Try running the inverter right off the battery. You're talking quite a
bit of amps at 12vdc to run that inverter. 20 or so, if my math isn't
too far off.

Of course, you MAY wanna think about trying to run the inverter off a
different supply. THere may be a problem with the inverter itself. If it
melts down, running without the fuse, then you know. (grin)

Can you give us a little more info, please?

Inverters convert DC to AC.  Most inverters produce a pretty rough "AC"
wave, which is not very close to a sine wave.  This usually only creates
problems when running things with AC motors. In fact, lots of things you
might plug into the inverter,such as your cell phone charger and other
battery chargers, actually re-convert the AC back to DC!

How do you have your inverter hooked up to the battery?

What do you have hooked up to the inverter when the fuse blows...or does the
inverter fuse blow with nothing hooked up?

A "140 watt" inverter is really pretty small.  That means that your limit is
only 1.16 AC Amps at 120 volts!  If you have something within that limit
hooked up to the inverter, no fuses should blow.
   The fuse on the radio shack inverter is a 20 Amp DC fuse, I believe.  In
fact, 20 Amps at 12 volts (actually probably slightly more than that) = 240
watts.  Since the inverter itself consumes minimal juice in the conversion
process, there should be NO REASON that fuse should blow unless you plug
something in that really exceeds the capacity of the inverter...or the
inverter itself is bad.

When you say you "blew a fuse on a cell  phone charger and a radio charger",
do you mean the inverter fuse blew when you plugged them in, or that the
chargers have a fuse of their own which blew.  If it is the latter, your
inverter is NOT working properly.

My guess, without further info, is that the inverter is bad, and you should
take it back to Radio Shack and explain what has happened.  They can easily
test it there, and replace it if it is bad.

Yours

Check the inverter for a fuse.. hopefully, it has one...

The one that I mounted in the truck had a 40 amp fuse...
Figuring that the cig. lighter and power outlet are fused at 20 amp, not using
the cig. lighter attachment was a no-brainer..

I ran wires directly from the battery posts to the inverter... you could
probably get away with just running a hot lead from the battery and using the
trailer for ground..

BTW: if the inverter is one of those small units that plug into a cig. lighter
and hang out of it, go back to RS and get a real one... you'll be much happier
and RS has a great return policy.. YMMV

mac

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