Inverter - 2015 22FB Sport

[Frank&Mike]

I'm confused. Has anyone had an Inverter installed on their Sport? I'm still confused on it's purpose and if we need one. Any input is most appreciated.

[idroba]

An inverter changes 12 volts DC to 120 volts AC. If you are boon docking, and need 120 volts AC to run things that you feel essential to your camping experience, you may want an inverter. Otherwise they are unnecessary.

You cannot run high power things which are on for long times such as an air conditioner. There simply is not enough power in the battery (s) to do that. Even though you can run a microwave ovens on an inverter, for very short time periods, the microwave must be a very small one and not used much.

Your sport only has one battery I believe, and it would make the use of an inverter even more iffy.

12 volt power can be used to charge cell phones and other small items. An inverter would be handy to power a laptop, however. Televisions mostly run on 120 volts AC (some on 12 volts DC though) and would need an inverter to operate when camping away from 120 volt power.

Which brings up the point again, if you are camping with 120 volt power available an inverter is totally unnecessary.

I boondock camped for many years without an inverter and did just fine. I have an inverter now and it is handy but not necessary even now.

Hope that helps.

[Frank&Mike]

Thank you idroba. Your explanation of the Inverter, it's application and your experience of its use will save me $ that I would have likely otherwise spent that are not necessary.

[Jim Arnold]

I had the same question. Thank you for your answer also!!

[twbucksr]

Do you power all of your outlets thru your inverter or just a select few? We would like to run a small fan while sleeping when Boondocking.

[OTRA15]

I regret to inform you that idroba has moved on to greener pastures.

Rest In Peace . . .



http://www.airforums.com/forums/f161...ba-150067.html

[twbucksr]

Thanks for letting us know about IDROBA. Nice obit written in the forum. I'm sure I will find more of his posts as I continue to research this topic.

[Frank&Mike]

Originally Posted by OTRA15

I regret to inform you that idroba has moved on to greener pastures.

Rest In Peace . . .



http://www.airforums.com/forums/f161...ba-150067.html

He will be missed ... what a kind person and his postings are a reflection of that.

[Backfortyjoe]

Originally Posted by twbucksr

Do you power all of your outlets thru your inverter or just a select few? We would like to run a small fan while sleeping when Boondocking.

On the 2016 Bambi that we have there is not an inverter so I exchanged the one the tv is plugged into for the exact same thing except it has a cigarette lighter hole. It has the tv amplifier also. It is a Winegard, bought at Amazon for $20. Model RV-7042. I use a 100 watt inverter that plugs into it for the tv. The TV in the Bambi uses less than 30 watts so it is a great fit. Bigger than 100 to 150watt inverters generally have a built in fan to cool itself. That is noisy and uses power as well. Hope this helps.

[Jhess]

Originally Posted by Backfortyjoe

On the 2016 Bambi that we have there is not an inverter so I exchanged the one the tv is plugged into for the exact same thing except it has a cigarette lighter hole. It has the tv amplifier also. It is a Winegard, bought at Amazon for $20. Model RV-7042. I use a 100 watt inverter that plugs into it for the tv. The TV in the Bambi uses less than 30 watts so it is a great fit. Bigger than 100 to 150watt inverters generally have a built in fan to cool itself. That is noisy and uses power as well. Hope this helps.

That makes sense to me, except I don't follow how you got 12V DC to hookup to the back side of the Winegard. I thought only 120V AC would be going into the box you replaced. Where did the 12V DC come from?

[Boxite]

My original Television died during the previous ownership and I negotiated the price based upon my replacing it. I bought a cheap $99 flat-screen from WalMart which was an exact replacement mounting. It uses a small charger-plug which (reading it's label) converts 110VAC to 12VDC to run the TV.
While dry-camping recently, I used an ordinary male 12V plug inserted in the Winegard amplifier on the AS. (So, the Winegard is obviously 12V also, as it has the small cable-jumper, the green LED indicator lamp, and 12v female socket all on the same faceplate above the refer/adjacent the TV.) So, while dry-camping the TV can be run straight from the Winegard Amplifier 12V socket. (Along with a Bluetooth boosted-speaker which improves the small TV audio, and also the Blu-Ray/DVD player, all 3 being commonly hooked to the TV from which they all receive 12V power.)
We watched the hideous 3d debate and follow-ups for two hours while running the refer and furnace on the simple, flooded-cell automotive Group 24 Walmart battery on our 22' Sport. No problem.

