jump pack

[dockmasterdave]

I have an Amerilite 21. It has no 12 volt receptacles. I wanted to be able to run a small tv while not on shore power. also possibly a laptop which draws considerably more power than the tv, about 3 amps.
I figured my options are to wire in an inverter or possibly just use a jump start pack with a 12 volt receptacle and the inverter.
Any suggestions welcomed.
Thanks

[MrWizard]

moved from technology

[rockhillmanor]

wa8yxm wrote:
There are two kinds of jump packs, One is full of something like Ni-Cad or Li-On recharegables and is designed to plug into a 12 volt outlet. Sit for a while and re charge the on-board battery..

The ones I saw above have battery cables and clamps to actually JUMP START a car..........

I keep one with me at all times, don't leave RV'ing without one on board. IMHO should be a must have when RV'ing.

And YES they can start cars with complete dead batteries.
That puppy has jumped started my MH several times over the years and the toad! It also has started many of my fellow campers RV's including a couple of big buss's

It also has kept me out of the dark when the CG power goes down. I just plug in a couple of ac table lamps to it with one of those cheap inverter plugs from Wally world, I'm usually the only one in the CG with the whole MH lit up during those black outs!:W

[wa8yxm]

There are two kinds of jump packs, One is full of something like Ni-Cad or Li-On recharegables and is designed to plug into a 12 volt outlet. Sit for a while and re charge the on-board battery..

The ones I saw above have battery cables and clamps to actually JUMP START a car.

You can hook it to the house battery for added capacity, but the self contained is kind of small, think, 20 amp hours give or take a bit.

[Bumpyroad]

why wouldn't an APC backup thingy work?
bumpy

[mlts22]

I never thought about that. Having a separate circuit on the batteries with a relatively small PSW inverter is a very good idea. That way, one can have some low power draw appliances that will always have power, regardless if one is plugged in, on a generator, or boondocking. This would be useful if one has an inkjet printer or a scanner, for example. Or, if power goes off at a CG when one is doing something very important on the computer, and the laptop battery isn't going to last that long.

Of course, the one thing I'd add would be a fuse that would be the size of the max amperage the inverter will ever use, so a short circuit's damage is minimized.

[RoyB]

In my case I was looking for more 120VAC items to use when camping off the power grids... The JUMP PACK units are great for maybe just one 120VAC application. The batteries in those unit are small and probably won't last long even operating a 35WATT small TV set for several hours before needing re-charged again.

After deciding what all we would want to use I ended up with around 300WATTS of 120VAC items so installed a larger 600watt pure sine wave Inverter that would handle all of my possible future needs. My 600WATT PSW Inverter is an older AIMS model for around $149 (AMAZON). I think they are still available but there are many PSW Inverters on the market these days for a reasonable cost. These items used to be high cost items if you wanted to use the Pure Sine Wave models. Larger INVERTERs do require a larger BATTERY BANK which is almost a given for anyone wanting to camp of the power grids. My battery bank is rated at 155AHs consisting of three each GP24 85AH Interstate deep cycle batteries wired in Parallel...

I installed two drop cords from the dual 600WATT 120VAC receptacles of my Inverter with one drop cord going to the home entertainment location and the second 120VAC drop going to the bedroom location. All you see visible is a multiport 120VAC plug end of the extension cord on the back of a table or cabinet.

My game plan is to run my normal 120VAC items some from an Inverter and 12VDC items direct connected to the 12VDc batteries and then re-charge the battery bank the next morning using my 2KW Honda generator to power up my Shore power Connection of my OFF-ROAD POPUP to allow my on-board smart mode converter to re-charge my batteries in a short three hour run time of the generator.

This is my emergency 120VAC source which is generated from a Pure Sine Wave INVERTER which will operate anything I plug into it without fear of anything going up in BLUE smoke.

A smart move for us and has provided us a good clean 120VAC source for several years now.

When camping off the power grid I observe the status of my batteries at all times with my remote Battery Monitor panel and know when they get drained below the 12.0VDC charge level telling me it is time to re-charge them back to the 90% charge state before doing damage to the batteries.

We have been very successful doing this over the past five to six years now...

Just a matter of choice on what you feel you need to use to be successful running small 120VAC appliances when off the power grid. It is all second nature for us now. I actually leave several items connected to the Emergency Power Ports all the time even when we are connected to shore power connections.

Its all in the planning... Having a well planned source of emergency 120VAC power is a great PLAN B item...

Roy Ken

[Simplygib]

I'd go with a small inverter. I have a 300 watt one from Wally World that has served me well for many years. I run my laptop, an external hard drive, small sound system, phone and other small battery chargers off of it. You've probably already got a deep cycle battery in your rig, no need to use a different battery.

My concern with a jump start unit would be the fact that they most likely have small starting batteries in them, not deep cycle. Using a starting battery for deep cycle type use will shorten its life. Besides that, they are small. I believe they don't have more than about 35ah storage capacity, and many less than that. Assuming you have a 35ah model, if you draw 3 amps from it for 6 hours you're already down below 50% state of charge, the point at which you should stop drawing from a deep cycle battery if you want it to last awhile. If it's a starting battery, it's not going to tolerate that for too long.

[rockhillmanor]

dockmasterdave wrote:
I have an Amerilite 21. It has no 12 volt receptacles. I wanted to be able to run a small tv while not on shore power. also possibly a laptop which draws considerably more power than the tv, about 3 amps.
I figured my options are to wire in an inverter or possibly just use a jump start pack with a 12 volt receptacle and the inverter.
Any suggestions welcomed.
Thanks

I used the Jump-It packs for years to watch TV in the RV while at sporting events that never have full hookups.

I couldn't see running the gen just to watch TV at night. And some of the events you couldn't run the gens at night.

No need to hard wire an inverter, It works great with one of those cheap plug in inverters.



During the day I would take the jump it into the bathroom at the park and plug it in to charge! When everyone found out how I was watching TV I could have sold 100 of those portable jump starters! :B