Karl suggested that the posts on the battery that I cut off need to be reconnected.  I'll do that and see if that helps - it's a brand new battery.  I'm charging the phones off the cig lighter.  I was also hoping to run a few fans off the 120v for the trip.  2 fans, 2computers, 2 phones - a bit much amperage for the cig lighter I think...  I'll see if I can get this to work before I switch to 12v.  It SHOULD work...

Dan
Los Angeles, CA
'85 Westy Weekender

On Jul 30, 2011, at 9:19 AM, Rob wrote:

> A bad battery would be my guess, take it back to where you got it and show them. My 400w inverter works well off my house battery (it's the same type/size as my start battery) but I only use it when I have some that has to have 120v. My advice would be to get a 12v power source to plug into the battery cigg plug, that's what I'm running my computer & charging my phone with right now (Paradise Point State Park, Woodland WA, site #31, with freeway noise :-(
> 
> Rob
> 
> 
> At  7/29/2011 02:17 PM,Daniel Rotblatt wrote:
>> Well, I just got back from a trip to Mammoth Lakes (separate post on that) and got a chance to try out the aux battery and inverter I got.  The problem I had was that with the car off, the inverter didn't get enough power to work.  When hooked up (and I tried two inverters and got the same results), the voltage would drop from 12.6 to about 8.x volts - not enough to run the inverter and it would automatically shut off.  Thus, the only time I could charge the computers (keeping the kids happy), etc., was when the car was running.  Is this how it works?  What is the need for a aux battery, i could have just hooked up the inverter to the main battery and not used it when the car wasn't going an saved $175 on the aux battery.
>> 
>> Hook-up:
>> -brand new yellow top battery
>> -Stock attachement to the starting battery (had to replace the relay)
>> -Inverter hooked directly to the terminals of the yellow top - about 4' of wire, (I tried just 8 gauge with about 3' of wire, and finally with 3' of 8 gauge and a few feet of 12 gauge hooked to that with a cigarette plug since that's what was on the inverter).
>> -Inverter is a 375 watt Tripp-lite (good reviews on amazon).
>> -Voltage at the battery (when new) was ~12.7 , with car running it's ~13.6, with car not running and inverter attached it's ~8.5
>> -All the inverters I saw shut off at a little over 10 Volts....
>> 
>> So...is that what's supposed to happen or is something not right?  I'm planning a trip to New Mexico next week, so it would be nice to have it working.
>> 
>> 
>> Dan
>> Los Angeles, CA
>> '85 Westy Weekender
>