Generator Advise

[SocialGeoff]

I just have a 1KW Honda..has not missed a beat in 11 years...every coupla years I clean the jets but that's simple....anyway 1KW runs my 800W microwave..and just works to cook my toast lol...but then it does what its required to do...and I would not buy anything except a Honda when it comes to generators

[vincent]

Charging your batteries via a 240v genset is a very inefficient way of going about it unless you want to use 240v for other purposes.Use a small capacity engine attached to a 12v alternator with inbuild regulator.You can charge your batteries via the anderson plug bingo. I made a unit up when I was working in Saudi. Sick and tired of changing batteries in tugboats when they had left everything on overnight.

[brownshed]

Sally and I go camping for months at a time and never bother with a generator ...our trailer is all electric with a 90ltr fridge/freezer and led lighting inside and out . my advice would be to spend the generator money on solar panels , generators are a pain as you have to carry extra fuel . we have 3x90 watt panels and 2 batteries and its plenty even if you are parked on the beach for 10 days. if you have a power problem just run the car for an hour and forget the generator cheers brownshed

[robcaz]

With the advancements in battery charging technology these days, particularly with DC to DC chargers that fully charge your battery when driving & MPPT solar regulators, plus cheaper solar panels, the use of generators as a battery charger power source is becoming less reliant.

We recently did a nine week trip starting at the national meet in September where we were camped for ten days with only solar. Over the trip we did not stay in a caravan park or use the 240volt charger. There were several two to four day camps & plenty of over nighters.

Power usage depends on Carol's Cpap setting, plus the ambient temperature for running the Engel fridge as a fridge. We are generally looking at replacing around 30 amp hours over twenty-four hours.

You can save plenty of power by not using your fridge as a freezer & cryovac your meat etc.

The Redarc BCDC1225 looks after our battery charging while driving or in camp http://www.campertrailers.org/bcdc1225_install.htm

We are very happy how the Redarc works for us. We can also catch up to a fully charged battery system via the 130 watt solar panel if it rains one day http://www.campertrailers.org/bcdc1225_feedback.htm

A little experiment I did with the Engel's power draw http://www.campertrailers.org/fridge_draw.htm

Most people camp over a two day period of a weekend, so a 100 amp hour deep cycle battery discharged to 50% capacity covers the use of a fridge used as a fridge ie around 40 amp hours. A 130 watt solar panel will keep the battery top up easily.

If you play around with Richards Solar Spreadsheet you will see what you need. Put in a day with no input & see how it recovers http://www.campertrailers.org/solar_spreadsheet.htm

[cherice]

I run a 110 litre Waeco fridge plus lights, TV, stereo etc in our camper, and run it off a 240 watt solar panel system with two boat batteries (I'm never away in the camper and boat at the same time). Away for 2 to 3 weeks at a time and rarely (almost never) need to start the generator. The Chinese generator I had died after about 4 or 5 years. No parts of consequence were available. I was about to buy a Yamaha, when Masters released a 909 brand 2.2Kw electric start generator for $549.00, with a 909 day warranty. It runs the 15amp CTEK charger I use for charging the batteries when I need to, and the fridge at the same time. Masters also have a service agent for the 909 brand on the Gold Coast. To top it off, we had a 10% Master discount through the Woolies shopping dockets. We'll see how it goes. I run it for about 10 minutes a month, just to keep it running. I guess I've delayed buying the Yamaha for another few years. Best addition in recent times has been a Victron BM-702 battery Monitor. It shows the state of charge in percentage. The voltmeter wasn't giving a very accurate view of the "state of charge". Money well spent. One quick look at the monitor, and I know how the batteries are really going!
Hope that helps.
Mark

Hi Mark we have just bought 240 watt solar we hope it will run our camper and frid/frez we aslo have 2 x 120 amp gel batteries in parellel and led lights in camper ,as we have 110 f/f and we just bought 40 ltr f/f would we have enough power for both if we at night turned of freezer we were thinking of useing the 40 as freezer we also have a geni honda but some places only let you run them twice a day and for 2 hrs at a time .

