question on inverter use / 120 v refrig / other crazy ?

[riven1950]

I found a 1990 TT for my BIL to use for his hunting camp. It has been sitting in a yearly lot lease park for years hooked up to power / water, no battery so i am guessing the converter works or they would not have lights.

Where he is moving it there will be no power or water hookup. The original frig has been replaced with a small frig running off 120V ac. I looked but could find a plate on the frig that would show amps used but it is not big, fits in the original TT frig space.

He was asking me what he could run off his battery ( 12 volt deep cycle ) and 1000 watt HF inverter. He also has a small 1000 watt HF generator but doesn't want to run it much due to noise.

I have no answer for him as I have a 2019TT, no inverter, and use full hook ups.

He does not care about AC use, HWH, or furnace. Maybe microwave, but probably not. He would mainly use frig and lights. What will he need for that and best way to hook up?

Can he hook the inverter to his battery and plug that into the 30 amp cord with an adapter? I told him the battery would not last long, just no idea how long.

Thanks

[pianotuna]

He needs to find an acceptable way to recharge the battery bank--and to keep it that way.

My vote would be for solar.

[Matt_Colie]

From my personal and instrumented experience.....
We run a little reefer on a Hazard Fright 750/1500 inverter (~45$us). It is modified square wave, but motors don't really care they just run a little warmer than they might on good power. (It was really tough to measure the difference.) The inverter has to be that big to handle the starting load even though it is so short a time.

You need heavier cable than comes in the kit and the inverter wants to be as close to the battery as it can without being in the same space. (Fumes are corrosive.)

As to the battery, our bank of GC2s will let us run in boondock mode for a day and an half in 90° weather. Any less than a 200Ah bank will do less. Oh, a 8D is more like 160+#, GC2s are 80# each. Many 8Ds are starting batteries and not suitable for deep cycle.

Matt

[naturist]

That fridge will likely be his biggest draw. Is his inverter pure sine wave or modified sine wave? How big is his battery? Is it the 80 amp hour group 24 battery usually put on trailers, or is it a 200 amp hour group 8D battery? Being for his hunting camp, he’ll likely be using it only in cold weather, which will cut the need for cooling that fridge, but that won’t help if he leaves the battery out in the cold.

A group 24 flooded cell marine battery of the pseudo deep cycle sort usually supplied with TTS costs around $80-$100. A group 8D AGM true deep cycle battery is around $400. The former weighs around 60 lbs, the latter about 130 lbs. But the latter would power his hunting camp 2-1/2 times as long, especially since he could keep it inside and warm.