Why won't my inverter put out?

landyacht318 wrote:
The danger to the alternator is the heat it generates when it is making lots of juice to power lots of loads. When idling there is much less underhood airflow as opposed to when moving and less cooling of the alternator

Thank you.

The fact that you are running two heating pads at least means the underhood ambient temps should be lesser as well, and overheating it less of a concern.

Yes, it was a bit chilly last night. I suppose it would be better to wait till after dark again tonight? Or is the present 55 degrees ok? The hood is up.

Your Electrical mishmash is a bit of a nightmare.

You need to get those house batteries to charge from the alternator so you need not open the hood or waste power by inverting DC to AC to power an AC charger to feed DC batteries. Wiring up a continuous duty Solenoid to the alternator to feed house batteries with engine running is quite simple. Fat cables insure adequate charging.

YOu should also get a DC to DC laptop power supply/car adapter. While the ciggy plugs on these prove troublesome, there is significant energy savings to be had here. In amazon electronics plug in laptop make and model and add 'car adapter'

Those inexpensive dorm fridges are power hogs. If you plan on doing more existing without hookups, then a 12v compressor powered chest style fridge/freezer will be a much better option.

Yeah, it's all about prioritizing expenses and weight and space. A car charger is cheap, but this is the first time in 6 months on the road that I have wanted one. It didn't seem worth hauling around.

The HF inverters are cheap for a reason. The cables being thick can mean the insulation is thick and the copper is thin. I commonly see 12 awg jumper cables in the drug stores, whose insulation is so thick it appears they are 4awg cable.

I meant thick on the inside :). I compared them to other cables when I bought it, and decided they were 6 ga, IIRC. Not 12, anyway :).

If you are going to be spending more time away from 120vAC hookups, you will need to upgrade your equipment. If you continue to use the engine starting battery, it will soon fail, as starting batteries cant handle being cycled deeply many times.

Seeing as how fully charging to a true 100% any battery takes hours and hours no matter how big and shiny the alternator or battery charger, and batteries walk down in capacity when not regularly truly fully recharged, your stop gap measures to meet your electrical demands, will just get worse and worse as your batteries get abused and age prematurely.

Regarding the battery charging circuits, spend more on Copper now, or spend much more on Lead later. As happens often in the RV world, trying to save money initially costs more in the long run. Throw in a little incomplete understanding of things electrical, and one soon finds their purchases are now just expensive paperweights, not fit for the job they were bought for.

Yes. I baby the two smaller house batteries, and they are in great shape. The big one is on its last legs anyway (I got it used). The hood one, though, I feel bad about. It was new 6 months ago, and this is the 3rd time I have accidentally deep-ish cycled it :(.

As for the electrical nightmare -- yes! I am in the process of trying to decide to go with solar or generator. Both is probably impractical for me. A battery isolator won't do a lot for me as I don't drive much.