What size fans and what power requirements for two computers? Off of one
small battery!
Someday I'll figure the point of buying an expensive sealed battery and
cutting the posts to make it fit.
Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Daniel Rotblatt
Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2011 12:50 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Inverter/Aux Battery question

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
>