dc to ac conerter/inverter

[rrohrer]

Me and my wife love the outdoor kitchen idea. rather than a new tt, we got an additional 110v only small fridge for outside. no more using a cooler! as of now, I just run at home and let it in the trailer and plug in when we get to destination. Looking at a sprinter fiver the other day and they have a 12 volt hookup in their outdoor kitchens. salesperson said it was intended for people who wanted to hookup an inverter to run the fridge while driving. great idea. got my wheels turning. could I get an inverter- hardwire it to the dc somehow to run my extra fridge while driving? anyone done something like this?

[chuckster57]

We have put inverters in units for a variety of reasons. Best to find an unused fuse on the 12V side of the power distribution box and run proper gauge wire to the location of the inverter. That way it's on its own circuit. You could run directly from the battery, but if you did I would recommend an inline circuit breaker.

[rrohrer]

Thanks I may try that. May be helpful in more than one way on occasion

[hankpage]

Most inverters large enough to run a small refrigerator should be mounted as close to the battery as possible. You will find they need a large gauge wire on the DC side to supply them, so it is cheaper and more practical to mount them close and run the AC wire to the fridge. JM2¢, Hank

[JRTJH]

The WFCO 8900 series converter/power distribution panel has 11 DC fuse slots. Two are 30 amps and the other 9 are 20 amp rated. There are none rated high enough to power an inverter in the 400 watt range or larger.

Essentially, you can plan on using 1 amp of DC power to produce each 10 watts of AC power. So, a 400 watt inverter will need about 40 amps of DC to operate. There are no "fuse panel circuits" rated high enough to carry that load. Trying to "wire an inverter into the converter assembly" just isn't real practical and probably will put too much heat in that area anyway.

The most practical (and probably the cheapest) solution is to locate the inverter near the battery to use only a small run of "heavy DC wire" to the inverter, then to use 14 or 16 gage AC wire to run the length of the RV to a dedicated plug near the refrigerator. Use a "NON AUTOMATIC RESETTING" 12 volt circuit breaker in line with the heavy gage 12 volt run to the inverter.

If you only have one 12 volt deep cycle battery, you'll probably discharge your battery after 3 or 4 hours of powering the small refrigerator, so consider your available 12 volt power when making the changes to your RV.

Good Luck.

[rrohrer]

ok. thanks. doesn't sound too practical if I would run the battery out in a couple hrs. Would my tow vehicle keep the battery charged while driving? this is when i WOULD BE RUNNING THE FRIDGE OFf THE INVERTER- not while dry camping.

[hankpage]

If you are starting out with a cold fridge you should be fine since it will not be running constantly and if there is any drain it will be recharged when you are on shore power.

[chuckster57]

Originally Posted by rrohrer

Would my tow vehicle keep the battery charged while driving?

As long as your TV was wired properly, one of the connectors in the 7 way plug is a12V charge line. Some are "hot" all the time, others like my Ford truck are only hot with the ignition key in the "run" position.