Looking for a small inverter...
 

On Thu, 26 Jul 2007 08:25:09 -0400, "Bill Kearney"
wkearney-99@hot-mail-com wrote:

He won't shop there ;) but I bought a 200W continuous / 400W peak
inverter
at Wal-Mart for about $25 a year ago.

Plugs into the cigarette lighter
receptacle.

Which no doubt isn't rated to handle that much draw.

Check your fuse and you'll probably find that your average cigarette
lighter is at least 15 amps, maybe 20. If it's 20, you should have no
problem with a 200w continuous/400w peak load. 15 is probably not
enough since that's 204 watts at 13.6 volts but you have to take into
account inverter inefficiency so it's probably drawing more than 15
amps to supply the 200 watts.

But no one says you have to actually use that much out of it. And if
you use too much, you'll just blow the fuse so you know for next time.

Now the problem comes when people replace the OEM fuse rating with a
higher one to keep it from blowing.

Steve

Looking for a small inverter...
 

"Steve" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 26 Jul 2007 08:25:09 -0400, "Bill Kearney"
wkearney-99@hot-mail-com wrote:

He won't shop there ;) but I bought a 200W continuous / 400W peak
inverter
at Wal-Mart for about $25 a year ago.

Plugs into the cigarette lighter
receptacle.

Which no doubt isn't rated to handle that much draw.

Check your fuse and you'll probably find that your average cigarette
lighter is at least 15 amps, maybe 20. If it's 20, you should have no
problem with a 200w continuous/400w peak load. 15 is probably not
enough since that's 204 watts at 13.6 volts but you have to take into
account inverter inefficiency so it's probably drawing more than 15
amps to supply the 200 watts.

But no one says you have to actually use that much out of it. And if
you use too much, you'll just blow the fuse so you know for next time.

Now the problem comes when people replace the OEM fuse rating with a
higher one to keep it from blowing.

Steve

Most are 20 amps and never blew a fuse in the car for the lighter, but have
turned on the red light signifying overload in the inverter.

Looking for a small inverter...
 

On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:36:36 -0700, Chuck Gould
wrote:

Thanks. I was thinking of a small unit from West Marine. Did you buy a
West-branded unit or something else? My AC loads will consist of an IPOD
boom box (low current draw), my laptop (rarely), and perhaps a cell
phone or camera battery charger. That kind of stuff.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Without running over to the marina to check for sure, I'm almost
certain it was a West Marine branded item. I suppose if I'd had any
problem with it I would have paid more attention to the brand. :-)

I have several of the small West Marine inverters and they work just
fine for the type of devices that Harry mentions. There is really no
need to hard wire them either since the loads are small enough you can
power it via a lighter plug adapter.

Looking for a small inverter...
 

On Jul 28, 9:02 pm, Wayne.B wrote:
On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:36:36 -0700, Chuck Gould

wrote:
Thanks. I was thinking of a small unit from West Marine. Did you buy a
West-branded unit or something else? My AC loads will consist of an IPOD
boom box (low current draw), my laptop (rarely), and perhaps a cell
phone or camera battery charger. That kind of stuff.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Without running over to the marina to check for sure, I'm almost
certain it was a West Marine branded item. I suppose if I'd had any
problem with it I would have paid more attention to the brand. :-)

I have several of the small West Marine inverters and they work just
fine for the type of devices that Harry mentions. There is really no
need to hard wire them either since the loads are small enough you can
power it via a lighter plug adapter.

more options:

http://search.harborfreight.com/cpis...ower+inverters

Looking for a small inverter...
 

On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:00:27 -0400, HK wrote:

...one I can install in a compartment in the center console of my new
boat and hardwire direct to one of the batteries. I'm not looking for a
lot of power...enough to run a laptop, a small "boombox" type FM radio,
et cetera.

Come to Canada: lots of rebadged Xantrex inverters at Canadian Tire for
under $100 (for what you're looking for, under $50). I use one to power
the electric blanket to keep my Lady warm when we're camping. (Yes, it
runs a laptop, but I now use a 12VDC power supply I bought at eBay for $40
- works great! I can watch DVDs and everything...)

druid
http://www.bcboatnet.org

Looking for a small inverter...
 

I got a 400 watt one from walmart for about $35. It's a black&decker and
about 6"x4"x2". I used it to run some xmas light strings on the boat at the
local 4th fireworks gathering on Kerr lake. Worked fine.

