Plug RV into an invertor.

It certainly is possible (and not uncommon) to plug the camper's shore power connection into an inverter, or to do something equivalent electrically, and power the whole camper from the inverter. It's easy and inexpensive to install that way.

You do need to be careful what is run from the inverter, and remember to turn off potentially a fair few things before starting up the inverter. You know about the converter. You'd also want to make sure the air conditioner is off, and the water heater electric element (if you have one), and the fridge is set to gas only mode rather than auto mode, and any space heater or fireplace turned off, etc.

A more foolproof approach is to power only certain circuits from the inverter, using a transfer switch and a subpanel (one or both of which may be built into the inverter).

The microwave, toaster oven, and coffee maker all consume a lot of power, and so require a pretty hefty battery bank for more than a nominal amount of use. The latter two at least are probably better replaced with the gas stove and oven (and appropriate cookware) when boondocking.

ive got a 250 watt panel 37 volts.. I run a 20 amp mppt


I recently acquired a second panel matching but dont know what to do with it as my controller cant handle all that wattage or voltage...

I guess you can run it any way you want as long as you allow time for your solar system to recover the batteries and the clouds cooperate.

lawrosa wrote:

RoyB wrote:
I have a 1500WATT PSW Power Inverter on my off-road POPUP trailer... Loaded down it will draw around 130AMPS from my battery bank setup... This will run down a regular 12VDC battery in about 5-10 minutes use time (If that)...

You will have to redo your 12V system to handle such a load... You might just want to run a smaller Power Inverter just big enough to handle your Home Entertainment items and some indoor/outdoor lights... I have a second Power Inverter which is a 600WATT PSW Inverter that is my work horse Inverter setup (always on) and I like to run it around half loaded down. I can do this with my 255AH Battery bank using LED lights to run around 20AMPS DC load for other things we want to use between 6PM and 11PM and not let my battery drop below 12.0VDC which is close to the 50% charge state. Then I will run my 2KW generator the next morning for around three hours when allowed to bring my battery bank back up to its 90% charge state so I can do this all over again for the next day/night run off my battery bank...

This all takes good planning to work out the pitfalls...

Roy Ken

Wow 130 amps? Is that what It will draw from the 12 volt side? How can that be?

1500 watts @120 volts can supply 13 amps according to ohms law..

I got 2awg cable from work that I was going to run the 2 or 3 ft from the batts to invertor.

I have 220 ah of batterys. 3 12 volts.

You have to remember the other side of ohms law and the fact your using 12V to make 120. So it's roughly tens times the current in this case.

I have a 2000 PSW inverter that I plug my power cord into. I have 325 watts of solar on the roof plus the motor home alternator while going down the road. I do turn the water heater off electric but leave the frig on the electric.
I ran a 30amp cord with a plug on the end for the motor home to plug into.
This has worked for me.

Oh one more thing.. The convertor I believe shows it needs 750 watts in. I assume this is for the charging circuit. If I turn the charging circuit off as discussed the convertor does not need a required input?

mikestock wrote:
I used to get by with a 650 watt XANTREX PSW in my old 37' fiver with 4 Trojan T-105's. You are right, that you have to turn off the converter breaker and don't forget to change the fridge and water heater to gas. Just have to keep in mind where your limitations lie. Items like the microwave, toaster, crock pot, electric skillet and electric coffee pot are items I would sure try to avoid. Use only what you need and turn off any tv or lights when you really don't need them. It may surprise you how little you can get by with if everybody cooperates.

I can get buy using none of the stuff like micro, coffee maker, etc.

Ive boondocked like this many times in the old camper using 120 watt invertors at 3 locations..

But since i am going to do the plug in rv methohod I assumed just go bigger so I may be able to run things I couldnt in the past..

I was thinking outloud that I could run say the micowave if I needed to with the invertor. And wondering if this scenerio would help..

Batts somewhat charged
Solar putting say 15 amps into batts
Truck plugged into camper with enging running.

Would the above help?

Or should I say forget it and not think about running hi draw stuff and just save money and go with the 1100 watt model..


http://www.kriegermfg.com/product/kr1100/

RoyB wrote:
I have a 1500WATT PSW Power Inverter on my off-road POPUP trailer... Loaded down it will draw around 130AMPS from my battery bank setup... This will run down a regular 12VDC battery in about 5-10 minutes use time (If that)...

You will have to redo your 12V system to handle such a load... You might just want to run a smaller Power Inverter just big enough to handle your Home Entertainment items and some indoor/outdoor lights... I have a second Power Inverter which is a 600WATT PSW Inverter that is my work horse Inverter setup (always on) and I like to run it around half loaded down. I can do this with my 255AH Battery bank using LED lights to run around 20AMPS DC load for other things we want to use between 6PM and 11PM and not let my battery drop below 12.0VDC which is close to the 50% charge state. Then I will run my 2KW generator the next morning for around three hours when allowed to bring my battery bank back up to its 90% charge state so I can do this all over again for the next day/night run off my battery bank...

This all takes good planning to work out the pitfalls...

Roy Ken

Wow 130 amps? Is that what It will draw from the 12 volt side? How can that be?

1500 watts @120 volts can supply 13 amps according to ohms law..

I got 2awg cable from work that I was going to run the 2 or 3 ft from the batts to invertor.

I have 220 ah of batterys. 3 12 volts.

I used to get by with a 650 watt XANTREX PSW in my old 37' fiver with 4 Trojan T-105's. You are right, that you have to turn off the converter breaker and don't forget to change the fridge and water heater to gas. Just have to keep in mind where your limitations lie. Items like the microwave, toaster, crock pot, electric skillet and electric coffee pot are items I would sure try to avoid. Use only what you need and turn off any tv or lights when you really don't need them. It may surprise you how little you can get by with if everybody cooperates.

I have a 1500WATT PSW Power Inverter on my off-road POPUP trailer... Loaded down it will draw around 130AMPS from my battery bank setup... This will run down a regular 12VDC battery in about 5-10 minutes use time (If that)...

You will have to redo your 12V system to handle such a load... You might just want to run a smaller Power Inverter just big enough to handle your Home Entertainment items and some indoor/outdoor lights... I have a second Power Inverter which is a 600WATT PSW Inverter that is my work horse Inverter setup (always on) and I like to run it around half loaded down. I can do this with my 255AH Battery bank using LED lights to run around 20AMPS DC load for other things we want to use between 6PM and 11PM and not let my battery drop below 12.0VDC which is close to the 50% charge state. Then I will run my 2KW generator the next morning for around three hours when allowed to bring my battery bank back up to its 90% charge state so I can do this all over again for the next day/night run off my battery bank...

This all takes good planning to work out the pitfalls...

Roy Ken