Thor Forums

[Judge]

Originally Posted by TurnerFam

I believe your inverter already has it's own breaker - otherwise they couldn't provide you with a GFCI outlet on the front... the factory, though, decided to 'hardwire' your circuits, so they used the internal wires rather than the GFCI receptacle.
Since this wiring scheme does not provide your Inverter as a 'whole house' type of power source, but only to these few outlets, you have a big job to try to turn it into one. One reason is that the inverter scheme already installed creates the 'sub-panel' for this circuit, which gives it power from either of the three 120v power sources - shore, generator, or the inverter. If you try to move this inverter's output into your Main electrical panel, to power more than this single circuit, you would have to create/install a separate sub-panel. Some coaches have a whole-house Inverter, like mine, a Magnum ME2012 30amp, and it is wired to the Main panel, via an integrated sub-panel with 4 - 15amp circuits, for four separate circuits of outlets, including a circuit with GFCI outlets, including the bathroom, kitchen, and outside outlet, a circuit for the front outlets, including the Fridge, a circuit for the rear outlets, and a dedicated circuit for the Microwave.
This sub-panel is the only way to separate these circuit breakers so that they are powered not only by the ATS(gen and shore power), but by the Inverter when either of the other two are not available.

For you, though, either way you do it, you will basically be using an extension cord to plug into one of your existing inverted outlets. Your fridge would then have 120v power while driving, or while on Shore Power or Generator, or if by propane, if you choose.

Because RVs mostly don't use the walls run electrical lines, your ability to run an extension cord, or even dedicated wiring, requires you to chase the wiring thru cabinets and places where wiring is already run/available. Most of the time you'll find your upper cabinets actually may have false walls/covers at the rear of the cabinets where wiring hides.

It does have it's own breaker but the manual states it is only to be used with the built-in GFCI outlet and not for hardwiring the inverter:

The manual states:

15 A supplementary circuit breaker provides overload protection for the GFCI receptacle. In a hardwired installation, the supplementary circuit breaker does not protect output wiring.

Also see my previous post about the manual stating the AC output needs its own breaker and the inverter wiring diagrams show a separate breaker should be installed outside of the inverter.


All that being said, there isn't an easy way to run an extension cord from one of the inverter powered outlets to the fridge when driving since the fridge outlet is on the outside of the coach. I could do this when I was parked since the outside TV outlet is powered by the inverter. Hence the reason I am looking at feeding the fridge outlet from the inverter.