Club 80-90 Forums

weve got one of those small honda ones.we used it at thomas dads farm on the iow it ran a telly all night ,fridge,leasure charger etc and it worked out a pound a night.

jed

ghost123uk wrote:Yup

And if you do need mains, a decent, big battery and an inverter is what I use.
Then if you need to charge it up, go for a lil drive

I know, in a previous thread, some said that it takes xx hours to re-charge a battery, but I have not found this to be the case in practice.

Ooops bit of a "hijack" going on here sorry maximus.

Have to say there are many good bargains around it seems, and quietness would be first on my list list of priorities.

Bloody hijackers should be deported

I don't like gennys running into the night either it will be used for wild camping mainly so as not to disturb peeps ............... some good advice cheers

Tell me about inverters As I know nowt about those

Shiny alloy box that connects to your 12 Volt leisure battery, converts to 240 Volts. Has a standard 3 pin socket on the end, so you can plug in standard domestic appliances. They are rated in Watts output. Just need to decide what you are going to run from it, and then how many Watts you will need. Got mine off Ebay brand new, 1500 watts continuous rating, think I paid around £60 for it, can`t remember now, but it was cheap at the time. It`s a good quality one as well. Tried it out with an electric drill and it ran that no probs. I got a large rated one because you never know what you might want to plug into it one day, and as they say, "if you`re gonna` have one, have a big `un"

The higher the watts rating, the bigger the cables you need to connect to your 12v battery, mine has big cables with croc clips so it has to be clipped directly to the battery, am going to extend the cables from the leisure battery under the seat with some large amps rated stuff so it can be placed on the top of the cupboard over the top of the fridge, and will run microwave and telly from it on there (when needed if there is no mains hook-up)

Thanks Westy, I only want to run a a tv and 500w Oil filled rad from it so a 1500 will do for me then??


Because its only got one 3 pin sockett on the end can you have a couple say to run 2 thing ie: heat and telly??

What kind of drain on the battery is there??

You could buy two, but it`s easier and cheaper to plug in a lead with multiple sockets on it Just don`t exceed the max. load.

Sorry maximus, but you can't really run a 500W heater off an inverter.
It will flatten the battery in no time.

500 Watts = about 41 Amps plus losses, so a 45 Amp Hour battery would be well flat in less than an hour !!

Whereas a telly only draws about 5amps...as does a DVD player.

Eklektic heaters love amps so unless you hook it up... stick to gas or fuel powered ones

Thanks guys i'll stick to the telly then! with me thermal undies on

I bought myself an invertor from Maplins last year for £20. 150 watts output, with a 450 watts peak. Plugs into the cigarette lighter socket. I plug my laptop into it to watch DVD's on-for the kids-and to charge up my mobile phone, and rechargeable batterys. You can even get a 2000 watt one now, but that just might be taking it a bit too far......

Dubstar wrote:I bought myself an invertor from Maplins last year for £20. 150 watts output, with a 450 watts peak. Plugs into the cigarette lighter socket. I plug my laptop into it to watch DVD's on-for the kids-and to charge up my mobile phone, and rechargeable batterys. You can even get a 2000 watt one now, but that just might be taking it a bit too far......

All the above from a cigarette lighter socket which is normally connected to the vehicle battery!

Now if it's connected to the leisure battery that's a different matter.

Saw a good genny the other month powering a Walzter(ride) need a strong tow hitch though

Dubstar wrote:I bought myself an invertor from Maplins last year for £20. 150 watts output, with a 450 watts peak. Plugs into the cigarette lighter socket. I plug my laptop into it to watch DVD's on-for the kids-and to charge up my mobile phone, and rechargeable batterys. You can even get a 2000 watt one now, but that just might be taking it a bit too far......

I have no tab lighter in my van, would like on that goes onto the battery with croc clips do Maplins sell these type do you know??

Good prices on Ebay. Has your Westy got the small Westfalia socket in the dash? Just fitted an extra normal size cig socket on mine, there was an extra hole already in the dash next to the westy one, so I dremeled it out bigger and fitted a socket from JK, then wired it through a fuse to the leisure battery with big amp cable, just in case and to compensate for the length of wire.

If you get a big capacity inverter, make sure you don`t try and plug it into the cig lighter socket! The large output ones should only be used direct to the battery as I said earlier, either croc clips, or heavy amperage cables kept as short as possible.

Maplins do ones with crocodile clips too, but mine was just about the smallest one they did, so no need. Although you could cut the plug off and put your own croc clips on, or wire it straight to the battery. I've never flattened my battery with it yet, as I hardly use it that much, and it doesn't need that much to run my laptop or mobile phone charger. I do run the van for 5 minutes or so every couple of hours if I have it on, but to be heonest we only watch DVD's if it's raining as we're usually on the beach having fun. Roll on the summer