I was doing the same thing as geoffff with a harbor freight modified sine 300w inverter plugged into the cig outlet. Those died quickly. Starting from that point I progressed to a Xantrex 600w pure sine fed direct from the house battery with large cables. That unit popped n smoked and was never used near the 600w. Got it replaced under warranty and that one smoked also. So I decided I needed to get serious about this inverter project and ended up with my current set up. I no longer carry a generator.
I wanted an inverter only unit because I had the usual intellipower converter already. I wanted pure sine wave so I didn't have to think about what was going to be plugged in. The off grid people I was talking to all said go with Magnum for a mounted inverter and Morningstar for a portable inverter, period. At the moment I only have one 4D 200ah battery so 1000w inverter is realistically all that can supported. Magnum inverters in that size seemed to come as an inverter/charger combo with an internal transfer switch. So that's how my system would have to be.
In my opinion inverters, solar, and batteries are personal decisions. Use what you feel is best for your adventures. (In space no one can hear you screaming) My system is by no means the best way or the least expensive but I don't see smoke in the cabin anymore. And solar brewed coffee is kinda cool.
The inverter is mounted in this location because the 12v power bus is under the couch and I wanted to keep this cable run short. The Space Shuttle has three 110v outlets from SMB. One seen in the photo, one under the sink(not shown) and one next to the breaker panel. It was easy to access the wiring behind the outlet above the inverter so I cut it free of the breaker panel and wired it to the inverter/transfer switch. This outlet is also wired to the outlet under the sink by SMB. The third outlet by the panel I'll explain below.
Magnum MMS1012. Wiring protective sheathing removed for picture.
Breaker panel with circuits added. The inverter transfer switch in rated a 15Amps and the SMB 110v wiring is rather small. So, I wired this outlet separately (not through the inverter, shore power only) with a dedicated 20A breaker and 12AWG wires. I call it the Hi Current AC outlet. If I'm on shore power and want to run an electric heater, I plug it into this outlet. It might be odd but I just left the intellipower charger under the couch but wired it to the van/starter battery bank. So I have two separate "chargers" for each battery bank. Not necessary but handy.
The control panel for the inverter/charger that makes it extremely programmable to tailor the charge algorithm to exactly what the battery manufacture recommends. This includes temperature compensation. I moved the charge wizard up here so he wouldn't get left out, even though his charger isn't as smart.
I drew this out just to put in my build binder for the 110 volt system. Don't laugh, other people got artistic in this thread.
Sorry If this got to lengthy. If I can be of assistance please ask. You've all helped me tremendously with what has become a Space Shuttle.
-Eric