[penneyma]

I'm aware I'm breathing life into a long dead thread but in case you were still looking:

My 95' 3500 Express did not have a generator but the electric panel is pre-wired for one. Instead of spending thousands for a generator install I opted for a 300 amp hour 12v lithium-iron battery bank and a 3000 watt inverter. It does everything I need it to do. I stress tested the system this summer on a 90* day by first cooling down the cabin while on shore power, then going to anchor out to swim all day. I had my V berth AC running at 75* while at anchor, two refrigerators, water pumps, toilet, and the radio going while on the hook. I had 6 hours of capacity running with those loads.

My set up is three 100ah Watt Cycle trolling batteries with Bluetooth, a Giandel 3000w pure sine inverter, an 18 amp 12v DC-DC converter (it goes between my alternator and the LFP battery bank), and the various cables, switches, and buss bars. I think I'm about $1100 all in on materials (I did the work myself).

Note: My V berth AC is a new MarinAire 6k BTU 115v unit that replaced the original when it went out last year. It has built-in soft start and the inverter has zero problems powering it. The whole AC set up pulls around 8 amps running, including my 600 GPH pump.