Eagles International Forum

I have been contemplating....err thinking again....about an inverter. I know nothing about them, never owned one.

Now keep in mind I have champagne taste on a Boone's Farm budget.

Don't really need a big one at this point, just will start out small and work our way up to what the big boys are using....Y'all know who you are....

So spare me the sales pitch and tell me what to look for so I don't buy something I can't use or costs as much as a Marathon...Please....

Thanks in advance for your help in lightening up our wallets.

Here is my opinion ...and you all know how opinions are. Just run the generator and forget about an inverter....more and more entertainer coaches are going to a two genset system running 24-7 and no inverters ....inverters have been the cause of more thermal events ( fire ) than anything else ...they get hotter than the bejesus and poof ! .....we upped the alt on the motor to 250A ..as well as the alt on the genset to feed the 12V systems ...when the gen is running it is feeding the coach batteries...and the powerplant is running the house ...all the 110 is being fed by the 15 kw genset ....no house batteries .

Now yes it does become an issue when you need to change the oil and service the genset as you are dead in the water ....but do it in the cool of the evening or early morning and you are only down for an hour tops ...and also I do not have roof airs ...I have two furnaces and air handlers with seperate controls running off a 3.0 ton house unit in the bay .......fire both up in deep south texas and you could hang meat ...LOL!!

Paul, check out the inverter store .com they sell Aims which is a good inverter for the price and you don't need a pure sine a modifed will work on most items if you don't have a charger buy one with the built feature.On 12 volt systems you are limted to watts but a 1500w to 2000w will take care of everything for you.I have stacked 2500w for a total of 5000w and the cooktop will kill my batteries in a hurry.I have been waiting on the new 12v inverter from Magnum for 2 years now.You can buy a 2000w Aims with charger and remote for around 300 bucks I think, they do cut down on genrator time good luck

Clifford

All good points! I'm thinking of an inverter to run say the fridge while underway, maybe one AC in the front. Mostly to keep the food cold, don't want to have the propane on, it's a Norcold. Would rather only run the genset if we are driving in hot weather to keep us cool. Planning on a long trip to Oregon in June. What size would best suite us? Or is it really worth it, run the genset for a while and shut it down might be the ticket.

Just looking for experience from those who have been there and done that, sounds like you have, Thanks.

Gee Clifford, I was writing a reply and saw yours, I'll check it out. Thanks a bunch.

Paul, you going to get into the pricey range trying to run the AC off a inverter and you will need a good size battery bank and trying to run the Norcold on electric going down the road doesn't work that baby uses a lot juice on electric.
Knowing what I know now no way would I have a total electric coach we use ours and electric is not the way to go for us runnig a generator 4 or 5 hrs a day to charge the battery bank like they say KISS
good luck
Clifford[

See, that's why I asked the question, cause I'm a Dummy when it comes to the experienced fellers. What you said is making sense to me now. I guess maybe the way to go is use the genset. One less thing to go wrong or worry about. I sure don't need any more headaches and I want to keep the smoke in. I will have to have some 12v for the fridge, so maybe one or two batts will work. Then charge them with a smart charger?

The reason for the charger is I have a very old Onan, air cooled 12.5 KW gen. Don't know of any other way to charge the batts other than the charger. Any thoughts, or am I really missing something? I have not had the gen out of the bay to really get to know it. I have to stand on my head just to check the oil. I'm assuming, and that's scary, there is no way to add an alternator to it. How wrong am I?

~Paul~

I can't answer any of the other questions but I do know that my generator has an alternator on it...

Dale, I was going to say something nasty, but I thought..........

I suggest you call Dick Wright at Wrico. He's a real nice guy and will take the time to chat with you about your needs and ideas, and the pros and cons. I have heard good reports about the new Outback equipment.

I myself like my all electric coach, don't like propane. I have 8 AGM 8D batteries and a 24V house system. I have a 200 amp charging system dedicated to charging my bats whenever the engine is running. If we drive say 2-3 hours a day, the batteries are at 100% when we stop. What that means is that if we drive a little every day, we never have to run the generator at all. When boondocking, a one hour gen run daily is enough to maintain for a few days if we're stationary. Am running a Xantrex SW4024 inverter (4,000W). No troubles so far but I have only put about 14,000 miles on the coach. The SW4024 is quite complicated, and I have not totally mastered all it's features yet, but I'm learning. Not sure how long my bats will run one air conditioner, but I suspect about 6 hours or so.

Once again before you leap into this important a decision, I would speak to Dick.