Yes, dual inverters.tow vehicle will now have it's own 'house system': agm battery, Samlex1500 charger/inverter/switch powering two 1.0amp refrigerators.Trailer has its own 2 lead acid deep cycles, seperate Protech III charger, seperate 1500w inverter, powering one 1.0 amp refrigerator. (note: I have been running all 3 refrig off this one configuration for 4 years)I received the blessing of Samlex to: run the trailer inverter through the car inverter. They bench tested in British Columbia offices before I bought one.Since then I bought a True Smart Isolator and 1/0 cable to be able to charge the car house battery. and now I want to buy another Samlex1500 charger/inverter/switch for the trailer, just for the KISS principle.So here is the run down, Car charges single agm or shore power can will power it via pass through.Trailer can be connected to shore to charge, inverter automatically -OR NOW- plug into car utilizing the passthrough feature of the Samlex because it see's 120 volt coming in and I coul or not switch the charger off while using it.wanting second opinions, before sinking mo' money into it... :D

1500 watts would seem to me to be over kill.

Not sure why but you can stack as many as you like in sequence through a transfer switch.

So your going to use one inverter to make 120v AC from some batteries and feed that AC into an inverter/charger that will charge other batteries?It shoudld work but will involve a lot of loss in the conversion. As long as you've got shore power or a running vehicle I guess the loss won't really matter. Are these pure sine wave inverters? I don't know if I'd want to feed an inveter charger from a modified sine wave unit. Maybe that's what they were testing?

I run two power inverters on my setup. Both are PSW AIMS Inverters (AMAZON). One is a 600W and the other one is a 1500W...I really don't have enough DC current to support both these Inverters if they were running at full power...The 600WATT PSW Inverter is wired to two multi-head drop cords with one located near the Home entertainment area and the second one near the main bed area. This one is ON all the time and the the power strip both have a separate power switch. This is my work horse unit for all of my small 120VAC needs when off grid...The 1500WATT unit is only wired to a 120VAC Male outside connector just inches away from the shore power connector. When I need to power up my trailer 120VAC needs I conect a jumper connector from the Male 120VAC outside Inverter connection to the shore power jumper. Of course being a 1500WATT unit I can't use it for much which I turn off using the circuit breakers. Usually I only have the 120VAC wall sockets turned on around the trailer to plug in portable things. Most everthing else is turned off at the breaker switches...Even when I am using the 600WATT Power Inverter I usually only load it down to about a 25AMP draw of power which relates to around 300WATTs of 120VAC PSW power. This is used for the home entertainment items, cellphone and computer charging etc... WX radio and inside and outside LED lights etc...The two Power Inverters were not all that expensive when I got them back in 2009.My floorplan looks something like this showing where my two Power Inverters are located... The battery bank is this drawing is Trojan 12V T1275s that I was planning to purchase but never did... I am running two banks of two 12VDC 85AH Interstates batteries... Roy's imageRoy Ken

pianotuna I love over kill. keeps everything cooler. Sometimes at 100 degrees I might plug a couple of box fans in. But talk about a drain... I'm lucky to get 4 hours out of the 2 battery setup. time2roll I need to be able to run each independently. This is actually a food cart trailer and a supply van setup. But you guys have more experience in non-traditional installs.KD4UPL , Yes, but not necessary charge, just keep power utilizing the passthrough of the trailer. He said as long as it was getting AC the charger would not activate. Although I could turn off the charger switch to be on the safe side. AIMS said theirs needed Pure waveSamlex said wave was not an issue.That's why I chose Samlex.Here is the scenario. #1 Most of my events are 2-3 hours away which I can travel on battery. Get to event, I can plug both units into shore. over night the trailer stays in location plugged into shore. However, the car leaves and goes to hotel on battery(now I don't have to fight with the hotel for power). Back at event the next day plug and recharge car. Knock down at end of day and travel home... no problems.#2 one day event, no electricity at event. not enough battery left to make it home(keep food cold). I can plug the 120v Samlex-trailer as a passthrough into the Samlex-car being replenished by the alt chargingSo whatcha think?

Dual inverters | Good Sam Community

21 Replies

roadkillgrill
Explorer
Jan 30, 2017
Adding more batteries is not an option, unit is only 3x6 and all I could wedge in there was two. I would like solar, but it would be more of a toy. 60-70% of my setups are in city parks, even downtowns between buildings. My travel to is 5-6 am and return is 1-2am. I might get a 2000 and carry it on my front reciever, I have a 3000is but its to heavy for me.
time2roll
Nomad
Jan 29, 2017
If you are running low on power the best solution IMO is to double up your batteries and consider 200 to 500 watts of solar.

Solar is just mounting a few panels, pulling wire down to the controller, and connecting the controller to the battery. If you operate in the shade or or with a cloudy sky solar will not help much.

If you are idling your vehicles I recommend instead using a Honda EU1000 or EU2000 to keep the battery up.
roadkillgrill
Explorer
Jan 29, 2017
roadkillgrill
Explorer
Jan 29, 2017
ha ha .... always...
2oldman
Explorer II
Jan 29, 2017
roadkillgrill wrote:
I love over kill.
roadkillgrill needs overkill. haha
theoldwizard1
Explorer II
Jan 29, 2017
Curious

What model refrigerators ?

What model inverters ?
theoldwizard1
Explorer II
Jan 29, 2017
I understand your goal, but purely from an efficiency standpoint, you are wasting power. Although this IS a very good way to charge the TT batteries while driving.

Modern charging systems do not put out a lot of voltage most of the time (13.2-13.5) so your AGM may never get "fully charged". Make sure you run large gauge wire to the AGM and I would want a volt meter connected to the AGM to monitor it.
roadkillgrill
Explorer
Jan 29, 2017
I try diligently to turn the temps down to 34-36 while on shore, then turn it up slightly so I sit on 40 degrees(41 degree is Health Dept regulated) while traveling to save battery power. Maybe I wont have to do this anymore.

On occasion, both.

I have contemplated Solar. Maybe down the road. Don't know a whole lot about them. I may too old to learn a new trick.
time2roll
Nomad
Jan 29, 2017
Is the second vehicle going to feed the truck, trailer or both?

Have you considered solar panels?
RoyB
Explorer II
Jan 29, 2017
I would be fine doing something like that with my hookup if my 60A DC Current output was not loaded down too much charging the batteries... The worse case situation would be it would take longer to charge the batteries if the frig was pulling down on the load too much... Once the batteries get past my initial high DC Current period and start tapering back as the batteries are taking on charge I would have alot of extra DC Current I could use somewhere else at the same time...

I do know my battery bank really draws alot of DC current when they are first hit with 14.4DC charging voltage then as the batteries start taking on charge it starts tapering back after being charged for 15-20 minutes.

Roy Ken