Thanks

[Markwr400426]

You're welcome Cherice. If you've only got a short time to charge, the CTEK 15amp charger would be a good addition as part of the backup. The generators typically put out a pretty poor 8amp on the 12 volt side. 3 weeks on Straddie at Christmas, and only ran the generator one day. That was probably more to keep it ticking over than anything. With the solar panels I'm running up to 25 metres of decent 6mm cable between the panels and the trailer. I usually end up shifting the panels a couple of times a day to track the sun. The length of cable reflects that we like the camper in the shade, and the panels like the sun. Sometimes with direct beach front (6 steps from the back of the camper to the beach), there's a bit of cable needed to get out from under the sheoaks. I still haven't developed enough faith in the panels to go away without the generator, but I reckon I will get there.
Mark

[cherice]

I run a 110 litre Waeco fridge plus lights, TV, stereo etc in our camper, and run it off a 240 watt solar panel system with two boat batteries (I'm never away in the camper and boat at the same time). Away for 2 to 3 weeks at a time and rarely (almost never) need to start the generator. The Chinese generator I had died after about 4 or 5 years. No parts of consequence were available. I was about to buy a Yamaha, when Masters released a 909 brand 2.2Kw electric start generator for $549.00, with a 909 day warranty. It runs the 15amp CTEK charger I use for charging the batteries when I need to, and the fridge at the same time. Masters also have a service agent for the 909 brand on the Gold Coast. To top it off, we had a 10% Master discount through the Woolies shopping dockets. We'll see how it goes. I run it for about 10 minutes a month, just to keep it running. I guess I've delayed buying the Yamaha for another few years. Best addition in recent times has been a Victron BM-702 battery Monitor. It shows the state of charge in percentage. The voltmeter wasn't giving a very accurate view of the "state of charge". Money well spent. One quick look at the monitor, and I know how the batteries are really going!
Hope that helps.
Mark

Hi Mark we have just bought 240 watt solar we hope it will run our camper and frid/frez we aslo have 2 x 120 amp gel batteries in parellel and led lights in camper ,as we have 110 f/f and we just bought 40 ltr f/f would we have enough power for both if we at night turned of freezer we were thinking of useing the 40 as freezer we also have a geni honda but some places only let you run them twice a day and for 2 hrs at a time .

Thanks Mark ,Do you plug solar straight into batteries via anderson or run it through anderson plug on hitch , we are thinking anderson plug on hitch we have a charger also can't think what brand but is one that does 7 stage then floats not a CTEK though we had our camper 2 months only went away Christmas for 5 days no solar run geni alot so quiet as we had both weaco's runing 1 as freezer the small one and 110 as fridge . We are going away for a week soon just taking small frid/freezer hopefully to set it all up in back yard and see how solar does for a week before we go , we only have 1 battery in car as we have a new Prado and was told the panels on inner mud gard crack with weight , what we are planing is a trip upto cape next year we are getting set up with new car ,camper, Geni, we are planning 4 week trip just husband and myself going main road no trips down bush track as our camper is 5.2 mtr long .

Thanks

I run a 110 litre Waeco fridge plus lights, TV, stereo etc in our camper, and run it off a 240 watt solar panel system with two boat batteries (I'm never away in the camper and boat at the same time). Away for 2 to 3 weeks at a time and rarely (almost never) need to start the generator. The Chinese generator I had died after about 4 or 5 years. No parts of consequence were available. I was about to buy a Yamaha, when Masters released a 909 brand 2.2Kw electric start generator for $549.00, with a 909 day warranty. It runs the 15amp CTEK charger I use for charging the batteries when I need to, and the fridge at the same time. Masters also have a service agent for the 909 brand on the Gold Coast. To top it off, we had a 10% Master discount through the Woolies shopping dockets. We'll see how it goes. I run it for about 10 minutes a month, just to keep it running. I guess I've delayed buying the Yamaha for another few years. Best addition in recent times has been a Victron BM-702 battery Monitor. It shows the state of charge in percentage. The voltmeter wasn't giving a very accurate view of the "state of charge". Money well spent. One quick look at the monitor, and I know how the batteries are really going!
Hope that helps.
Mark

