Inverter for 2010 Georgetown 350

[starburst2]

Hi all
I have a new Georgetown and I plan to put an inverter on it to avoid the necessity of starting the genny at night when my wife likes to watch a little TV. Also I wish to maintain a modicum of civility with my neighbors who may be trying to sleep.
Somewhere on this form I read that the best approach was to install a smaller sine wave inverter that mainly fed the 110V outlets plus the audio and video equipment. My GT does not have an automatic transfer switch (ATS). Instead, you plug the shore power cord into a special receptical in the storage compartment where the cord is stored which as I understand is powered by the genny. In order not to fry the inverter an ATS, either built in or stand alone, is needed. Does the Georgetown wiring concept complicate the inverter installation? When I installed the 2000W Magnum inverter in my last coach there was an ATS to protect the genny when plugged into shope power and there was an ATS built in to the Magnum to protect it when either the genny or the shore power were active. I'm not sure how, or if, this crazy concept that GT uses, will complicate my wiring of the inverter to the coach's 110V system. Does anyone have any words of wisdom for me in this respect?
Additionally, I have grown accustomed to being able to run the micro for a couple of miuted to heat up a hot chocolate without starting the genny and I think I would like to continue with that idea in the new coach. Before I had 4X6V golf cart batteries and this new coach has 2X12 volt batteries. I do not know know how the amp hours of reserve capacity compare but I suspect the 2X12's in the GT pale in comparison to my last battery bank and will need upgrading. Is it reasonable to have additional battery capacity added alongside the two under the steps? Can the expanded battery holding apparatus be welded to the frame or would this compromise the frame structure? If it was bolted on instead, to avoid the need for welding, would the added weight of the two additional batteries cause undue stress to the frame structure? I realize I would have to be more thoughtful about loading the compartment storage as these additional batteries on the passenger side when coupled with the weight of the fresh water tank may place more weight burden on the passenger side of the coach.
Thanks in advance for any feedback you "experts" can give me and I don't use the term facetiously. Over the years I have found many of the "experts" on the forum are more knowledgeable than found in the dealerships.
Regards,
Lloyd
aka Starburst2

[NWJeeper]

Lloyd,

The ATS is irrelevant and has no bearing on installing an inverter.

The two 12volt batteries are really insufficient for powering much of an inverter and practically useless for dry camping as they are only worth between 140-200 amp/hours together. In our rig we run 6-6volt Trojan T-125 batteries. To accomplish this the factory battery box under the stairs was cut from the frame and I welded up a new box to hold 4 of the 6V batteries. Two more were added up front behind the grill. There are pictures floating around here of the installation, I will try and find the posts.

I never recommend running the microwave or other high amperage appliances off of an inverter, it just costs too much battery power. Instead run the generator for a few minutes and then shut it down. I think you will find that the generator being installed inside a sound enclosure and in a compartment is really quiet and non-offensive. Most parks have a 10pm quiet hour and we don't run ours past that. Our Onan is quieter than our 1000w Yamaha portable that I used to carry.

We too only run the entertainment system on our inverter. For that the Xantrex Prosine 1000w inverter was plenty. The inverter has a built in transfer switch. To wire it in the wire that feeds the circuits on the left side of our rig (the entertainment system is on this circuit) was removed from the breaker in the load center. Romex was spliced to this wire inside the load center and run to the output of the inverter. Another run of Romex is connected to the breaker in the panel and run to the input of the inverter. In this way the inverter is placed in line after the breaker in the circuit. When power is present the inverter just passes it through. With the inverter on however once power is removed or otherwise not present it will supply the load to that circuit. Wiring diagrams are available from Xantrex I believe.

The inverter needs to be located within about 5 feet of your batteries. Installation was fairly easy for me with running all the wire being the hardest part but not impossible. If you aren't up to the task then a good RV service center or Camping World should be able to do the installation for you but be prepared to pay for it.

[cfsoistman]

Your set up shouldn't complicate an inverter installation. As for the ATS, the only difference is you manually have to change your source of power. An ATS does it without needing to unplug from shore power and connect to a receptacle from the generator. As for the additional pan for batteries, Camping World added one in my coach. I'm not sure how all of the areas under the stair look but I can't fit 4 full batterys. I don't recall the numbers but one area of the pan is close to an angle piece which the standard size battery 24 will clear but not the 27. I installed a breaker panel prior to my inverter and took the AC units breakers and Microwave Breaker out of the indoor panel. I also added a 50 amp breaker to power my inverter and the rest of the coach. I have an Xantrex RS3000.

[starburst2]

Thanks guys for your insights.
NW Jeeper, did you have a plan for the fabrication of your 4 pack of 6 volt batteries that replaced your existing 2X12V or did you kinda build it on the spot. If you have a plan I could use, that would be super. I'll have to mull the inverter size over in my mind as my wife is hyper-sensitive to noise and dislikes the genny with a passion. For this reason as well, I am planning to put on 250 to 270 Watts of solar panel to aide in keeping the batteries charrged without running the genny too much.
Since some bozo smashed into the side of my coach demolishing most of the passenger side skin and since the bent stairwell has been removed awaiting a new one from the manufacturer now would be an opportune time to put on a bigger battery tray while there is lots of room to work. I take it from your response that welding a new larger tray to the frame is okay. Do I understand correctly that you welded the bigger tray to the frame or did the reference to welding only apply to the fabrication of the tray itself?
Lloyd

[NWJeeper]

Lloyd I layed out 1" angle iron on the floor and welded the shape myself to hold the 4 batteries, then using plate steel for the sides I welded it all together and then welded it to the frame. The original is welded to the frame so there is no problem with welding a custom one there.

I too have 260w of solar charging but it isn't the be all end all answer. I have found that to compensate for diminished sun at times I could use another 260w. Even just running the TV and satellite reciever draws 15amps alone and if you watch TV for 3 hours a night that 45amps just for that, it can draw even a bigger bank down quickly.

Really for the time it take to use the microwave in most cases less than a few minutes starting the generator is not a big issue. We can't even hear ours running inside the rig. If you don't use the generator once in a while it will not run when you really need it anyway.

[starburst2]

NW Jeeper, do you have a picture you could post of the finished product. I could give that to a fabricator and have them make me one.
Your point is well taken about the need to run the genny periodically in order to keep it in good shape. I agree that 6X6V golfcarts is better than 4 which I had on my DP. My wife is a big consumer of energy and I found even the battery bank on the diesel to be wanting. However I was dubious that the lighter frame on the GT would support all that weight.

Lloyd

[NWJeeper]

Lloyd, I went out and took a bunch of pictures last night but won't have a chance to process them until tonight after work. I think if you were able to slide under your rig you would be surprised at the size of the frame. It isn't "weak" by any measure.