power Inverter

[fbconsults]

The new Georgetown 378TS I have on order does not come with a inverter to power TV's and associated equipment on 12v. They are 110 only. Has anyone added power inverters? How many watts, what was the cost, and how did you hook them up?

Thanks for your input

fbconsults
(Forrest and Donna)

[DonJP]

Hi,
We have a pull behind Rockwood 8315BSS. We had a 120 watt solar panel installed on our trailer roof and also had a 2000 watt inverter installed at the same time. Right now I can't get at the paper work (cost) for this. We have snow here and I don't want to open the slide to get to the cupboard where the papers are. The inverter works really well. It runs the microwave, TV and kettle for my wife's tea. We have 2 heavy duty 6 volt batteries. It makes it nice when we are at places where there aren't any power hookups. We're really glad we did this.
Don

[KyDan]

Originally Posted by DonJP

Hi,
We had a 120 watt solar panel installed on our trailer roof and also had a 2000 watt inverter installed at the same time. It runs the microwave, TV and kettle for my wife's tea.
Don

Wow, you do know that the microwave and "kettle" for tea
are using a LOT of power. I'm sure a 2000 watt inverter
will do the job but I fear it will quickly drain your batteries.
If it were me, I'd heat the water for tea on the gas stove.
I'd also avoid using the microwave as much as possible.
If you find that your batteries run down faster than you
hoped, look at anything that produces heat- especially
for cooking as a power hog.
When you're on battery power you want to use LP gas
for heating anything that needs heat.
My 2¢

Happy Camping!
KyDan

[Herk7769]

I have a 2000 watt inverter as well. The first time I made coffee with the coffee maker on inverter (1500 watts); my battery lasted about 1/2 of the pot before we had total 12 volt DC failure and the screaming inverter woke the wife. We had watched TV and used the computer the night before and the battery seemed fine (about 1/2 on the idiot lights). Good thing we did not need the heater! (Our OEM Deka DC-24 has a capacity from full to empty of only 75 amp hours).

The second battery went in the week we got back from THAT trip!.

[cfsoistman]

I have a Xantrex RS3000. 3000 watts but I mounted a sub-panel prior to the inverter and pulled both AC Unit circuits and the Microwave circuit out of the power center inside the coach. So if we want the AC units running or want to use the microwave we either need shore power or run the generator. We have 220 amp hours and as long as we don't use hair dryers or the coffee maker too often our power is good but if I had to do it over I would go for a smaller wattage Inverter because we rarely use it other than traveling. Most of the time we have shore power where we're staying.

[fbconsults]

Thanks a lot for the comments. I am thinking of a 1000 watt, and am still considering whether to hard wire it or not. Does the rear TV work if it is hard wired? I would think it would.

Thanks, fbconsults
(Forrest and Donna)