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Old 06-20-2017, 04:20 PM   #1
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car based inverter

I have some small (150 watt) inverters for the car that work great when the car is running. So I put on in the trailer to run the TV. It shuts down after a short time, my guess is these don't like the 12volt battery and are looking for the 13.x voltage when an alternator is charging the battery.

Is anyone using these small inverters and have them working?

My other option is buying a higher quality one, if I go that route, what's a good brand?
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Old 06-20-2017, 05:24 PM   #2
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I have used a inverter since the 1970's starting with my first tt. I used it to power a color tv. The kids would watch the tv on our way to the campgrounds and later the tv would set on a table outside so the kids could watch cartoon's in the morning if they wanted. Few RV's had color tv in them in the mid 1970's and my friends would tease me saying my idea of roughing it would be to bring a black and white tv. We made a lot of friends with people stopping by asking questions about the color tv with we would be some where that didn't have electrical hook up.
I ran a 10 gauge wire from the battery of my tow van back to my tt going through the electrical plug when hooking up trailer to van.
Make sure your inverter has enough power to play your tv. If you tv draws 150 watts then your 150 watt inverter won't work. I had a 350 watt that I used to power my 200 watt tv. I have a 175 watt that I use to power my laptop in my truck when needed. My wife's van has an inverter built in on it.
Try not to use an extension cord, and having a fuse inline on your 12 volt feed line is a must.
I bought a 1000 watt inverter that I want to put in my MH when I have time.
Good luck with it and yes it works great.
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Old 06-20-2017, 05:31 PM   #3
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I've got a 1kw magnum pure sine that I pulled out of a new motorhome..
looking to get $350 shipped.
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Old 06-20-2017, 05:40 PM   #4
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This brand is well reviewed on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._al_bw_c_x_4_w

Various wattages available.

Remember that the number of 12 volt DC amps used to supply an inverter is about 10% of the watts 120 volt AC output, so 100 AC out watts = 10 amps DC input, etc.

Example:

TV uses 120 watts, inverter draws 12 amps. Your RV battery is a group 24 with 75 amp.hours capacity. You do not want to discahrge the battery to less than 50% of its amp. hr. capacity, so you have a useable 38 Amp. Hours. That would be just a bit over 3 hours of TV use from a fully charged battery.
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Old 06-20-2017, 06:21 PM   #5
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All of the above plus if the coach 12V accessory port is a long way from the battery AND the wire size is small you will get less than full voltage going to the inverter. It might not be the inverters fault, just that it isn't getting enough juice.

I use a small inexpensive inverter for my TV from Walmart and it works well, but my power ports are wired with a large enough gauge wire to not have a problem. On a 12V circuit you need to measure the wire distance for the entire circuit to determine the optimum gauge size to use for the desired output.
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Old 06-23-2017, 06:33 PM   #6
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After some testing I found that at a 10 amp draw from the 12 socket I get a voltage drop of 1.5v. this put the inverter into low battery status.
i am now running some 4g wire to plug the inverter.
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