GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Has anybody changed out the factory inverter with a more powerful as the inverter is a little on the week side for wattage.But even with it being week, it really kills takes a lot of performance out of my vibe when I turn it on.Posted this earlier but it looked like it got lost with site problems.

I highly doubt that it takes away performance by being on. The alternator is always on and doesn't draw any more engine power by producing max voltage output.

I have a noticeable performace power decrease with it on. Almost as much as having the AC on.I have a 2003 GT. Maybe my battery is week which is drawing to much from the alternator, or I have a week alternator. I still have the factory battery in there.

I won't say the inverter doesn't cost you a lot of power, but I will say that it shouldn't I think it runs off a 15Amp fuse. By comparison the heater blower motor runs off a 40 Amp fuse. Assuming a bunch, the blower motor on high should bog your engine down more than the inverter, but I haven't noticed any performance hit from either in my car.The electrical load on the alternator will affect how hard it is to turn the alternator. So, although it is turning all the time, it takes more power to turn it when lots of electrical stuff is on than it does when very little is on.There has been some talk of replacing the weak 100W inverter with a stronger one, but you would need to run new wires and fuse for it, the stuff that's in there for the 100W inverter couldn't handle the current for a 400W or stronger one.What are you powering with it when the engine bogs down?

About the only think I ever power with it is a cell phone charger, as I haven't spent the 8 bucks for a dc charger yet.Other than that a portable dvd player, but I've only powered that with the car on acc.

I also get buzzing sound when using the inverter, fairly quite, but it sounds like it comes from the outlet, not from under the seat.

You hear a buzzing sound, not coming through the speakers?It sounds like you have a problem. I've used the stock inverter plenty of times with no issues. I even added a second inverter for my CarPC with no issues.The buzzing sounds like it's shorting, which might put more drag on the rest of the system. I would definitely get it checked out.

Quote, originally posted by joatmon »There has been some talk of replacing the weak 100W inverter with a stronger one, but you would need to run new wires and fuse for it, the stuff that's in there for the 100W inverter couldn't handle the current for a 400W or stronger one.I am aready to do this. what guage wire do i need to use? are you sure the existing wriing can't handle it?looking at the schematic, theres four wires, B+, GND and the two wires to the outlet.can't you just use the existing B+/GND and then run power to the outlet, essentially like an extension cord? or do you think it wil melt ?

For any aftermarket inverter, i'd suggest at least 10 guage wire to the battery. I wouldn't run it off the stock wiring.For going into the dash, you probably could use the stock wiring.. I doubt AC would burn up the wiring as easily as DC would.

power in * efficiency = power out, not knowing what the efficincy is I'll assume 5/6 to make the math come out ok, 100W out -> 120 watts in, at 12V that's 10 amps. that's one amp per 10W output, assuming a similar efficiency for a different inverter, pretty rough approximations here.So, a 400W inverter would be pulling about 40A on the 12V side. The existing inverter is run off a 15A fuse, so you got to assume that the wires would be rated at at least 20 amp, you want the fuse to blow long before the wires. http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm says 12gauge can carry 41 amps, I'd go with 10gauge rated for 55A or even bigger diameter wire. Currently the switch in the dash closes a relay to provide power to the inverter, that relay is the same part number as the one you messed with for the power windows mod. i don't know what it is rated, but I wouldn't trust it to survive 40A. The heater blower relay is rated at 40A, toyota used a much bigger relay for that circuit. I have no idea where I'd try to tie in an additional 40A circuitI don't know for sure, but if I was going to do it I wouldn;t go through that much trouble for less than 400W. You might be able to get a 150W one to run on the existing circuitry, but I wouldn't try it in my car.Not worth it to me to do a ragingfish mod with the custom melted wire harness and the extra 50W wouldn't be worth the trouble/risk.A 400W inverter only puts out 400W if the load draws it, if you hook up a 60W light to a 400W inverter, it puts out 60W, and probably draws on the order of 6A DC.For the output of the bigger inverter, I probably wouldn't bother trying to run it to the dash outlet, or if I did I might run that in parallel and use the thre prong outlets on that are probably already on the bigger inverter to power a bigger load.

so how come these 400 and 700W inverters come with a vig light adapter? how come the cig lighter can survive the draw?