I have a new project that I'm about to venture into.  I'm going to build an HHO station, basically a box to supplement my fuel requirements on my pickup truck.  My idea is to place the cell, reservoir, bubbler and flash suppressors in the bed of my truck.  The cell is a 59 plate unit and I would prefer to run it from high voltage like I have done in the past in my garage.  The problem I'm running into is wiring.  I don't want to run 000 wire from my batteries all the way back to the bed of the truck.  So I'm thinking if a can find a decent 2000 watt modified sine wave inverter and connect that to the battery right under the hood, the majority of my issues will be solved.  What I don't know is if there are any relatively inexpensive inverters out there that are hardened enough to handle the environmental conditions that would be found under the hood of vehicle--temperature and road spray being the two most critical.  Here's a fairly popular inverter for starters:


http://site.invertersrus.com/pdf/pro1200to3000wm.pdf

Do you think this unit could be sealed with some sort of air filter on the cooling intake?  Or are there other comparable inverters out there that are already ruggedized enough for this sort of duty?

I see items like these out there:


But they are just too far out of my price range to consider.


For my application, a simple high amperage DC to DC converter would be ideal, but those all seem to be even more expensive.

Anyway, if someone has done this or knows of a good device, please post a reply.  Much appreciate it.

Hi Matt,

I saw a repair youtube video about a whistler unit like you show that he was not impressed with.  Having said that, I think buying a cheap inverter to install in a harsh environment is likely a better plan than the expensive solar and wind capable home inverters.  Just plan on having to do high maintenance on it (air filters, fans, replacement mosfets, etc).

There is one other direction you could look into.  If you have room, install another alternator.  They ARE designed to handle the rough environment.  Modify this alternator to give you ~120 volts AC.   Even if you don't have room for another alternator, you could tap the windings on your existing alternator for wild AC.

You can find 3/0 here for $3.09 a foot  if you want to build it vehicle swappable all in one package:
Lowes 3/0 cable

Thanks Ken for the ideas.

From taking a close look at the engine compartment, it's becoming more and more obvious the best solution is big wire.  There simply isn't room to add anything under the hood.  I just hope the run isn't so long the voltage drop kills me.  The specs on the inverter state voltage must be held above 11.6 volts or the unit will not operate.  So I'm guessing I may have to have the engine running to hold it up there.  I'm quite certain when the glow plugs and manifold heaters are turned on, I can forget about being anywhere close to 12 volts.  Okay, no HHO on startup--not the end of the world there.

Now to get an inverter, some wire and build a box for the bed of the truck I can mount everything on.

Work, work, work...

Quote from Matt Watts on March 25th, 2014, 04:34 PM

Now to get an inverter, some wire and build a box for the bed of the truck I can mount everything on.

Work, work, work...

I'd rather build a power inverter from scratch and plan on doing so whenever I can. This one uses a toroid wound transformer and it can pull more than 100 amps from the truck according to this setup. Pulling that much current with this toroid and given the simplicity of the circuit must be really efficient:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc-Mnmkax6g#ws

That's a great idea Hax.  I have a 1000 watt toroid sitting here on my bench I could try.

This is a similar circuit he shows in the video:


But I see this one also on the website:


I attached the pic of the one in the video.  All very similar.

Here's the guys photo album too:
http://www.phillipstechinc.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=15356695

Quote from haxar on March 25th, 2014, 07:47 PM

Pulling that much current with this toroid and given the simplicity of the circuit must be really efficient

Something that just hit me.  If I'm driving a dry cell, do I really care what the frequency is?  I could use a much smaller toroid and just boost the frequency up 10 or 100 times and it should run like a top and be much smaller.  Plus, if I center-tapped the output side, I would only need two big stud rectifiers before the cell.  This is getting easier all the time.

Keep It Simple Stupid? Purchasing an inverter? You can simply build one as simple as this.

What brand toroid and model do you have anyway? I'm contemplating buying the Micrometals T650-52. It's the largest one listed here:

http://www.micrometals.com/parts_index.html

They're nearby too.

Looks like the same exact part number was used for Bob Boyce:

Page 24: http://www.free-energy-info.tuks.nl/D9.pdf
http://fenykapu.free-energy.hu/pajert61/WindingToroid.pdf

I reckon the smaller the toroid, the harder it is to wind it. Patience may have to play a role in getting what we want.

I have this one:
http://www.antekinc.com/an-10425-1000va-25v-transformer/

It's monster that I thought I might need for my QMoGen gizmo.

Quote from haxar on March 25th, 2014, 09:12 PM

Patience may have to play a role in getting what we want.

Yes it will.  What I'd like to have is a B.K. Precision 4030 Pulse Generator to dial things in with and then just mimic the output with a small circuit.