IMHO..Mickywaves are too much for a little ol 12" battery. I'd get a little Honda generator instead...more versatile.

 

how about multiple invertors? a couple 2000 wat units should help, like havin each recepticle wired to its own breaker. 190 bux can get ya a 2000 watt coleman, I have one booikmarked case I ever "need to buy one"

 

I can see it now. Generator dwarfed by muffler.

 

There is no comparison in the type of inverter you mention to an "inverter". Cheap inverters are cheap - no other way to say it. Don't waste your money. If you put the output on a scope, you would be amazed to see the waveshape. You do not get the same power out of one. It may say 2000w, but try to run something with it. My little cheapy I use in the truck for charging batteries while driving will hardly run a small fan. Hook the same fan to the outlet in the fiver running on the inverter and will blow you over. You do not get the same power from a square wave or modified sine wave you will from a true sine wave inverter. It is back to the old thing - you get what you pay for. If that $200 2K inverter would do what you think it might, there would be no $1500 2K inverters.

The control you have over your electric when using a good inverter/charger is very reassuring while dry camping. The readout of the control panel lets you know exactly where you are. And, when firing up the genny, I get a faster recharge with the three stage charger all the while it is monitoring my battery temperature to make sure it is not charging too fast. If so, it backs down on charging voltage. And the readout is very accurate to let me know the condition of the batteries to determine when I need to recharge. I have had a good inverter in the last three RV's and would not be without one. We love the state and national parks and the rec areas. Many of them are dry camping. To me, the inverter is vital to enjoying that experience and allowing those near you to enjoy theirs also.
Bob

 

I cahecked on prices and it seems that it may be better to ditch the invertor and just buy a new quiet gnerator instead of my banging baby, however I may weld a big muffler an try that first, the benfit as i see it is that i could then run ac also, if I got one that was turned on by draw it wouldn't run whenit wasn't needed. I may trade off the 5th wheel on a tent

 

Yeah its 34" long. Could't do it if it was not mounted on the small trailer. We usually hook it to the 4 wheeler to pull it around. It will run all of our TT { 30' Dutchman} and we have a disconnect on the house to, so we can plug into TT plug and feed the house. Just have to kinda watch what you use and don't overload it. It's a Coleman 5000 watt. Sure is quiet though.

 

Yeah those Cheap Colemans with either the 10H.P Briggs or Tecumseh are loud like a stock car........


The $7 muffler is just there for looks I think.

 

I've seen small motor/generators which do a better job running inductive motors like A/C's. They require big batteries just the same though but they're quieter than gas or diesel generators. I'd love to have a diesel generator for standby power though.

I'm thinking of getting some solar panels, big golf cart batteries and taking off for the boonies. A good inverter would be nice for the microwave but 12 vold lights are adequate for most things. I like the quartz halogen ones because they're more efficient.

Edwin

 

As said for batteries go with the 6 volt golf cart models. They are generally a bit cheaper than the RV 12 volt models at least the ones I have seen and also have a higher amp rating, if I recall correctly they run in the 215 to 235 amp hour range. As soon as my 12 volt models need replacing I am going with the 6 volt. (that could be this spring)

 

I have done this conversion and it's a good one. The battery tray on my RV happened to be sized for two batteries and the 2 - 6 volters happened to fit perfectly. You don't just double the capacity because the cell separators take up space that would otherwise be filled with lead. So for a given volume, a six volt battery with 3 cells will have more lead than a six cell 12 volter. More lead = more capacity.

Edwin

 

AHHH, size for size, 2 - 6'ers will give more capacity than 2 - 12v'ers. And they have a much longer life span and can be discharged deeper without hurting them. They will take many more recharges than the typical RV/Marine batteries we are familiar with.