"druid" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:00:27 -0400, HK wrote:

...one I can install in a compartment in the center console of my new
boat and hardwire direct to one of the batteries. I'm not looking for a
lot of power...enough to run a laptop, a small "boombox" type FM radio,
et cetera.

Come to Canada: lots of rebadged Xantrex inverters at Canadian Tire for
under $100 (for what you're looking for, under $50). I use one to power
the electric blanket to keep my Lady warm when we're camping. (Yes, it
runs a laptop, but I now use a 12VDC power supply I bought at eBay for $40
- works great! I can watch DVDs and everything...)

druid
http://www.bcboatnet.org

Looking for a small inverter...
 

On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:08:52 -0400, "jamesgangnc" wrote:

I got a 400 watt one from walmart for about $35. It's a black&decker and
about 6"x4"x2". I used it to run some xmas light strings on the boat at the
local 4th fireworks gathering on Kerr lake. Worked fine.

We're thinking of moving to the Wake Forest area. What do you think of the
lakes in and around there. Falls Lake looks, on Yahoo, to be decent sized,
and Kerr looks like a good sized lake. Of course, it may be mostly 1 ft
deep. Is the fishing decent in any of the lakes close to Wake Forest?
--
John H

Looking for a small inverter...
 

Falls Lake is pretty navigable everywhere below the big open area at
sandling beach on rt50. A lot of it is more like a big river than a lake
but that keeps the wake down a bit. Most people go up lake from the 50 ramp
or put in at one of the ramps above it. There are a lot of coves that
extend off the main lake. On weekends it is pretty busy and the bulk of the
boats are doing water sports sorts of things. The fishing guys are usually
around in the early morning on the weekends or during the week. There is
enough activity weekend days that you won't want to fish.

Kerr is huge. Like any man made lake in the southeast there are spots to
avoid but the majority of it is fine. The main lake on the river course is
pretty deep, getting close to 100ft at the dam. You can go well above
Clarkville on it. The nutbush creek leg, going into nc, is a little
shallower but you can easily go all the way to 39. It's very popular for
fishing and never really crowded weekends or week days. Except for the
fireworks around the 4th. It is one of the best fresh water striper lakes
on the east coast and also has a good bass population. When they built the
dam they accidentally trapped a bunch of stripers during spawning season.
No one expected them to survive since they could not get back to the ocean.
But it turned out they were perfectly happy to spend their entire lives in
fresh water. Kerr is the flood control lake on the river so it's elevation
can fluctuate a lot.

Jordan has larger open areas and I find the chop gets annoying on the
weekends. Around Roxboro is Hyco and Mayo. They are smaller and popular
for fishing. I don't fish and have only been to Mayo a few times (friend
has a house on it) so I can't tell you if the fishing is good or not.
Gaston would be sort of close to you as well. It is a pretty big lake but
because it has strict elevation control it is very built up. There are a
lot of houses on it. On the weekends it is busy. It is popular though and
you should probably give it a try.

I live about 20 minutes from the 50 ramp on Falls and I have a house on Kerr
so those are the two I frequent the most.

"John H." wrote in message
...
On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:08:52 -0400, "jamesgangnc"
wrote:

I got a 400 watt one from walmart for about $35. It's a black&decker and
about 6"x4"x2". I used it to run some xmas light strings on the boat at
the
local 4th fireworks gathering on Kerr lake. Worked fine.

We're thinking of moving to the Wake Forest area. What do you think of the
lakes in and around there. Falls Lake looks, on Yahoo, to be decent sized,
and Kerr looks like a good sized lake. Of course, it may be mostly 1 ft
deep. Is the fishing decent in any of the lakes close to Wake Forest?
--
John H

Looking for a small inverter...
 

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:51:23 -0400, "jamesgangnc" wrote:

Falls Lake is pretty navigable everywhere below the big open area at
sandling beach on rt50. A lot of it is more like a big river than a lake
but that keeps the wake down a bit. Most people go up lake from the 50 ramp
or put in at one of the ramps above it. There are a lot of coves that
extend off the main lake. On weekends it is pretty busy and the bulk of the
boats are doing water sports sorts of things. The fishing guys are usually
around in the early morning on the weekends or during the week. There is
enough activity weekend days that you won't want to fish.