[Markwr400426]

Cherice
I run just one battery in the Patrol as it's pretty difficult to fit a second one and keep the ABS. I carry the 110 litre Waeco in the Patrol when we're travelling. I've set up an Anderson plug at the rear of the Patrol, along with one inside to run the fridge.
The camper has 4 Anderson plugs (all connected using 16mm wire I think). One at the drawbar, two at the left tail light, and one on the tailgate. I run the regulator on the panels, and then plug the panels into the closest Anderson plug to the best sun position for the panels using a 10 metre or 15 metre "real" 6mm lead (or both leads if there's a bit of distance between the panels and the trailer). I drop the fridge on a couple of milk crates near the left tail light. When I run the generator, I disconnect the solar panels, and run the fridge on 240 volt to take that load off the battery while I'm charging. I plug the 15amp CTEK into the other Anderson plug at the left tail light. The batteries are wired in parallel, but I draw the positives to power anything off one battery, and the negatives off the other battery. I brought the power outputs and the battery monitor over to the right hand (open) side of the trailer and fitted a 12 way fuse block. Both the fuse block and the battery monitor are mounted in electrical junction boxes. With most of our camping being beach front, I put a fair bit of effort into preventing corrosion in anything electrical using anhydrous wool fat. A Kiwi put me onto it years ago with the boat. All working well so far.
That Cape trip sounds pretty good. Yet to do it, but with any remote trip (boat, car, or trailer), you tend to put things together so they just can't fail. If you want to fit a second battery in the Prado, I believe there's a bit of room there. If the guards are cracking, a bit of thought in designing some support to shift the weight away from the area that's cracking might allow you to still fit the battery. Old motto. You can put anything anywhere, if you throw enough steel at it!
Hope that helps.
Mark

[cherice]

I run a 110 litre Waeco fridge plus lights, TV, stereo etc in our camper, and run it off a 240 watt solar panel system with two boat batteries (I'm never away in the camper and boat at the same time). Away for 2 to 3 weeks at a time and rarely (almost never) need to start the generator. The Chinese generator I had died after about 4 or 5 years. No parts of consequence were available. I was about to buy a Yamaha, when Masters released a 909 brand 2.2Kw electric start generator for $549.00, with a 909 day warranty. It runs the 15amp CTEK charger I use for charging the batteries when I need to, and the fridge at the same time. Masters also have a service agent for the 909 brand on the Gold Coast. To top it off, we had a 10% Master discount through the Woolies shopping dockets. We'll see how it goes. I run it for about 10 minutes a month, just to keep it running. I guess I've delayed buying the Yamaha for another few years. Best addition in recent times has been a Victron BM-702 battery Monitor. It shows the state of charge in percentage. The voltmeter wasn't giving a very accurate view of the "state of charge". Money well spent. One quick look at the monitor, and I know how the batteries are really going!
Hope that helps.
Mark

Hi Mark thanks for you advice we have had our Prado for 1 year and its done 10,000 km thats with a few drives to my sons trying to put some km on it as its due for 20,000 service The first thing we did was get the car all wired for towing elect brakes ,anderson plugs, Isolator,even wiring for the spot lights all that we had it done as didn't want to have it fail on us so its done we could just buy another battery and have read a bite about putting in second battery to car . We then bought a camper Trailer GIC Dominator December last year it had 1 battery we bought another wired it parell and same as you all - comes from 1 battery and + to the other then we bought a honda 20i genni 600 watt sin wave inverter a battery charger and got 240 watt solar panels the other day what I think is happening is the ciggy lighter in the camper even though it looks to have thick wiring is failing us as the 40/fridge freezer will turning of yesterday afternoon, so we charged battery to top put freezer on 240 volt to freeze and this morning and today will run it on solar and see what happens so far so all good we had purchased years ago a weaco ciggy lighter and it is connected to husband ute we thought if this happens again we would put it straight from battery and use this for fridge freezer in camper as we know it works , we want to run it at home for as long as we can and see how it goes .

