Power Inverters for dry camping- MH
How many of you have purchased inverters(I guess I'm talking about the kind that plug into your cig. lighter; maybe 300 to 800 watts)to run your TV or some lamps, etc. when you are dry camping and it'...
Forum Discussion
To clarify:
Your coach batteries are different than your chassis battery that powers the dashboard. The chassis battery is not designed to be discharged. Not even for a few hours of TV watching every night. Nix the idea of using the dashboard cigarette lighter for power.
You can make up your own cigarette lighter extension cord. But I would strongly advise against trying to use an inverter with more than 150 watts power that plugs into a lighter socket. Even then 150 watts will draw down batteries faster than you would hope. Six hours at 150 watts will take ALL of the safe available power from a pair of batteries. This does not include using your regular lights, or any other load, and modern RV's have lots of hidden bloodsuckers you don't know about.
You need a plan. Sucking down batteries needs a good method to recharge them. How are you going to recharge the batteries? Factory RV's are designed to unplug from an RV park life-support, hold their breath, and then run to the next RV life support plug in. Camping is not in the plans of an RV manufacturer.
You have an onboard generator, right? What model is it? You need to find out the make and model of your unit's CONverter. Not inverter. Converter. The thing that may or may not charge batteries well with shore power or on gen power.
Post the information here, and a lot of friendly folks will help. When someone writes they do not understand or confused that rings an alarm bell. If you are willing to learn, a lot of folks here are willing to teach. You will spend less money, endure fewer hassles and have more fun if you "do it right".
Your coach batteries are different than your chassis battery that powers the dashboard. The chassis battery is not designed to be discharged. Not even for a few hours of TV watching every night. Nix the idea of using the dashboard cigarette lighter for power.
You can make up your own cigarette lighter extension cord. But I would strongly advise against trying to use an inverter with more than 150 watts power that plugs into a lighter socket. Even then 150 watts will draw down batteries faster than you would hope. Six hours at 150 watts will take ALL of the safe available power from a pair of batteries. This does not include using your regular lights, or any other load, and modern RV's have lots of hidden bloodsuckers you don't know about.
You need a plan. Sucking down batteries needs a good method to recharge them. How are you going to recharge the batteries? Factory RV's are designed to unplug from an RV park life-support, hold their breath, and then run to the next RV life support plug in. Camping is not in the plans of an RV manufacturer.
You have an onboard generator, right? What model is it? You need to find out the make and model of your unit's CONverter. Not inverter. Converter. The thing that may or may not charge batteries well with shore power or on gen power.
Post the information here, and a lot of friendly folks will help. When someone writes they do not understand or confused that rings an alarm bell. If you are willing to learn, a lot of folks here are willing to teach. You will spend less money, endure fewer hassles and have more fun if you "do it right".
