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barngal's avatar
barngal
Explorer
Jun 13, 2017

? power surge with inverter?

I'm a new camper owner and admittedly don't know alot of stuff yet.
We have what I was told is a power inverter installed on the floor of our camper under a cabinet.
I tried using it to charge my phone (the gen was running; I think the gen needs to run for the inverter to work?)
The phone continuously turned on and off, so the power was not being supplied consistently.

Please can someone tell me how this is supposed to work? I havent tried running a vaccum cleaner or anything from it yet...
thanks
Truck Campers
  • Freep's avatar
    Freep
    Explorer
    Jun 13, 2017
    As a rule of thumb, power everything you can from DC(battery). Especially small electronics like phones.

    It would help to know the year and model of your truck camper.

    Electronics turning on and off while using an inverter is a symptom of having a modified sine wave inverter rather than a pure sine wave inverter.
  • Sam_Spade's avatar
    Sam_Spade
    Explorer
    Jun 13, 2017
    YIKES !!

    You need to have someone who is familiar with the equipment LOOK at it and tell you exactly what it IS and what it can be used for.

    A real inverter takes 12 V battery power IN and produces 120 VAC out.
    It kind of replaces the generator or shore power for SMALL appliances.
    The generator does NOT need to be running.......if it really is an inverter.....but the 12 V batteries do need to be in place and functioning.

    You NEED a multimeter to make basic tests on things like this.

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