Hi Mark we have just bought 240 watt solar we hope it will run our camper and frid/frez we aslo have 2 x 120 amp gel batteries in parellel and led lights in camper ,as we have 110 f/f and we just bought 40 ltr f/f would we have enough power for both if we at night turned of freezer we were thinking of useing the 40 as freezer we also have a geni honda but some places only let you run them twice a day and for 2 hrs at a time .

Thanks Mark ,Do you plug solar straight into batteries via anderson or run it through anderson plug on hitch , we are thinking anderson plug on hitch we have a charger also can't think what brand but is one that does 7 stage then floats not a CTEK though we had our camper 2 months only went away Christmas for 5 days no solar run geni alot so quiet as we had both weaco's runing 1 as freezer the small one and 110 as fridge . We are going away for a week soon just taking small frid/freezer hopefully to set it all up in back yard and see how solar does for a week before we go , we only have 1 battery in car as we have a new Prado and was told the panels on inner mud gard crack with weight , what we are planing is a trip upto cape next year we are getting set up with new car ,camper, Geni, we are planning 4 week trip just husband and myself going main road no trips down bush track as our camper is 5.2 mtr long .

Thanks

I run a 110 litre Waeco fridge plus lights, TV, stereo etc in our camper, and run it off a 240 watt solar panel system with two boat batteries (I'm never away in the camper and boat at the same time). Away for 2 to 3 weeks at a time and rarely (almost never) need to start the generator. The Chinese generator I had died after about 4 or 5 years. No parts of consequence were available. I was about to buy a Yamaha, when Masters released a 909 brand 2.2Kw electric start generator for $549.00, with a 909 day warranty. It runs the 15amp CTEK charger I use for charging the batteries when I need to, and the fridge at the same time. Masters also have a service agent for the 909 brand on the Gold Coast. To top it off, we had a 10% Master discount through the Woolies shopping dockets. We'll see how it goes. I run it for about 10 minutes a month, just to keep it running. I guess I've delayed buying the Yamaha for another few years. Best addition in recent times has been a Victron BM-702 battery Monitor. It shows the state of charge in percentage. The voltmeter wasn't giving a very accurate view of the "state of charge". Money well spent. One quick look at the monitor, and I know how the batteries are really going!
Hope that helps.
Mark

I run a 110 litre Waeco fridge plus lights, TV, stereo etc in our camper, and run it off a 240 watt solar panel system with two boat batteries (I'm never away in the camper and boat at the same time). Away for 2 to 3 weeks at a time and rarely (almost never) need to start the generator. The Chinese generator I had died after about 4 or 5 years. No parts of consequence were available. I was about to buy a Yamaha, when Masters released a 909 brand 2.2Kw electric start generator for $549.00, with a 909 day warranty. It runs the 15amp CTEK charger I use for charging the batteries when I need to, and the fridge at the same time. Masters also have a service agent for the 909 brand on the Gold Coast. To top it off, we had a 10% Master discount through the Woolies shopping dockets. We'll see how it goes. I run it for about 10 minutes a month, just to keep it running. I guess I've delayed buying the Yamaha for another few years. Best addition in recent times has been a Victron BM-702 battery Monitor. It shows the state of charge in percentage. The voltmeter wasn't giving a very accurate view of the "state of charge". Money well spent. One quick look at the monitor, and I know how the batteries are really going!
Hope that helps.
Mark

[Markwr400426]

Cherice
The other thing I did with the fridge wiring was cut the original Waeco wiring pretty close to the fridge plug, and then soldered a lead to it using real 6mm wire, with an Anderson plug. Voltage drop was an issue to me with anything to do with the fridge, and I wasn't real comfortable with the wiring between the Waeco plug and the cigarette lighter plug. Everything on the car and camper trailer between the Anderson plugs is all in the heavier (16mm?) wire. Nearly everything we've got is now 12 volt, so the only time I run an inverter now is charging Leeanne's iPad. The iPads don't seem to charge off a 12 volt supply. I charge it in the car when we go for a wander each day we're away. I found the inverters suck way too much power. Even the TV/DVD player is 12 volt now.
Hoping that helps.
Mark