Lance camper inverter wiring

coorskurt wrote:
I have a 2001 Lance 1010 camper. It DOES NOT have a generator but it is wired for one. I have 2-12 volt batteries. My question is, can I install an inverter and wire it to the generator wiring.In other words use an inverter rather than a generator. I have traced the generator wires to an automatic switch between shore power and generator power before it goes into the main panel. I only plan to use inverter power for occasional microwave use and charging cell phones etc.. and would leave it off until needed. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thank You

That should work out pretty slick based on the way I understand things! I would suggest installing the inverter as close to the batteries as possible to minimize the 12V wiring length. Also use as fat of power wires for the 12V supply as possible within reason. This will allow your inverter to perform as close to advertised as possible. The length of 120V AC output wire isn't as critical, you can just run an extension cord from the inverter AC outlet to the wires that would hook up to the generator output if needed. As the other poster mentioned, microwave use off an inverter drawing 12V power is kind of hard unless you've got a huge battery bank. I wouldn't count on it happening unless you've got a very lower power microwave. The comment about the converter trying to charge your batteries using power drawn from the batteries is legitimate; however, it is easily remedied by cutting the AC power supply from the converter. Either unplug the converter or flip the AC breaker off that supplies the converter. It is best to isolate the converter in the AC panel to accomplish this if it isn't already, then you are only shutting off one item and not switching off other AC items/outlets that you may want energized. I also suggest flipping off breakers to high draw AC items like air con and water heater to avoid accidentally trying to run them off the batteries.
I plug my shore power cable directly into my inverter and it supplies AC power to everything. I shut off the breakers to converter, air con, and water heater.