We went on a 4 day vacation to Boston this past weekend. (Great time, story
and
pictures will follow when I get time.) But after 2 days the boat was
starting to look
a little dirty inside.

I'm wondering about getting a 12-Volt vacuumed for the boat. But
I remember buying one for a van I had years ago and it was basically useless
because it had no power. Anyone have recommendations on a good 12-volt
vacuumed??

Thanks,
Gary

Gary wrote:
We went on a 4 day vacation to Boston this past weekend. (Great time, story
and
pictures will follow when I get time.) But after 2 days the boat was
starting to look
a little dirty inside.

I'm wondering about getting a 12-Volt vacuumed for the boat. But
I remember buying one for a van I had years ago and it was basically useless
because it had no power. Anyone have recommendations on a good 12-volt
vacuumed??

Thanks,
Gary


Remember your experience with the van. I wasted money on a 12-volt
"marine" vac
years ago, and now carry a cheap, 120-volt "stick" vac stowed in the
back of a hanging locker. Can't use it without AC, but at least it
works.
We have some teak & holly as well as carpeted cabin soles. The teak and
holly sweeps up nicely with a handbrush and a dustpan, and we've had
pretty good success using the hand brush/dustpan combo on the carpeting
too.

If you can figure out how to attach a treble hook to a hand held
12-volt marine vac, it might make a good lure for some big, East Coast
gamefish. :-)

why not get a 12 DC to 120 AC inverter and vacuum away?

wrote in message
oups.com...
why not get a 12 DC to 120 AC inverter and vacuum away?


You may overload the converter doing this

They all suck (not dirt). Use a Dirt Devil with a big enough inverter
to handle it, if your house battery will take it. Even the Dirt Devil
is marginal. The best idea is never to have a carpet in a boat.
Matting can be taken up & the boat easily swept with less effort.

Not if it's the right size inverter.

Dan J.S. wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

why not get a 12 DC to 120 AC inverter and vacuum away?



You may overload the converter doing this

Plus the fact that a 1200 watt inverter is going to cost some serious money
and will have to be wired into the battery direct.
Now - having an inverter has other purposes as well so might be worth it to
power TV, VCR/DVD, Fans, etc..

Just hope you have at least one extra battery.

--
Tony
my boats and cars at http://t.thomas.home.mchsi.com

-
"Red Cloud®" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 08 Jul 2005 22:57:32 GMT, Dan Krueger

wrote:

Not if it's the right size inverter.


The other consideration is that most home vacs draw 8-12 amps at 120
volts. That
would suck a 100 amp hour 12 volt battery down to nothing very quickly,
even
without figuring in the losses of he inverter. Bear in mind that you can't
even
use all 100 amp hours of that battery. You can use about half of it before
you
need to stop and recharge. So, you've got 50 amp hours at 12 volts
powering
something that draws 10 amps at 120 volts. Doesn't sound very prudent just
to
suck up some wet sand and dust that could be swept up using no power at
all in
the same amount of time with MUCH cheaper equipment.

rusty redcloud



Dan J.S. wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

why not get a 12 DC to 120 AC inverter and vacuum away?



You may overload the converter doing this

Ok, now I feel silly. See. the boat is only a 22 footer, so there really
isn't room
for a full 120 volt AC vac. ~ I guess eveyone is in agreement that the 12
volt
vacs suck - and not in a good way.

So I guess I can just live with a little detritus on the floors those few
times
a year we use the boat a few days in a row without hauling her out on the
trailer and back home.

Thanks for the input.

Gary

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