Powering The Camper Without A Generator

[LongIslandCamper]

95% of the time we have electric hookups but there's one local beach campground that only has water. When we've stayed in the past we simply used cheap inverters outside of the generator hours to charge our phones, watch TV, power fans and power the cpap at night. That worked ok but then we

I finally purchased a PSW inverter that I hooked directly to the battery. Then I plug the camper power cord into the inverter and presto, I've got power at EVERY outlet in the camper and I don't have to worry about extension cords anymore.

This will make life so much easier for us and I can't wait to try it out on the next trip that's coming up.

[Bassdogs]

Not without a big battery bank to push the inverter. Details!!

[Ladywendolyn]

What is the name and brand? Do you have a link to a site to show it? Also did you buy a second marine battery to run it?

[tnchuck100]

If your intention is to use things as you would with shore power, excluding A/C, you should consider 4 Trojan T105 6V 225AH golf cart batteries. This will give you 450 amp hours. Really only 200 amp hours if you want the maximum life from the batteries.

[LongIslandCamper]

Ok guys. I just got done with a week long dry camping trip so now I can give better details. Here is the inverter I bought. Link I never got to really test the inverter until this trip.

I got to my site about 1:30, set everything up and then ran the genny from 5-9pm. At 9pm I switched to my inverter and watched TV until about 11:30. I also had my phone charging, a laptop plugged in as well as an FM transmitter plugged in. The microwave, AC and electric water heater breakers were shut off. Fridge on gas. I only used one or two lights from about 9pm-12 and they are LED panels anyway. The water pump was used sparingly for 2 flushes and to brush my teeth.

I woke up around 7am and my dual battery setup was reading 1/3. My batteries were fully charged since the camper was plugged in at home before the trip and then I had the genny running all evening too.

Over the next 2 days I didn't used the inverter at all and barely used the batteries at all since I was at the beach or at another camper. I was charging the batteries for around 6 hours each day.

One night after the genny hours ended I hooked the inverter back up but this time I switched off the converter breaker. The only problem with shutting that breaker was that it also cut off power to the living room and bedroom outlets since they are on the same breaker as the converter. I still has live outlets in the bathroom, kitchen and outside though.

So from about 9pm-7am I used one or two LED light panels at a time, the TV and radio for a bit, the water pump for a flush or two, the inverter, and also had my phone charging. When I woke at 7am the battery gauge was still reading full.

I used the inverter with the converter breaker switched off for the next few nights with the same result, batteries full when I got up. The converter was clearly the power hog which I had already known going into my test.

Once this season is over I'm going to see about permanently installing the inverter in the camper. For this trip I only placed it on top of the batteries when I was using it. I'm also going to see about installing another breaker in my panel so the converter and bedroom/living room outlets are on different breakers.

[Threebutchers]

Originally Posted by cm11599ps

I woke up around 7am and my dual battery setup was reading 1/3.

What is "1/3" in term of voltage?.... just curious

[Mustang65]

Lost the last post... trying again... probably "USER ERROR".. I too would like to know what your 1/3 #'s were. The first thing you want to do when using an inverter is to wire the TT's charge controller to its own AC breaker. That way you can eliminate it from the AC when using the inverter. It will definitely put a big discharge on your system when running off batteries. I wired mine to its own breaker and since I went solar (4 months), it has been in the off position. When traveling to the next campground, the solar panel/TV keeps the batteries at full charge, and that is with the fridge running on AC. When you permanently wire in the inverter, make sure you keep it as close to the batteries as possible and fuse the 12VDC side of the inverter. I used ANL fuses for that (AMAZON.com). With my solar (hate generators) my batteries are at full charge by 2 or 3PM each day. That is with using the laptop, TV, radio, charging phones, wifi when available. In 2014 I am planning on adding 2 additional batteries and 1 additional solar panel.

Totally happy with the set up.

Don

[David472]

If your area has cool temperatures, and you need to run the furnace, its blower motor can be a power hog, so you may want to keep an eye on that also.

[Bigmike1461]

I have the same trailer as you and I am using a Aimes Pure sine wave 600 watt inverter and I only have it tied into an outlet under my tv and it is for the tv and DVD player and a seven outlet power strip for phone and IPad chargers.I have two Rv 12 volt deep cycle batteries that are a year old and I can go 3 days with out the using a generator.I have a relay switch so when I plug in to gen or shore power the inverter shuts off and when I unplug it comes back on if the switch is still on.Every light in my trailer is LED so I can most likely go a few more days with only batterie power.