This is exactly why I joined this forum! What an excellent post and for exactly what I am wanting to do. I have 2 apartment-size freezers mounted just behind the seats, with a 5000 Watt Inverter bolted to the top secure-plate that holds everything together so it all doesn't kill me in a crash. I have to get at least a #6 charge wire from the engine compartment to the auxiliary battery that will provide the 12v's to the inverter. I had my fabricator make a steel battery box that will hold a group 31 battery, and he welded it all to the frame that secures the freezers. He did just an awesome job. If anyone is interested in pictures, I can take some and post them, if anything, just to show another option of what can be done with these vans.
I went by the Ford store where I bought my van to ask about the safest place to go through the firewall, and no one wanted to help me at all. I did a duckduckgo search this morning, and viola, here I am reading what I needed to know.
Because the freezers have thermostats, they won't be running at the same times, nor all of the time, so the 5000 Watt inverter is overkill. I have a 3000 Watt running a 5000btu A/C unit in my 1976 F250 just fine. I bought the 5000 only because it is an Aims, and was a few dollars more than the 3000. I'm somewhat of a independent-power junkie.
This is exactly why I joined this forum! What an excellent post and for exactly what I am wanting to do. I have 2 apartment-size freezers mounted just behind the seats, with a 5000 Watt Inverter bolted to the top secure-plate that holds everything together so it all doesn't kill me in a crash. I have to get at least a #6 charge wire from the engine compartment to the auxiliary battery that will provide the 12v's to the inverter. I had my fabricator make a steel battery box that will hold a group 31 battery, and he welded it all to the frame that secures the freezers. He did just an awesome job. If anyone is interested in pictures, I can take some and post them, if anything, just to show another option of what can be done with these vans. I went by the Ford store where I bought my van to ask about the safest place to go through the firewall, and no one wanted to help me at all. I did a duckduckgo search this morning, and viola, here I am reading what I needed to know. Because the freezers have thermostats, they won't be running at the same times, nor all of the time, so the 5000 Watt inverter is overkill. I have a 3000 Watt running a 5000btu A/C unit in my 1976 F250 just fine. I bought the 5000 only because it is an Aims, and was a few dollars more than the 3000. I'm somewhat of a independent-power junkie.