Thor Forums

[TurnerFam]

I can only assume that you might be a newer coach owner, as these electrical things can be quite confusing at first.

With a Mandalay, I presume maybe 2012 or older, it's likely that while it may have a residential fridge, and even a 'larger' Inverter, the old wiring 'code' within the RV manufacturer's world may have yet caught up to how it was wired 'back then'.

In the 'old' days, I guess the manufacturers thought that we 'RVrs' didn't know enough about electricity, but to be dangerous. So, I'm thinking that while the Inverters used might have been large enough, they didn't wire them but to a few 'select' outlets in the RV.
Mostly, it would certainly be for the residential fridge, and sometimes even to a microwave and several outlets, maybe for TVs.
Now a days, though, we are seeing more and more factories decide to just make ALL the RV outlets 'LIVE' thru the Inverter. Why NOT, I say... and THANKS to them for doing that. It makes no real sense not to. We can use everything just as we do on shore power.
Inverters now are smart, too. They can cut themselves off if they are pulling down the house batteries too far, turn on the Generator automatically to recharge the house batteries, and many other things to give us comfort, and also protection.

My coach has EVERY outlet live thru the Inverter, thru the subpanel of 4 separate 15amp breakers.
If I want, I can have the fridge on, run the microwave, watch TV and satellite receivers, charge the iPhone, and have my desktop computer ready at any time.
Even when I plug into shore power or crank the generator, nothing is different, other than the power source.
When the generator turns off, or I unplug from shore power, the Inverter immediately takes over and continues if nothing had changed - NICE!