Hi Shawn,

I have the  Mastercraft "digital" 400W inverter, and have used it for
2 seasons. It only supports a 160W continuous load; just barely
enough for a 13" Walmart TV and an Xbox. Even a 10W light-bulb over
that will overload it.

Last week I bought the Xantrex 1000W inverter... The specs say it
will support a sustained 1000W load, and 1200W is possible for up to
5 minutes.  I don't plan to ever pull 1000W, but it will be nice to
have a wee bit of overhead available if I need to recharge my laptop
while we're on the road.

The thing is also a LOT bigger than my 400W inverter... It's about
12" x 6" x 3" and weighs in at about 5 lbs.

Happy trails,

Greg Potts
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

1973/74/79 Westfakia Conversion **Bob the Tomato**  LY3H
1977 Sunroof Automatic L63H/L90D
http://www.pottsfamily.ca/westfakia
http://www.busesofthecorn.com

On 27-Feb-06, at 10:53 PM, Shawn Wright wrote:

> I got the 300W model for $25 last year, and it's very nice. I used
> it this morning to grind my
> coffee, as we had a nasty windstorm last night and the power was
> out. I wanted to know if it
> would run a coffee grinder... now I know. I can't imagine needing
> 1000W in a vanagon
> though!
> We've also used it to watch movies on my laptop + 17" LCD &
> speakers during another
> power outage at home - works great, although the fan is a bit noisy
> on high speed.
>
> On 26 Feb 2006 at 22:38, Dennis Haynes <dhaynes@OPTONLINE.NET> wrote:
>
>> http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/837/docserve.asp
>>
>> Note that they want a #2 battery cable, not longer than 5 feet
>> long to
>> support this thing. At a 120 amp draw you need to be real careful
>> operating it with the engine running. The alternator will not like
>> this
>> load. If using the Optima battery, you probably should have 4.
>>
>> Dennis
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On
>> Behalf
>> Of Tom Rowsell
>> Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 7:38 PM
>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Subject: Canadian Tire "Xantrex" 1000w Inverter 1/2 price
>>
>> On this week for $74.99 Canadian,
>> see
>> http://www.canadiantire.ca/assortments/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%
>> 3C%3Ep
>> rd_id=845524443281869&FOLDER%3C%
>> 3EbrowsePath=2534374303517494&FOLDER%3C%
>> 3EbrowsePath=2534374303517530&FOLDER%3C%
>> 3EbrowsePath=1408474396670122&FO
>> LDER%3C%3Efolder_id=1408474396670122&ASSORTMENT%3C%
>> 3East_id=140847439667
>> 0271&bmUID=1140481244755
>> Manufacturer site http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/23/p/1/pt/7/
>> product.asp
>>
>> Tom
>> http://tomrowsell.com
>>
>
>
> Shawn Wright
> http://members.shaw.ca/vwdiesels
> '88 Westy 1.6TD 5 speed
> '82 Diesel Westy 1.6NA
> '85 Jetta Diesel 1.6NA
>
>