I just bought a 2000 Sooner Riata, 3 horse, bumper pull with microwave, AM/FM/CD player, small frig, electric 6 gallon water heater, sink, water pump, cowboy shower, & AC.   There is a 1000 watt Superex DC to AC inverter,, and I bought an Optima yellow top gel deep charge battery.   There is a box under the sink that has 4- 20 amp switches on it.  No instruction books,, and the previous owner did not have any useful information.   My husband knows alot about alot of things,, and through trial and error,, we found that the lights inside the living area & horse area,the water pump, plus the flood lights on  top of the trailer outside all work off the battery power.   When we plugged the trailer into shore power, with no battery power, they did not work.  The frig, microwave, radio, ac, and probably the water heater seem to only work when the trailer is plugged into shore power.  Am I missing something,,, I kindof thought that the frig, microwave & radio would work off the battery power, for alittle while anyway.   I know that the AC will need a generator,, and I will be getting one soon,, thanks to this forum,, and reviews that I have read on other sites,, I am getting a Champion 4000 watt surge,,3500 running watts. It's what I can afford & I haven't read any bad reviews about them.  But I am open to comments,, so feel free to express your opinions.   My understanding, after lots of research,, is that the inverter converts the battery DC power to AC so I can use small appliances,, like a radio,, coffee pot,, microwave,, & plug things into the outlets in the living quarters.    Doesn't seem to be the case with this set-up.   There are 2 plug ins,,directly on the inverter,,,would a coffee pot work there??   Might my inverter be bad??  It powers up,, the light comes on.    I am assuming that when I get a generator the micro, frig, AC, radio will be solved.     Thank you all for your help

With your ground power on, try turning on the battery switch. Some converters are wired so they only work with a DC system selected. With no shore power, when your battery switch is selected, most of your appliances should work. Nearby to the four 20 amp breakers may be a master breaker or fuse.

It sounds like you're not getting B+ voltage from your battery directly to the DC circuits, but they are being powered through the converter.

The generator already puts out AC power, so it doesn't have to be inverted to run your AC appiances