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brianfowler's avatar
brianfowler
Explorer
Jul 08, 2016

Inverter/Generator Issue

I recently aquired a small inverter generator (900watt) to keep my batteries charged in my 19' Passport travel trailer. The generator will power everything except the converter. It was tripping into overload and it took some playing around with breakers to figure out the culprit. The genny will run the hot water heater no problem, but not the inverter, the only thing I wanted it to run. Does the converter draw that much power? Or could there be an issue with my converter?

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  • CA_Traveler's avatar
    CA_Traveler
    Explorer III
    Jul 08, 2016
    brianfowler wrote:
    I recently aquired a small inverter generator (900watt) to keep my batteries charged in my 19' Passport travel trailer. The generator will power everything except the converter. It was tripping into overload and it took some playing around with breakers to figure out the culprit. The genny will run the hot water heater no problem, but not the inverter, the only thing I wanted it to run. Does the converter draw that much power? Or could there be an issue with my converter?
    Very unlikely your charger is drawing that much power. For example IF you have a 50A charger it will draw about 5.5A AC which is well within the gen capability. I would guess your charger has less than 50A capability.

    Are you sure the gen is a inverter gen and are you sure it's a pure sine wave (PSW) gen? If it's not PSW your charger may not "like" your gen power and trip the CB.
  • brianfowler's avatar
    brianfowler
    Explorer
    Jul 08, 2016
    I don't have an inverter in the trailer. The genny I'm running is the inverter type. I have everything running on propane that I can as well. Does anyone know how many watts the converter draws? Didn't think it was more than 900W.
  • brianfowler's avatar
    brianfowler
    Explorer
    Jul 08, 2016
    A typo yes. I don't have the equipment to measure the Ac current draw. The batteries should be fully charged as I just unplugged from the outlet in my house and plugged directly into the genny. Also I tried running with only the converter breaker turned on. Same result.
  • WayneAt63044's avatar
    WayneAt63044
    Explorer II
    Jul 08, 2016
    Another thought if you do have an inverter. Anything that requires 1 amp @ 120V (television, computer)from an inverter will draw roughly 10X that (or 10 amps)from the 12V circuit. A 900 watt genny probably only delivers about 7.5 amps. When using the genny, run everything else off of propane that you can.
  • WayneAt63044's avatar
    WayneAt63044
    Explorer II
    Jul 08, 2016
    I assume your one reference to the inverter is a typo. Your converter AC current draw will depend, in part, upon the condition of the batteries if they need a large charge. Also the current supplied to the 12V loads like lights, frig, etc adds to that. Do you have a way to check the status of the batts or a way to measure the the AC current draw with & without the converter enabled?

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