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StartingNewChap's avatar
Jul 01, 2019

Running Air Conditioner Via Inverter while Towing/Driving

I am considering buying a 3000 watt inverter for my travel trailer. I would like to run my air conditioner whiling driving to my destination. My hope is that short stops for lunch can be accomplished in a comfortable trailer. The specs on my 20 amp air conditioner states is uses about 2700 watts to start then 1300 to run. I have 270AH batteries that I hope will supplement the startup power needed. I am wondering will my alternator on my Jeep Grand Cherokee provide enough power to run the tow vehicle, run the air conditioner and charge the Jeep and trailer batteries? I could not find any definitive answers from Jeep.

34 Replies

  • The cheapest and easiest would to buy a generator for the trailer and power the A/C with that
  • This would probably need dual alternators. Or install a generator to produce 120v direct to the A/C like a motorhome.
  • Realistically, no. The air conditioner will take about 130A when running on its own, assuming the specifications are correct. The Jeep has (according to the specifications for the current model year) either a 160A or a 180A alternator. That leaves either 20A or 40A for everything else, assuming it's running full-out all the time; and at idle or low engine speeds, it can't put out full output, nor would it be happy doing so long-term--it would likely overheat and die pretty quickly.

    Even if it did, getting that much current efficiently to the trailer would be impossible via the standard seven pin connector. You'd have to run a separate, quite heavy charge/inverter power line. More effective and efficient would be to have the inverter in the Jeep and run a 120V line.

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