KABOOM!

Drove - or at least was a passenger - through a summer deluge on a mission of mercy to bring a new power inverter to Michelle.

She was in the camper earlier today when the old inverter screamed, let out a huge puff of black smoke, then died. It was an inverter we were going to replace anyway, but I guess it decided to push our plans forward a bit. Luckily enough I was able to find one locally that would do what she needs.

We did get a burger from Big Juds out of it, so it wasn't a complete waste of an evening. She's back at camp now and says the inverter seems to be inverting just fine. Damn camper roof still leaks in the shower area, though. That's got me stymied. No idea where the water is sneaking in.

New inverter for scale:

Sure, it's from Harbor Freight. But this inverter is made by an American company and seems to have a pretty good reputation online. And while a lot of people dump on Harbor Freight, I actually own a lot of stuff from there, and I've yet to be disappointed by something I've purchased there. And it had the best qualities we needed in an inverter: Pure sine wave, and available locally.

Had the faulty inverter burned the camper to the axles, that would have solved some of my problems. But introduced some new ones, so we'll call it a draw.

Still need to get a new battery for the camper, but at least the new inverter will get along with the kind we want to get.

UPDATE: 24-hours later, Michelle reports the inverter is still inverting and, compared to the previous model, is doing so extremely quietly. Her one quibble: The former inverter had two USB outlets, the new one has only one. But it's doing its intended job quietly, contentedly.