Today's Inverters - What's Good?

[dedmiston]

I haven't shopped for an inverter in ages. We installed a nice big Xantrex in our last toy hauler eleven years or so ago. I don't remember spending an arm and a leg, but it was very high quality. I had Camping World install it and they wired it so the inverter would power the entire coach. Perfect.

I assume things have evolved and technology has improved in the decade+ since I last shopped for inverters. I’m looking for info and advice on what’s good these days. Ideally I would like to power every 110 outlet again so we don’t have to pick and choose which outlets can run off inverted power.

As far as usage goes, it would be nice to run a TV or two. Everyone will have their gizmos plugged in to recharge. The most important use case is to run some medical equipment overnight.

The two things that seem to be different about our new toy hauler:

* It’s HUGE, but it doesn’t have a ton of 110 outlets so the power consumption probably won’t be extreme.
* It has two televisions installed, versus the zero TVs we had in the old rig. It also has a functional HD antenna that makes it possible to watch OTA channels. I assume the family will turn them on more often now that it’s so simple to get a signal. Time will tell.
* I’ve only been able to find one 12v outlet so far. Our old rig had quite a few 12v outlets that we could use for charging phones, etc. Not this one.

Thanks in advance for guidance and wisdom, or just wise remarks.

[johnboytoo]

It depends...

the 12v outlet need - no big deal - just get some adapters - cheap and usable.

re the medical equip, get a portable unit you can run off an isolated battery... do you have a generator to charge up batteries ? Honda portables are QUIET and good.

the power need is another story -
first you need to figure out how much power you USE,
then you can get what you need to provide it
you will need BATTERIES - preferably four or more 6V high amp-hr
and I really like our Magnum invertor...
look on youtube for the solar guys and what they use...

good luck !

[dedmiston]

Thanks Johnny - I'm in the process of replacing the single 12v battery to two sets of two 6v. I've had good luck in the past with four 6v batteries. Even if/when one goes south, you still have a good bank of two 6v that will get us through the trip.

Our 5th wheel has an a good onboard gen for topping off the batteries during the day and running the greedy appliances like the microwave and the air conditioners.

[campingcpl]

We have an 800 watt Samlex modified sine wave inverter which is wired to run outlets in the living room and bedroom. We are able to run the TV in the bedroom or in the living room or use it for a small table top fan.

Ours doesn't have an automatic transfer switch so had to get creative with the wiring. For your needs I would recommend something with a built in transfer switch and since you are looking to run some medical equipment you will probably want something in a pure sine wave.