Can You Permanently Mount An Inverter To A Camper?

[longislandcampe]

Is there a way to wire an inverter to the battery that will power the outlets in the camper? We dry camp once or twice a year and we do have a portable inverter to power the TV/DVD during the day and a cpap at night. Our 12V plug is a bit of distance from the bedroom so we'd have to run an extension cord to the bedroom. It's doable, just not ideal. It would be easier if we could just get some juice from the regular outlet.

[RoyB]

Here is a couple of photos from google search showning what one RV'er did to install a TRANSFER multi-contact ganged switch (expensive) to switch his electrical service from shore power to selective circuits he wanted to have run from an Inverter. Pretty straight forward but you will have to tap into the various 120VAC circuits you want to do this with.











It can get abit challenging I would imagine...

just food for though...
Roy Ken

[RoyB]

I installed a 600W PSW INVERTER just to run a couple of multi-outlets drop cords - one runs to the home entertainment items the second on runs to the bedroom night table.

We have all of our 120VAC items we want to have on whether camping off the power grid or camping at regular camp sites with electric. All of these items stay on the inverter all the time - no connecting up everytime you stop like you have indicated...

My battery bank is 255AHs and we get to watch HDTV -DVDs-run extra light or small fans- maybe an electric lap blanket - all of the cell phone type chargers and computer chargers - All the interior LED lights we want - Outside lights around the sitting area on until 10-11PM at night etc almost just like we do at regular camp sites with electric except no air conditioners or high wattage microwaves.

By 8Am the next morning when camping off the power grid we are down to around 12.0VDC on our battery bank and this is when we connect the trailer 30A shore power cable up to our 2KW Honda generator and using the on-board smart mode converter/charger can re-charge the batteries back up to their 90% charge state so we can do all this all over again for the next day/night camping run.

This is block diagram of a typical small trailer setup mounting the 600WATT PSW Inverter as near to the battery bank as you can and route the 120VAC drop cords to the living room and bedroom to use. Nothing is visble except the multi-outlet where you can plug into the inverter power.


Works great if you plan it out...

Roy Ken

[christopherglen]

I have a 3kw inverter/charger on my trailer. It charges (up to) 150 amps, and runs 3kw with a 6kw surge. I run the microwave, coffee pot, toaster etc off it. I CAN run one of the ac's (it is wires after the inverter) but the batteries get run down in a hurry. The big advantage is it is totally automatic. Start the genset and you are charging the batteries, shut it down, and you are on the inverter. I wired the power line from the transfer switch to a hut tub sub panel (4 position box) with 2 30's for the inverter/charger (it is rated for 30+30) and 2 20's - one for the main ac, one for the electric water heater. The main ac and electric water heater can never run off the inverter, the bedroom ac and EVERYTHING else can.

[wa8yxm]

To make the answer short. YES there is

Many, many of us have done it.

Longer answer one, (All outlets you wish to power on same circuit breaker)

Get an "in-line" inverter and remove the wire from the breaker (Also remove the partner wires (White/Bare) from their circuit buses)

Route a new wire of the proper size to the inverter, route a new wire from the inverter to a junction box and hook it to the original wire from the breaker. Job done.

Method two (Multiple breakers)

Get a "Sub panel" (This is a breaker box without provisions for a main breaker)

Remove all the breakers you wish to have Inverter powered, Get a bigger "In-Line" True sine wave inverter (NOTE I forgot True Sine Wave in above paragraphs) Install the proper size breaker for the inverter in one of the vacant slots and route the proper size wire from it to the inverter, Likewise back to the sub panel, Install the original breakers, wires and all, into the sub panel,

And that folks, is all there is to it.. Progressive Dynamics makes a very nice breaker panel which could be used as a sub panel, or Square D (I have a PDI main panel and a Square D sub panel here)

Inverter mounting: Inverter should be mounted as close to the batteries as possible but NOT IN THE SAME AIR SPACE, you do not want it breathing battery vapors.

[Just_Jeff]

Thats_Ok wrote:

Mmmm...
At night watching an led TV with a DVD player only needed maybe 90-120 watts. Two hours of watching a movie the low quality inverter would eat 20-30% of the batteries...so a lower power inverter would have worked here.
The inverter also had a hard time with a 12 cup coffeemaker and wouldn't power a small microwave.

Thanks. I'll see how mine works out. I was actually thinking about wiring a small one separately to power only cabover TV and a PS3...which is what my son would use while we're on the road and don't need to be powering the whole house, and it's the one we'd watch as a family if we were boondocking.

[n7bsn]

I am currently in the process of installing a Xantrex ProWatt in the rig. This has two accessories that I am also installing, a power relay and a control switch.

Link

[deleted-2]

Thats_Ok wrote:
2000 watts was too much or not enough.

Just Jeff wrote:
How did this work out for you? When was it too much vs. not enough?

I'm in the process of hard wiring a 2000W PSW.

Mmmm...
At night watching an led TV with a DVD player only needed maybe 90-120 watts. Two hours of watching a movie the low quality inverter would eat 20-30% of the batteries...so a lower power inverter would have worked here.
The inverter also had a hard time with a 12 cup coffeemaker and wouldn't power a small microwave.


The above is close to what we had in the trailer.

[JoeChiOhki]

I hard wired mine in and then rewired the feed to the outlets I wanted to be switchable. I have a 2-pole 2-way motor switch on a face plate that I can now flip one way and it connects the outlets to shore power, the otherway, connects it to the inverter and it's own independent breaker.

[Just_Jeff]

Thats_Ok wrote:
2000 watts was too much or not enough.

How did this work out for you? When was it too much vs. not enough?

I'm in the process of hardwiring a 2000W PSW.

[deleted-2]

DIYed this in our last fifth wheel.
Had a separate battery bank for the inverter.

Ours was a 2000 watt system.
Had fun wiring it in and refining it.

The convertor was problem because I had to unplug it till I got the off switch for it installed.

My cons were:
Expense
Convertor issue
Locating inverter
Batteries ran down somewhat quickly.
2000 watts was too much or not enough.

I'd probably do it again with a smaller pure sine inverter if I could just dedicate the source to 3 or 4 specific outlets (bedroom and entertainment center).

[pinesman]

I do not know about your cpap but a lot of them have 12v cords available. Since we use two cpaps, i mounted a 12v receptacle under each side of the bed and that is what we use whether we have 120v or not. I mounted a small 400w inverter right over the power dist panel which is in reach of the tv or a crockpot. It may not work for everybody but it is great for us.

[time2roll]

Up to about 300w you can easily connect to one or two strings of outlets.

Much bigger it gets complicated to have big 12v wire, extra batteries, pull wire to the main panel.

[2oldman]

Easy: Plug the shore power cord into the inverter.
Hard: Hard-wire the inverter before the main panel.

[mlts22]

I've seen some CPAPs that have multiple batteries, so one can charge up 3-4 of those, then be able to keep that going even for an extended run.

As for TVs/DVDs, I've seen some pretty good 12 volt models. I know Roadtrek has moved to those in all their new rigs, as well as PW.

It might cost to move to a CPAP with replacable batteries, and a 12 volt TV/DVD, but it means no need for an inverter.