Converter-Inverter Questions - Hi-Lo camper travel trailer forum

raguillard · 10-13-2017, 09:15 AM

My camper is a 2004, 2404LT. I have found the converter and an inverter. The inverter is not connected to anything but the battery. It has been running since I bought the camper a couple of months ago. I turned it off last night. What should it be doing and connected to what?

JackandJanet · 10-13-2017, 09:59 AM

The Converter changes 117V "shore power" to 12V DC power. It supplies current for your trailer lights, the water pump, furnace fan, etc., AND, it charges your trailer battery.

An Inverter converts 12V DC power to a simulation of 110-120V AC power. I say "simulation", because unless it is an expensive one, the current is not "true sine wave" alternating current. However, it will run simple house power things like heaters, electric motors, phone chargers and so on.

By enlarging your first picture, it appears you have a ground fault interrupted electric power socket on the side. You could plug a phone charger into that if the Inverter is on and charge your phone when not connected to shore power. It also might power other devices such as an electric fan. You would need to determine the Watt output of your inverter to see what it is capable of powering. The Watt output should be listed on the Inverter. Then you can plug things into it that have a lower Watt requirement.

- Jack

hilltool · 10-13-2017, 12:22 PM

To me, thats a pretty big looking inverter. You may want to get model numbers etc off it and google it and see what you got there. I've used a smaller (looking)inverter to run a dvd player and small screen television etc. Inverters are interesting little devices- keep in mind they use MORE power than just whatever is plugged into them. Not only are you drawing the power you need for the device (say a couple amps per hour for a small fan) but you are also using extra power to operate the inverter. However, they are handy in 12v system if you dont have stuff built to run off of DC. Interestingly, laptops and small tvs are built to run on DC but usually have small transformers built into them to transform AC power to DC power.