger was too short so he ended up hunched forward trying to play without pulling it out of the inverter or getting the cord in the way of the shifter, etc. So now he'll be able to sit back in comfort and play without his battery going dead on his game.

For anything more major than what this can handle I've got a Coleman 850W/1300W inverter I'm going to be mounting on the inside of the rear hatch. Just need to save up for the 4 gauge power wire for that one.

[5-90]

Even the 100W units can get warm - may want to vent that, and possibly a small (1" to 1-1/2") 12VDC muffin fan might not go amiss.

As far the 4AWG - you can hit me backchannel, and I can fix you up with a preterminated lead if you like.

[Rmart30]

Originally Posted by 5-90

Even the 100W units can get warm - may want to vent that, and possibly a small (1" to 1-1/2") 12VDC muffin fan might not go amiss.
.

X2...... even the last cig lighter plugged model I bought came with a fan and it didnt last too long with heavy use.

[vansskaterfreek]

im planning to do something like this on my jeep, i had it in my old car, and it worked great, i had an x-box 360 in the back seat with a 17 inch t.v laying on the rear seat... fun road trips..

[Mickey_D]

Well, I don't think my little 75W/100W one that's in there would power an xBox and TV. Maybe one of those all-in-one PS1's...

[vansskaterfreek]

i would also put a cover over it, and i also would have gotten a black plug...

[bradbb2005]

I just mounted a 1000W inverter on my back seat(small one) on my wj, finding 6 gauge wire isnt fun but i did and pd only 11.00 for like 50 ft! but she is capable to about 750 Watts maybe 800 just due to the limitations on 6 gauge wire cuz @ 750 watts im pushing 63 amps and then max current on 6 guage is like 70-75 A plus connector limit so im thinking im limited to probably 800 watts or just under 70 amps.

[gregs887]

Very nice. There was a guy named Matt that did that a few years ago. Been wanting to do the same ever since I saw it. How long did that take you?

[aaron7]

Cool. I built mine into the dash. No more buying car chargers for everything!

[Mickey_D]

Originally Posted by gregs887

Very nice. There was a guy named Matt that did that a few years ago. Been wanting to do the same ever since I saw it. How long did that take you?

The longest part was sorting and soldering all the wires up and connecting them to everything.

The actual install into the console it took me longer to get all the tools sorted than it did actually using them. I held a cover plate up as a stencil to mark where to cut, used the Dremel to make the rough cut, held up the socket to see where it needed more trimming then used the Dremel with a sanding drum to make the holes big enough.

I think for me the hardest part was that even on the slowest setting the Dremel was more melting the plastic out of the way than it was actually cutting or sanding it. So I had to keep stopping and letting everything cool enough to continue.

[Greengc4x4]

Originally Posted by aaron7

Cool. I built mine into the dash. No more buying car chargers for everything!

Link to said inverter

[Mickey_D]

You can get them in the automotive section at Walmart right by the battery chargers. A basic $10-$15 cigarette lighter socket inverter is all I used.

[aaron7]

Same here. I used this one: http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-100-Watt-Inverter-VEC1044BD/dp/B000EJTHY2