class c, how does inverter work and use?

A 1000WATT Inverter should probably be fused for around 150AMPs DC and will draw around 80AMPS when fully loaded down. This is alot of power to be running from a single battery. You would be wise to have a couple of 6VDC golf cart type batteries wired in series to give you a 220AH 12VDC battery setup if you are planning on using this unit.

You also need to dig out the model number to be sure what type of inverter you have. I will not run my high dollar appliances and electronic units on anything except a PURE SINE WAVE type Inverter. Others do use the Modified Sine Wave type inverters for the electronic items but in my opinion are flirting with causing damage to their 120VAC high dollar items. The only place I use the MSW type inverters is for outside lighting when camping off the power grid.

I would trace out the wiring that is plugged into the 120VAC receptacle on the Inverter and see what it is connected too. Most folks will just have an heavy duty 120VACC extension cord plugged into it and a permanent mounted multi-port 120VAC drop mounted on the back side of a cabinet or table top to plug some of the 120VAC items they want to run when camping off the power grid. Also note Inverters are very noisy RFI wise. They will cause interference with radio systems especially amateur radio etc operating in the 7MHz bands... Produces bands of loud BRRRRR's all over the place...

Inverters are a nice thing to have but will take some planning otherwise you will end up in the dark around 10PM at night with a dead battery. Running a battery below their 50% state of charge and not recharged right away will do damage to your battery. 50% state of charge on a deep cycle battery is only approximately 12.0VDC.

I use a 600WAT PSW Inverter here to run my Home Entertainment Electronics systems, NOAH WX radio, various chargers for cell phones and computers, maybe a fan, extra lights, low wattage electric blanket, to name a few things when camping off the power grid... My setup has a 120VAC emergency power drop cord running from the inverter location to the Home Entertainment Center location and a second drop cord to the bedroom nite table location. My 600WATT PSW Inverter is remote controlled using a remote ON/Off control switch.

Very nice to have around when the shore power goes off or camping off the power grid...

When camping off the power grid we will use our 600WATT PSW Inverter fir our 120VAC items we want to run drawing around 20AMPS of DC current from the battery bank between 8PM and 11PM and there is usually around 1AMP of DC current being drawn directly from the battery bank for the parasitic 12VDC draws and this will drain our 255AH battery setup down to around 12.0VDC by 8AM the next morning.

This is when we will connect our trailer 30AMP shore power cable to our 2KW Honda generator and run for three hours (where allowed) to recharge our battery bank to its 90% state of charge using smart mode charging technology. Now we are good to go for the next day/night run off the batteries. We can do this 50% to 90% charge cycles for about 12-14 days without doing damage to the battery banks here. After the 14 days however we have to re-charge to a full charge state of the batteries which will take around 12 hours of generator run time otherwise we will start doing harm to the batteries. Of course alot of public places will not allow you to run your generator this long of a period so this is usually when we plan to head back for the house...

This is our camping off the power grid game plan and we are very successful doing it in this manner.

It does take some planning and additional electrical beef-up items to be able to be successful here.

just food for thought...
Roy Ken

What you can use it for depends on which outlets are fed by the inverter and how big it is. Usually on a C the inverter supplies power to a single outlet pair for 120V entertainment equipment, e.g. TV and DVD player. It should feed from your house battery, but might also feed from the engine alternator when running, once the engine starting battery is charged. That depends on the type of equipment used to isolate those two 12V systems from each other.

There is such a thing as an inverter/charger, used on larger coaches with bigger battery banks, and designed to provide whole house power, in combination with auto-start generator systems. Melbourne would not have been so equipped from the factory.

Fridge on the road would run on LPG (with 12V to controller and igniter). If you run the generator, the fridge could use its 120V heating coil rather than the LPG flame, but this is not very cost efficient, burning about 1/2 gallon per hour gasoline just for the fridge. Most people who run genset on th road do it for the air conditioning, getting 120V to the other outlets is just a bonus.

its a 1,000 watt, not sure of model. Only have one coach battery and one engine battery. Would this run the fridge while driving and does it run off the couch or engine battery?

An inverter would provide electricity (120v AC) while driving. You wouldn't need an inverter if you had an electric hook up.
Normally, an inverter would be used when you're not hooked to shore power to run things like a TV, DVD, electric mixer, crock pot, etc. Not large appliances like air conditioners and frying pans. Large, short duration appliances (toaster, microwave) can be run if you have a large 2,000 watt inverter and a large battery bank.
Do you have a model number for your inverter? That would be very helpful in determining how it can be used.

Thanks, I thought it would run electric while driving? It is a factory installed option. Would I ever need if always camping at a spot with electric, also has a generator. Thanks Duane

An inverter takes your batteries 12volt DC and turns it into 110volt AC power. Depending on the size and wiring you run 110v stuff with it when you don't have shore power or generator. In an 07 Jayco this is almost assurecly a previous owner add on so you will have to do some wire tracing to figure how it is connected to the batteries and where the 110 service was run too.

If your talking about your manufactured installed converter, that device takes shore or generator 110v AC power and converts it to 12volt DC to run the coach DC circuits (e.g. refer control board, HWH control board, lights, and water pump) as well as charge your batteries.