WM and others sell 60-100 watt cigar-lighter-plug inverters for less than $20 if your TV doesn't run on 12V.

Additionally... if you want a fan... stop at any 18-wheeler truck stop and pick up a 12V table-top fan for a few bucks.

Altho' I already own a 1200 watt inverter for installation (won it for a door-prize)... I've put off installing it because I cannot figure out what I'd use it for. It won't run AC or MW or hair-dryer because it's too small... and those are the only things we'd miss while dry camping/boondocking.

BTW, just for those wondering:
An INVERTER is named so because if you look at 12VDC on an oscilloscope you'll see a single waveform ABOVE the horizontal line. So and Inverter ...INVERTS that positive waveform to a negative waveform which is also seen BELOW the line... such that it now resembles the Above/Below (alternating above/below) waveform of alternating current.
A CONVERTER (such as your Airstream already has) takes the positive/negative waveform and ...CONVERTS it to a positive/above-the-line wave only thereby mimicking Direct-Current only. (It does this after first transforming it from 110V to 12V.) Hence, the naming conventions of "inverter" and "converter".
And now, back to our regular programming....

[Backfortyjoe]

Originally Posted by Jhess

That makes sense to me, except I don't follow how you got 12V DC to hookup to the back side of the Winegard. I thought only 120V AC would be going into the box you replaced. Where did the 12V DC come from?

Hey Jhess, the 12vdc is there on the backside of the box like you say to run the amplifier to the antenna. The Wineguard that I suggested just uses that 12 Vdc to also supply power to the cig lighter socket that comes on the new box. It still will have the 120v ac for the plug in for shore power. The unit is all prewired and looks identical to the one you are replacing except for the new cig socket. Just remove the wires from the old unit and place them in the new exactly the same place. Should not be a problem for you. If so, let me know. Hope this helps, Joe

[Jhess]

Got it. Thanks!

[Rpatrick16]

I added an inverter to my 2016 22FB Sport shortly after i bought it. It all started with adding a 2nd battery followed by the inverter install. I wanted the capacity to use medical equipment while boon docking and to enable the tv and other small appliances. I did this back in March and it has worked very well. Here is a link to my posts under the title "We Made Some Changes".

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f295...ml#post1793488

Posts 127 to 131 pretty much cover the story including photos of my "mods".

Hope this helps you.

Pat

[MCM78LC]

Originally Posted by Backfortyjoe

On the 2016 Bambi that we have there is not an inverter so I exchanged the one the tv is plugged into for the exact same thing except it has a cigarette lighter hole. It has the tv amplifier also. It is a Winegard, bought at Amazon for $20. Model RV-7042. I use a 100 watt inverter that plugs into it for the tv. The TV in the Bambi uses less than 30 watts so it is a great fit.

@backfortyjoe, I just successfully made the swap for the Winegard 7042 cover plate outlet. I get the green light for the antenna--yay! I get a blue light when I plug in a 12v phone charger--yay! I am not, however, getting enough power out of the 12v outlet (with or without the antenna button enabled) to power a 12v fan from the charger plug in, or from adding my small 100w Energizer inverter. What up? Any ideas? I have the 16' Sport, but all these should be equal.

I welcome ideas for troubleshooting.

[Backfortyjoe]

Originally Posted by MCM78LC

@backfortyjoe, I just successfully made the swap for the Winegard 7042 cover plate outlet. I get the green light for the antenna--yay! I get a blue light when I plug in a 12v phone charger--yay! I am not, however, getting enough power out of the 12v outlet (with or without the antenna button enabled) to power a 12v fan from the charger plug in, or from adding my small 100w Energizer inverter. What up? Any ideas? I have the 16' Sport, but all these should be equal.

I welcome ideas for troubleshooting.

I just found the model RV-7042 that I ordered and it has no plug ins for phone chargers. Must not be the same one? 1 green lite for amplifier when plugged in. I also use the 100w inverter and plug the TV into that. It does say the cig lighter will give you 8 amps which is fairly close to your 100 w fan. Make sure that your wiring is correct on the backside. Easy to make a mistake there because it’s fairlt tight. Good luck and let me know how you come out. Joe

[Boxite]

Been away from the forums for awhile and just coming back to see this thread active again. Re-reading thru it all …I see my earlier post isn’t exactly clear.
The little TV I acquired at WM only LOOKs like it requires 120v (household) AC current…because its power-plug has a household two-prong plug. BUT…that plug is actually a small inverter…it’s a little 2” box that plugs into the wall…with a wire that goes to the TV and plugs into the TV using what appears to simulate a small stereo-plug. The little “box” plug has a label on it that indicates it converts 120VAC to 12VDC. SO… the TV is actually a 12V DC television that has an inverter-power-plug to enable it to use household current.

