Adding Inverter

Not A Clue · May 14, 2012

I have a 2009 Fleetwood Fiesta, V10. I now have tow 6V batteries. I would like to put in an inverter as we will be fulltiming in it in a few years. I have a couple of questions.

1) My batteries are under the steps. Has anyone ever remodeled the steps to add a tray for four batteries (total)? I understand that the tray would have to be re-enforced under the steps and maybe from the frame to be able to hold the tray.

2) What would be the best inverter to install? Also would you wire to everything or just a few select outlets.
I know the bigger the inverter to more stuff you can run. The TV and satellite box for sure. It would also be nice to get a couple of minutes out of the microwave and maybe a hair dryer.

I will have to get someone to do the work, so I was wondering what some of my options are?

TIA

Gary RV_Wizard · May 15, 2012

Well, you should wire the outlets you expect to use. You can get by with only one or even just an extension cord from the inverter to somewhere inside, but it's not probably real convenient. But more outlets generally means more cost, so its a tradeoff of cost vs convenience.

One alternative is to plug the shore cord into the inverter output, which powers everything in the coach. However, you would have to power off the converter charger and make sure the fridge and water heater are in LP gas mode rather than electric.

The microwave and hair dryer are huge power draws, so your batteries won't last more than a few minutes (if that) when operating them. You will need at least 4 batteries and some real hefty DC cables to the batteries to do that.

netboy · May 20, 2012

Not A Clue said:
I have a 2009 Fleetwood Fiesta, V10. I now have tow 6V batteries. I would like to put in an inverter as we will be fulltiming in it in a few years. I have a couple of questions.......

Hi, if you are going to have to hire the work done, your best bet on the batteries is to take it to a few places and get their ideas and quotes -- their ideas will be helpful.

You might consider a small cheap inverter for such things as charging camera batteries, running a laptop, and so on. Those ones that plug into a cigarette lighter and put out 100 to 150 watts are usually adequate to run those types of devices.

With 4 batteries, you could get a 2000 watt inverter for running things like you mentioned for a few minutes at a time. I would suggest a decent modified sine wave inverter (most everything these days runs fine on modified sine wave) - no real need to spend the bucks on a true sine wave model. Google "Handy Bob's Solar Blog" for Bob's experience on modified and true sine wave inverters.

To keep things simple, I would have the inverter mounted as close to your batteries as possible, with the size wire recommended by the manufacturer. You can use a regular 120v extension cord to reach your microwave and hair dryer for those few minutes you need to run those devices.

Good luck....

Water Dog · May 29, 2012

Not sure what your step area looks like underneath, but I added two more 6 volt batteries to our 2000 Bounder and Fleetwood was nice enough to leave the space in the existing battery compartment. All I had to do was move the back piece of sheetmetal (which was screwed in with tech screws) back to the frame and build a new battery rack. We installed a 2300 watt true sine wave inverter and transfer switch, but only powered the outlets on one circuit which included both t.v.'s, the outlets around the passenger compartment and desk area...again Fleetwood was good to us in that all the ones we use for electronics were on the same circuit originally. When the dw needs to use the hair dryer or microwave, I run the generator. I did add one outlet in the kitchen area that is inverter powered for those good crock pot meals when traveling.

Not A Clue · May 30, 2012

Water Dog said:
Not sure what your step area looks like underneath, but I added two more 6 volt batteries to our 2000 Bounder and Fleetwood was nice enough to leave the space in the existing battery compartment. All I had to do was move the back piece of sheetmetal (which was screwed in with tech screws) back to the frame and build a new battery rack. We installed a 2300 watt true sine wave inverter and transfer switch, but only powered the outlets on one circuit which included both t.v.'s, the outlets around the passenger compartment and desk area...again Fleetwood was good to us in that all the ones we use for electronics were on the same circuit originally. When the dw needs to use the hair dryer or microwave, I run the generator. I did add one outlet in the kitchen area that is inverter powered for those good crock pot meals when traveling.

Thanks for the heads up on the space, I am going to have to crawl underneath and check it out. Can you still access the back two batteries?

Water Dog · May 30, 2012

Not A Clue said:
Thanks for the heads up on the space, I am going to have to crawl underneath and check it out. Can you still access the back two batteries?

I may have led you to a misunderstanding... :-[ sorry. Ours are not under the steps, but rather in a battery compartment on the opposite side of the mh. What I was trying to say was that if Fleetwood left extra room behind our model, maybe they did something similar in the under step models....don't really know. To answer your question, in ours, there's plenty of access...here's a pic.

Adding Inverter

Not A Clue

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Gary RV_Wizard

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netboy

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Water Dog

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Not A Clue

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Water Dog

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