Kerr is huge. Like any man made lake in the southeast there are spots to
avoid but the majority of it is fine. The main lake on the river course is
pretty deep, getting close to 100ft at the dam. You can go well above
Clarkville on it. The nutbush creek leg, going into nc, is a little
shallower but you can easily go all the way to 39. It's very popular for
fishing and never really crowded weekends or week days. Except for the
fireworks around the 4th. It is one of the best fresh water striper lakes
on the east coast and also has a good bass population. When they built the
dam they accidentally trapped a bunch of stripers during spawning season.
No one expected them to survive since they could not get back to the ocean.
But it turned out they were perfectly happy to spend their entire lives in
fresh water. Kerr is the flood control lake on the river so it's elevation
can fluctuate a lot.

Jordan has larger open areas and I find the chop gets annoying on the
weekends. Around Roxboro is Hyco and Mayo. They are smaller and popular
for fishing. I don't fish and have only been to Mayo a few times (friend
has a house on it) so I can't tell you if the fishing is good or not.
Gaston would be sort of close to you as well. It is a pretty big lake but
because it has strict elevation control it is very built up. There are a
lot of houses on it. On the weekends it is busy. It is popular though and
you should probably give it a try.

I live about 20 minutes from the 50 ramp on Falls and I have a house on Kerr
so those are the two I frequent the most.

"John H." wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:08:52 -0400, "jamesgangnc"
wrote:

I got a 400 watt one from walmart for about $35. It's a black&decker and
about 6"x4"x2". I used it to run some xmas light strings on the boat at
the
local 4th fireworks gathering on Kerr lake. Worked fine.

We're thinking of moving to the Wake Forest area. What do you think of the
lakes in and around there. Falls Lake looks, on Yahoo, to be decent sized,
and Kerr looks like a good sized lake. Of course, it may be mostly 1 ft
deep. Is the fishing decent in any of the lakes close to Wake Forest?
--
John H


Thanks for the info, James! Your time is appreciated.
--
John H

Looking for a small inverter...
 

On Aug 23, 2:55 pm, John H. wrote:
On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:51:23 -0400, "jamesgangnc" wrote:
Falls Lake is pretty navigable everywhere below the big open area at
sandling beach on rt50. A lot of it is more like a big river than a lake
but that keeps the wake down a bit. Most people go up lake from the 50 ramp
or put in at one of the ramps above it. There are a lot of coves that
extend off the main lake. On weekends it is pretty busy and the bulk of the
boats are doing water sports sorts of things. The fishing guys are usually
around in the early morning on the weekends or during the week. There is
enough activity weekend days that you won't want to fish.

Kerr is huge. Like any man made lake in the southeast there are spots to
avoid but the majority of it is fine. The main lake on the river course is
pretty deep, getting close to 100ft at the dam. You can go well above
Clarkville on it. The nutbush creek leg, going into nc, is a little
shallower but you can easily go all the way to 39. It's very popular for
fishing and never really crowded weekends or week days. Except for the
fireworks around the 4th. It is one of the best fresh water striper lakes
on the east coast and also has a good bass population. When they built the
dam they accidentally trapped a bunch of stripers during spawning season.
No one expected them to survive since they could not get back to the ocean.
But it turned out they were perfectly happy to spend their entire lives in
fresh water. Kerr is the flood control lake on the river so it's elevation
can fluctuate a lot.

Jordan has larger open areas and I find the chop gets annoying on the
weekends. Around Roxboro is Hyco and Mayo. They are smaller and popular
for fishing. I don't fish and have only been to Mayo a few times (friend
has a house on it) so I can't tell you if the fishing is good or not.
Gaston would be sort of close to you as well. It is a pretty big lake but
because it has strict elevation control it is very built up. There are a
lot of houses on it. On the weekends it is busy. It is popular though and
you should probably give it a try.

I live about 20 minutes from the 50 ramp on Falls and I have a house on Kerr
so those are the two I frequent the most.

"John H." wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:08:52 -0400, "jamesgangnc"
wrote:

I got a 400 watt one from walmart for about $35. It's a black&decker and
about 6"x4"x2". I used it to run some xmas light strings on the boat at
the
local 4th fireworks gathering on Kerr lake. Worked fine.

We're thinking of moving to the Wake Forest area. What do you think of the
lakes in and around there. Falls Lake looks, on Yahoo, to be decent sized,
and Kerr looks like a good sized lake. Of course, it may be mostly 1 ft
deep. Is the fishing decent in any of the lakes close to Wake Forest?
--
John H

Thanks for the info, James! Your time is appreciated.
--
John H- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

No problem. If you want to spend a while fishing on Kerr we rent as
well.
(blatant advertising :-) http://www.jamesgangnc.com/