Adding an Inverter

[RickW]

The wife and I are not dry campers so we decided against putting a generator in our new 3400RL. The only time we do any type of dry camping is when we are between point A & B and need to stop for the night. Always gone first thing next morning so it is just easier to find a safe quite spot to shut down for 8 or so hours.

Any rate it would be nice to have 110v when we do need it. My 3400RL came with a generator pre-wire. I was thinking of doing the following. I am curious if others have done the same or see a problem that I have not thought of.

I have a 3000wt pure swine inverter that I traded some radio gear for. More inverter than I need but hey, use what you have right? I am thinking of mounting it to the wall just above the generator hookup. I was thinking of connecting a 20amp plug to the generator wiring and then plugging that in to my inverter.

I found that the charger for the battery is under the stairs. I see that it is simply plugged in to a standard 110v plug. I was thinking or putting a switch on that plug and mounting the switch by the inverter. So basically when I turn the inverter on, I turn the charger off. And then turn the charger back on when I turn the inverter off.

I know I will be limited by the lack of battery bank but like I said we are not dry campers. I would image this would mostly be used while on the road so that we can use the Microwave long enough to heat lunch or for those few times that we do stop by the side of the road for the night, the wife can run the hair dryer/curling iron in the morning.

Am I on the right track? Am I missing something?

[H. John Kohl]

I do not understand the association of the inverter and converter/battery charger. I would keep the 110 circuits of the inverter separate from the remaining 110 circuits in the trailer.
I guess I need a drawing/picture.

Remember you need 12vDC for the control circuits of your refrigerator, heater thermostat and fan blower and to run the hydraulic slide pumps and the front leveling legs. If you run down your battery those items fail.
Hope this helps.

[ols1932]

If you're going to use an inverter you should increase your battery storage capacity. It doesn't take long to run down one of the wet-cell batteries when running an inverter. You don't realize you are drawing down the battery charge because you're so happy that you have 110 vac, until all of a sudden you have no more battery. John Kohl is correct. You must maintain some 12 vdc for the other things in the rig.

Orv

[HughM]

John and Orv are both right on this one. You have to maintain the 12v while at the same time increase the battery capacity. A single 12v will last a very short time. 2 6volts would be the better choice for overall capacity.
Hugh