My trailer is in the shop having frame mods done. So, I am stuck playing with other stuff.
The boss tells me that I have spent too much this year on the trailer, so the
solar cells, golf cart batteries and Xantrex inverter,
battery charger, and transfer switch will all have to wait till next year.
Before I purchased the trailer, I bought:
Eliminator 1000A/700W Power Box | Canadian Tire
This is actually the most recent of a string of these. Each one bigger then the last. The first one only has a 200W inverter. It also has a rechargeable LED flashlight that is removable. It was enough to get the mini van going after someone left their reading
light on all night. The
battery is losing some of its punch now. Typically we have used them, on trips, as a 120VAC source for the toys that we couldn't find a 12VDC adapter for. It also has a 12VDC power port (lighter socket). The
battery allowed me to use a 12VDC fan all night long in the tent when it was just too hot.
I never purchase them for full price. Canadian tire eventually puts everything they sell on 50 to 60%, or more off. Every one of these power packs that I have purchased was bought on such a sale.
This one retails for $349. I bought it for $140. The display is a charge indicator when the inverter is not used. When the inverter is on, the display shows load. It has a HUGE, (heavy 25-30lb) battery! It says it is 33Ah. I think it is meant as a starting battery. There is also a disconnect switch on the battery booster output. In the off position, it checks the polarity of the battery. The
LED lights up green if it is good, red if not. If green, you turn it on and it boosts. No worry about sparks. The accessory switch was left on in the Limo for two months, (we only use it for vacations). When I used this to start it, I flooded the engine. I cranked and cranked that V8. No problem it eventually started.
I now have a place for it under the dinette seat in my
Trillium 4500. The PO must have put a battery there. They had installed battery tie-downs and wires back to the stock
Trillium converter. You can see on the side of this unit, two battery posts. The jumper cables attach here. I connect the trailer to them. The van charges the battery pack when we drive, but the converter does not. This is ideal, since the stock converter is just a transformer and a diode. Not much of a battery charger, but the Fantastic fan works fine off of it.
This is what will pass for a battery, inverter, 12VDC outlet, and emergency
lighting, until my wife says I can get the Xantrex.
Boaters have a version as well. It has a compressor, not sure why.
I really feel for poor American campers. They don't have a Canadian Tire store. Canadian Tire ROCKS!