Crocodile Clip 600w Inverter

[The Grumpy Triker]

Hi folks,

I know there are loads of electrical and inverter questions out there but I need some help for an electrical muppet.

My new boat is all 12v (will consider a bigger permanent inverter with landline at some point) but with my 3 young kiddies coming on board for a week of chugging the cut it would be nice to be able to charge a few smaller items at certain points. With this clip-on inverter, can I connect it to my leisure batteries and charge things while we're cruising?...hoping not to need much and to charge in pubs if allowed but onboard option is useful.

Am not sure if you can use the clips while cruising or if the batteries need to be at rest so to speak....am hoping it will be like jump starting another car and so long as I am cruising all is fine.

Sorry for the low level of ability on here, hopefully the knowledge will grow.

Cheers all 

[OldGoat]

Clipping things on to a battery 'in the open air' may be acceptable (with due care in my mind....) but NOT in the confines of an engine bay - unless with real precautions. Similarly I'd wire the unit into a suitable connection point - if you have one...

Ask yourself - would you have dangly wires on your Bike?

When you want to use the inverter - buy one with a switch - and use it rather than popping down the engine hole and fiddling with a croc clip  -

!BANG! ---------------  it dies happen all too often.

Make sure that the kids don't overload / or you misjudge their demands on the power requirements.

[ditchcrawler]

All what OldGoat said plus make sure its suitable for charging the things you plan to charge. You may be able to buy 12 volt chargers for them

[OldGoat]

26 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

All what OldGoat said plus make sure its suitable for charging the things you plan to charge. You may be able to buy 12 volt chargers for them

Didn't read the title - 600W....... that's 50 amps plus inefficiencies and standby power ----Yikes_____

No crock clips sensible there

AND

Not MSW as most / many / most games machines don't like MSW - you need a Pure Sine Wave inverter "PSW", sorry. 

[The Grumpy Triker]

On 10/08/2017 at 19:49, OldGoat said:

Didn't read the title - 600W....... that's 50 amps plus inefficiencies and standby power ----Yikes_____

No crock clips sensible there

AND

Not MSW as most / many / most games machines don't like MSW - you need a Pure Sine Wave inverter "PSW", sorry. 

Cheers for the advice folks - only just seen the replies....not getting notifications of replies despite setting them on anymore & lost this thread for a while.

It was a PSW & gametime was to be severely limited 

Your posts are suitably 'warning levelled' ...so I wonder why they sell them, strange!?

Plenty of plug sockets in pubs etc. along the way I guess.

[OldGoat]

7 hours ago, The Grumpy Triker said:

Cheers for the advice folks - only just seen the replies....not getting notifications of replies despite setting them on anymore & lost this thread for a while.

It was a PSW & gametime was to be severely limited 

Your posts are suitably 'warning levelled' ...so I wonder why they sell them, strange!?

Plenty of plug sockets in pubs etc. along the way I guess.

Sadly it's the way of the world. Those who would sell equipment properly configured do and will quickly go out of business...

A chunky croc-clip will work short term and in the open air (beware sparks) - A commercial high power battery charger works OK in a well ventilated workshop environment, but I'd be very wary in the depths of a normal narrowboat environment.  Replace the croc clips with lugs and terminals and that problem goes away / gets reduced. 

[DHutch]

We have a 300w unit. 24v boat.

Supply to main board was sufficient, with a spare way that could take the load (quarter of the current your talking) so it was wired into that.

In your case, I would likely take a dedicated supply, with suitable fuse, to power the unit. You also need to think about the 240vac distribution side,if you are doing anything more than plugging one double insulated laptop charger or similar into it, which is all ours is used for.

Daniel