help on charging electricals in america

[Blank]

hi wondering if any of you nice american type guys can help me help my parents,

basically my parents are heading over to denver and doing a 5 week RV tour with a load of riding and ranch stuff as a kind of retirement trip or SKI holiday (SPEND KIDS INHERITANCE) and my mum likes her photography.

Now shes all confused about the charging of her nikon D50 batteries whilst on the move in the RV.

So in american cars, do you still have a 12v cigerette lighter? or is it different?

any other ideas or how easy would it be to buy the adapters, chargers and stuff once in Denver?

any help or advice greatly appreciated to stop my damn parents worrying about it :-D

thanks alot

[Flit]

As far as I know, yes they are 12v

[Toad]

Yep, just about everything has either a 12v lighter or power point or both.

We use them to charge the cell phones now.  

[nirvana]

Ooooh Denver, I hope you mean the mountains, Denver is teh suck.

[Maverick]

Blank,

Tell her not to worry. I think you'll have a hard time finding any RV without at least one 12 volt power plug located in it. If thery are going to be in a motorhome they will have one in the dash area, likely 2 of them. They also put them in the TV areas as some RV'ers use a 12 volt TV and camp away from the urban areas. She will also have access to 110 volt power either by generator in a motorhome or from "shore power" when plugged in to the RV park.

[Blank]

arr cheers guys, thought as much but will put her mind at rest hearing it first hand,

and nirvana, yes they are only in denver for 2 important bits =1,  landing the plane and 2,picking up thier RV .then its off round, colorado, montana some other states, mountains, yellowstone, hunting, hole in the wall and a bunch of other stuff they want to fit into thier 5 weeks.

meanwhile i have to stay here at thier house and babysit 2 flatcoat retrievers and 1 springer spaniel, which need a shed load of exercise as they are all super fit nutty gun dogs that dont really listen to me much :-(

oh joy

laters :-)

[eagl]

All she needs is a $50 car 12v DC - 110v AC power converter for the cigarette lighter socket.  Yes, pretty much all cars have one and many have a second one for accessories like cellphones, radar detectors, etc.  Converters that produce more than 200watts are easily found for not very much money, and if they don't get one before the trip they can find one at any truck stop or wal-mart along the way.  Once they get the converter, just plug it into the cigarette lighter and they have "house current" on tap to play with.

Some RVs have inverters built-in, but that should be clarified before the trip if possible.  If not, just get one from walmart or a truck stop like the Flying-J.

Caveat - if they plan on running anything big off it like a regular computer (laptops should be ok) or a TV, they probably need to get a professional installation as a TV will probably draw way too much power for the fuse in the cigarette lighter socket and the little power supplies don't produce enough juice for a tv of any reasonable size.

I use a little belkin one rated for 140w continuous draw that I picked up for $30.  It has a little fan to help keep it cool and works like a champ.

[Furball]

hi blank, good to see you

[john9001]

if the nikon D50 charger has a european plug you will need a adapter for it to plug into a american 110 volt socket, they can pick one up at any electronics store.

[Speed55]

Doesn't the power converter for a car put out 110v ac 60hz? I'm pretty sure euro's use 50hz.

12v dc is not a problem.