The 22’ Airstream Sport has a Wingard TV outlet with a coax antenna connector and a “cigar-lighter” socket that provides 12V DC. So I DON’T USE the wall-plug/box/inverter that came with this TV. I use instead a commonly available cigar-lighter power-cable and run the TV directly from that Winegard outlet. (which by the way is also a signal-amplifier and that is why it must be “turned on” by pushing the little button that lights up the little green indicator on it.)
NO INVERTER is needed to run a 12V DC appliance, including TVs.

Another thing about Inverters: They are horribly IN-efficient. They take 100% of their rated DC power from your battery…and only deliver about 30% of that to your appliance. The wasted 70% of electricity results in HEAT…and that is why an inverter needs a fan….to keep it from burning up. So if you buy a 120V AC appliance and plan to run it off an inverter you are actually throwing away a lot of power out of your battery. It is FAR MORE EFFICIENT to simply purchase 12V DC versions of the appliance. (TV, Fan, Stereo, Video-player, etc.)
And when we were boondocking in NM we watched several 2-hour DVDs on that little TV as well as those awful presidential debates and never ran out of power from our little Group 24 Walmart battery on the front of our 22’ Bambi.

Do I have an inverter? Yes. I bought a $25 400 watt inverter from Pep Boys because they had a coupon for $20-Off on any inverter. I installed that ($5) inverter beneath the drivers seat of my tow-vehicle (1500 Ram PU) and use it to drive the $39 HF compressor for my trainhorns. My wife sets a Slow-cooker or her Insta-Pot on the floor behind my seat and plugs it in and cooks dinner while we drive. (Oh, the smell of New England Pot-Roast while driving thru the Santa Fe area…. Yum!)
And when we were dry-camping (no hookups) in Chaco-Canyon I needed to make a wire repair by soldering…. I plugged an extension-cord into the little inverter under the seat in the tow-vehicle and ran it back to the Airstream and plugged my little soldering-gun into the extension-cord…. and made the repair in about 5 minutes. HIGH TECHNOLOGY comes to CHACO-CANYON! (Robert Redford is feeling ill.) LOL

OK…hope that helps with inverter decisions.

[PB_NB]

The good part about the Sport 22FB is that it is pretty basic and typically there are no factory installed inverter systems that can make modifications more complicated.

I took a different take on what I wanted to power. I like having reserves so I got a 250ah Lithium battery to start. Then I put a proper charger in-place of the OE unit that was installed. Then I installed a 1500w inverter. In my last SOB trailer I ran a shore switch to my breaker panel and so I could have control over what power source goes into the breaker panel. I did the same thing with the Sport as well as a remote for the inverter.

Now I have power to all my outlets with the inverter or shore power. I like to use lights and small appliances so this works out great when we can’t find a plug-in power for the trailer.

We are not big users of A/C (turned it on when we bought the trailer and that’s it) and we don’t intend to run the A/C off the inverter.

Like Boxite stated, the availability of 12V DC appliances is considerable and that would minimize the need for an inverter. These appliances can be found at RV Stores.

I am going to have a look at the efficiency of my inverter to see if there is a significant power loss as I am curious to see how much power is wasted.

[MCM78LC]

@backforyjoe,

It's just a 12v USB plug in that I have used for cell phone chargers (sorry for not being clearer) and tried that to see if the indicator lit up after my 100w inverter didn't do anything.

What's weird is, I'm getting 12+ volts on the brown and white wires coming in at the back (from the multimeter) and only 5 volts inside the outlet.

Trying to figure where to go next. There wouldn't be some type of built in limiter on the 12v outlet, would there?

My AS 16 is a 2015.

[Backfortyjoe]

All of my leads coming into the elec box behind the TV were labeled for the 2 TV cables and 12V. Can’t remember if there was a ground wire which is a must to have 12V. Could be that is what you don’t have connected. Sounds like you have positive but no negative. If that’s is true then it would be what you have is just a reflective 12v. Still believe that you might be missing something in the wiring behind the box. It must be a grounding problem. Good luck and I wish I could be more help to you. Regards, Joe