6 volt batteries and an inverter

I have 4 GC2s at 450 aH total and a 2000 watt MSW inverter and the microwave is iffy. I don't even try the hair dryer at 13 amps (AC) continuous.

2oldman wrote:

jdcellarmod wrote:
I'm planning on having 2-6 volt batteries with a 300 amp hour rating. ... I do not have room for 4-6 volt batteries...I'm not opposed to using 12 volt batteries.

Your 6v batteries are rated *each* at 300ah? Most I've ever seen is around 220.

6V L16 is even larger at 445.

For the OP... some get by on 200/300 amp hours and run a microwave but it will be marginal. Might get an alarm if the batteries are cold in the morning and a bit low from running the furnace all night.
Give it a go if that is all that fit. Worst case get a Panasonic inverter microwave where it actually heats at a lower power setting as selected instead of just cycling the megatron on and off.

Low voltage alarm is not killing the inverter yet.
I had 1500W toaster on my boat with single (and small) battery and 30 amp alternator.
The 1200W inverter would work for about 2 minutes before low battery alarm would come (I used it with engine running, so 30 amp alternator was charging) and after about additional 7 minutes, the inverter would shut off, but most of the time the food was hot by then, so this did not bother me much.
On boat cooling was good, so it will be different in camper, but I think my set was quite extreme?
The 6V golf-cart batteries proved themselves to be the best bang for a dollar, so I would go for it.
From listed items - hairdryer will be the biggest power draw. Once you do small test with it, you know where you stand.

jdcellarmod wrote:
I'm planning on having 2-6 volt batteries with a 300 amp hour rating. ... I do not have room for 4-6 volt batteries...I'm not opposed to using 12 volt batteries.

Your 6v batteries are rated *each* at 300ah? Most I've ever seen is around 220.

Some here believe that 12v batteries are better for high-amp inverter applications. Perhaps some big 12s would be better.

2-6v batteries will be a struggle with a microwave.

If your 2000w inverter's low voltage shutdown spec is 11.0v or less AND you use inverter to battery cables that have less than a 2% voltage drop at your maximum anticipated load, this should significantly reduce your chance of having a problem powering your inverter with 2 GC2 batteries if they're discharged as low as 12.2v (50%).

We power our 2000w Xantrex PSW inverter with 2 GC2 batteries. FWIW, we can power a small 1,500w space heater on high (~140 amps) with 2 GC2 batteries already discharged to 12.2v. Inverter input voltage under this load is approx. 11.2 to 11.1v--just barely above the Xantrex's 11.0v low voltage shutdown voltage. Yes, the low voltage alarm activates, but the inverter does not shutdown. We use 4/0 cable for the 13 ft. battery to inverter cable run which limits our voltage drop at 140a to .15v (~1.4%).

I might add we can power our 1,100w microwave for up to 40 min. with our 2 GC2 batteries before they drop to 12.2v.