Monday, August 26, 2013

New Inverter

I just ordered a new Cobra 1575 watt inverter with remote from Costco's website. It was $159. We run the "extra" fridge above the driver's seat when we travel and up till now we were running it off a 760 watt inverter fastened to the wall behind the passenger seat. Sometimes (most of the time) it was difficult to connect because of the voltage drop in the 12 volt cabling to the inverter. I paralleled two runs of #6 cable the ten feet or so to the batteries but the initial draw of the fridge would send the inverter into alarm mode when the fridge's compressor cut in on initial startup. I would have to turn the inverter on, give it a few seconds and then plug in the fridge. If it alarmed, I would start the truck and the generator to pump as much voltage as possible into the inverter. Sometimes this would not even work and we would have to wait until we were on the road for a few minutes and the batteries were at full charge before trying it again. Sometimes it took multiple tries and was a little frustrating.

This new inverter will be about three feet from the battery powered by #4 cable and the fridge will be powered by an AC extension cord run under the rig and up behind the fridge. This will minimize any voltage drop and should be the answer to our problems. I will leave the old inverter where it is and use it to power the front TV and satellite gear as well as the computer and miscellaneous chargers. I might be able to eventually eliminate both the old inverter and the 175 watt inverter in the bedroom (for the rear TV and satellite) but only after finding out how loud the new one runs. I will experiment with it this winter.

There are two possible locations for the new inverter. Under the dinette seat closest to the door and behind a wall vent under the fridge. Under the fridge is easier to access but is quite crowded. There is tons of room under the seat but the cushions and plywood have to be removed to get at it. I will have to think on it some more. It may come down to which location is easiest to run cables to.

Now I wait for delivery.

10 comments:

  1. We also have a 1,500 watt inverter. I've got it wired to the batteries with 6 feet of #4 welding cable. But you've got the right idea...the shorter the distance the better.

    Only problem we have the that size of inverter is that it's really too big. Very rare that we use it for anything bigger than the laptops, so it turns out that the inverter itself uses a lot of battery power simply being turned on.

    But for your situation it sounds like you're only going to be using it while driving so conserving battery power isn't as big of an issue.

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    1. Too bad we are not close enough for a trade...

      The Cobra draws 0.6 amps at 12.6V (8 watts) with no load.

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    2. Humm... In contrast the old Schumacher 760 no load draw is "<0.6" amps.

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  2. One thing for sure... gotta have enough fridge space for the extra cerveza and RV fridges are usually short on that.

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    1. We are always short on fridge space Bill. The extra fridge is great for beer, water, pop etc, things that will not go bad when we are boondocking for the night in a Walmart and the fridge is off.

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  3. Very cool! I want a larger inverter so we can make all the outlets live.

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  4. That seems like a very good price for the 1500 watt Cobra Inverter. I'll be curious to learn how well it works for you.

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    1. The noise factor is the big question. The old MH had an inverter under the bedroom floor and it was so loud we had to turn it off at night. One thing about the Schumacher is that it is completely silent.

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  5. That should work great we have a 1200 watts inverter with about 4 feet of #4 cable and 14 guage wire extension cord running under the coach to a power bar at the front, works great.
    The remote switch is in the bedroom so we can turn off the inverter at night when not needed while boondocking.

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    1. THANK YOU GEORGE! What a great idea to put the remote switch beside the bed, I did not think of that.

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