trace inverter

[cody]

I have a chance to pick up a 2500 watt trace inverter at my favorite looting and pillageing spot for 450, it's new surplus with the charger, was wondering about the wattage, I currently (like that pun? was accidental lol)  have a heart 1000 watt inverter and it's wayyyyyy to small but it runs most of what I have, I'm slowly working my way towards having air on the road and am looking for thoughts on the 2500 as far as size goes and who has them and if your happy with it or not, I'd like a bigger one but money is always a concern, I know it's not pure sine wave so don't hit me with that lol.  One of the pluses, I have the monitor panel now with my freedom 10 inverter and this one is supposed to plug right into it so thats a savings.

[JackConrad]

Cody,
   We have the 2500 watt HeartInterface inverter in our bus and it has worked flawlessly for 9 years.  Jack

[mikelutestanski]

hello:  I have a trace U 2624 which is a 2500 wat inverter set up for 24V operation with a three stage charger. It has worked very well for me for approx 7 years .
   I do have a substantial battery bank however.  12 trojan t105s ;  6v batteries setup in three banks of 4 series parallel combination. The total amperage possible is 675 and half of that is usable or approx 330 amps.  Now at 24V low side supply that translates to a 5 to 1 ratio (minus losses)  5 Amps @ 24V equals 1 amp at 120 volts.
   I also have a wrico 8kw genny so if AC is required I run the genny.
  THe battery system provides kitchen stuff, lighting,tvs and 12V/24v stuff in the coach.
   Hope this helps
   FWIW
   regards and happy bussin   mike

[cody]

Right now I have a 4 battery bank and hopefully I can double that, I'm thinking 8 batteries would be a big help.  Now that I've beefed up the supports under the iggles bay floor I can do some things that involve weight and feel safe lol.  But one step at a time lol.

[Sean]

I have a chance to pick up a 2500 watt trace inverter. ...  One of the pluses, I have the monitor panel now with my freedom 10 inverter and this one is supposed to plug right into it so thats a savings.

Umm, if you have a Freedom now, which was a Heart Interface product, and you are buying a Trace product, it is unlikely that the same remote panel will work.  Even though both Trace and Heart are now part of Xantrex, no real effort was made to integrate these formerly separate product lines.  The remotes are not compatible.

You also did not say what model you are looking at, so it's hard to provide any opinions about it.  Trace products run from the very top of the line in the industry, the SW series, right on down to cheap junk from Asia that's sold in discount stores.  2500-watt MSW inverters run from around $200 to nearly $1,000 depending on brand, warranty, and features, so even saying whether $450 is a decent price is hard.

-Sean
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com

[cody]

I called trina to see what model the inverter is and she said it's the Freedom 458, model HI-2022-12, hopefully that'll shed more light on the inverter/charger.

[Sean]

I called trina to see what model the inverter is and she said it's the Freedom 458, model HI-2022-12, hopefully that'll shed more light on the inverter/charger.

OK, that's not a Trace, it's a Heart Interface.

From the part number you gave, it is a 2,000-watt model, not a 2,500-watt model.  This is also a "single input, dual output" model which may be harder to integrate into your existing system than a single-output model.  These units sell new for around $1,000, with a two and a half year warranty.  It's a good inverter, if 2k is enough capacity for you and you can deal with the dual output headaches.

HTH,

-Sean
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com

[poppi]

Sean,

    So what are the dual output headaches?

  Thanks
Skip

[cody]

Yep, I see now thats a 2000 watt inverter, it probably would do the job ok but I'd rather have a bigger one, I called the usual culprits in elkhart and it seems that most have gone out of business, does anyone have any ideas of what ones may still be in business? I got thru to bontragers, they have a 2000 watt magnum for 475 and the one at rv surplus that I talked about, elkhart surplus salvage came back as out of business as did coopers and factory rv surplus.

[Sean]

So what are the dual output headaches?

This model has, instead of an open output where you supply your own sub-panel and circuit breakers, two built-in output circuit breakers.  The 458 20D model is available with two 15-amp output circuits, two 20-amp output circuits, or one of each.  This particular unit (2022-12) has one of each.  They can not be changed in the field.

So with this unit, you are limited to two output branch circuits, one 15-amp and one 20-amp.  You could, of course, wire a sub-panel off, say, the 20-amp circuit, but you are effectively limited to 20 amps for the whole panel.

Of course, a 2,000-watt inverter is only good for 16.67 amps continuously anyway, but the surge rating of this inverter is 50 amps, and it includes a 30-amp internal transfer switch for passing shore or generator power through to the loads.

My preference, even for such a small inverter, is to supply my own output routing for the entire available output.  That way, I could use up to the full 30 amps rating of the internal transfer switch any way I needed it in the output sub-panel.

YMMV, as they say.

-Sean
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com

[poppi]

http://www.rvsurplussalvage.com still seem to have the cart active


Sean,
   True but from what I could gather the unit in question was designed so there would
   be no sub panels and of coarse gfi plugs. Not of most mind sets of a DIY 'er but
   usable for those on a itsy bitsy lonely path

  Skip

[cody]

Sounds like it's back to square one for me lol, any recommenations?  I'm not looking to put in a nuclear power plant but I sure would like a good inverter that'll charge the batteries and run my stuff, I was hoping for a 3000 watt or bigger but thought I had found a 2500 with minimal headaches, so the search continues, but the price was somewhat ok lol.  The one I had found was at RV Surplus, but that and bontragers was about all I tryed that didn't have the no longer alive recording on the phone.

[Sean]

Cheap MSWs are ubiquitous.

This guy has a Samlex 3kW for $329, free shipping:
http://www.donrowe.com/inverters/1000_5000_watt.html
(No charger, though.)

Even the Freedom 458's come up frequently on eBay, either used, NOS, or factory refurb.  I have seen them as low as $400.

Don't limit yourself to RV surplus stores.  The Internet is a vast resource -- I found the above link simply by typing "3000 watt inverter" into Google.

-Sean
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com

[Zeroclearance]

Cody,  there are other deals out there..   Since Trace is shutting down there Arlington office, there seems to be some pretty good deals "floating around"    I picked up two SW4024's  one for $1,500.00 and the other I paid a little more $1,750.00    I realize that the 4000 watt units are a little "more" money but I think that they are worth every penny.   

A Thanks goes out to Sean for making it happen for one of the Trace sales..

[cody]

Right now 1500 would be a major push on the budget, I've got a bunch of stuff I'm doing to the bus including some major interior changes lol, (libby projects lol).  I also found a Magnum 2012 inverter/charger for 475 at Bontragers that looks like maybe it is workable, hard to say at this point lol,  The kicker seems to be that so many of them are not set up to be hardwired or don't have chargers or transfer switches built in.  I've got time on my side tho, cause the one i have now is working fine, it's just on the small side at 1000 watts.