Shawn,
Well, I think everybody else has pretty much covered it by now. I'm in England, so by the time they post their messages in the evening I'm already asleep!
I'll just echo the problem with the start-up surge. The rating of some inverters is pretty much the absolute maximum you can get, while some of the more upmarket models will actually deliver a transient of two or three times their nominal maximum. Even so, you'll still need more than that for motor starting.
I've not seen the Vector brand inverters in the U.K., but even allowing for your lower prices in the States, I would expect models with sync/slave operation to be quite a bit more expensive than the figures you quote.
Another point to consider: Many cheap inverters have an almost square-wave output which isn't all that good for running motors.
