Best choice? Small Generator vs Solar Setup -> weekend camp

If you don't intend to do extended stays without hookups on a regular basis, Solar isn't worth it in my opinion. You're going to need a generator anyway due to the unreliable nature of Solar. I currently have 600 watts of panels on the roof, and this weekend for instance, Friday and Saturday were heavy rain, with a low heavy cloud cover. We also had the grandson with us, so the TV was in use a lot more than usual, and we kept the furnace at a quite comfortable setting during the day, and the rain turned to snow Saturday night so the furnace ran quite a bit at night, especially since I kept the thermostat higher than normal since the grandson was in his "spiderman Sleeping bag" and he got cold. My solar panels didn't put much back into the batteries, and without the generator we wouldn't have been able to keep the furnace and my bipap running three days, let alone the entertainment devices. That said, the wife and I alone do a good job of holing up in bad weather with just a book.

Regarding your big generator, you might want to look into a smaller inverter type if you don't need the AC.

lane hog wrote:
We do a mix of solar and gens. Solar when the sun is out, gens for morning charging when we're too far north or in the shade...

So far, two batteries and our 140W panel have never let us down on a weekend.

No inverter? Easy to wire one in. We have one behind the TV so that the kids could watch it while we were rolling, and it only has two outlets. We now run an extension cord from that to power other electronics when needed.

There's also another option....

Over the winter, we got a battery pack from Menards for emergency jump starting. Ours also has a 12V & separate USB port on it, so it spends some of its time and battery capacity working as a tablet/phone charger while we're drydocking. There are also versions available with a built in 110v plug.

But... to an earlier point... you're camping. We leave the TV off.

Way to go ... your power setup is close to ideal in that it is a very versatile arrangement!

We do not yet have solar because we don't camp in the right kind of places long enough to make it practical or necessary. For longer stays in camping spots we either use the little 650 watt very quiet suitcase Honda for slow battery charging or idle the V10 for almost no-noise very quick battery charging. We use a small pure sine wave inverter for small item charging and running of our CPAP machines.

Our 230 amp-hour AGM coach battery bank can go 2-3 days before needing a recharge. The big Onan built-in genny starts very quick and is fairly quiet for long air conditioning runs or short microwave/hair dryer/vacumm cleaner runs.

We do a mix of solar and gens. Solar when the sun is out, gens for morning charging when we're too far north or in the shade...

So far, two batteries and our 140W panel have never let us down on a weekend.

No inverter? Easy to wire one in. We have one behind the TV so that the kids could watch it while we were rolling, and it only has two outlets. We now run an extension cord from that to power other electronics when needed.

There's also another option....

Over the winter, we got a battery pack from Menards for emergency jump starting. Ours also has a 12V & separate USB port on it, so it spends some of its time and battery capacity working as a tablet/phone charger while we're drydocking. There are also versions available with a built in 110v plug.

But... to an earlier point... you're camping. We leave the TV off.

We love our solar, its on duty most of the day, quiet and once the initial shock of the price is over, free for life

I have 195 watts of solar on the roof & carry a 160 watt portable panel. No generator. The rooftop panels provide all the power I need during the summer; with the shorter days & low angle sun in the winter, I need to add the portable.

I have a 1000 watt inverter to supply limited AC for making coffee, toast, etc. I avoid temperatures that require running the air conditioner, however the few times I needed it, I headed to a campground with hookups.

I spent last winter at the LTVA in Quartzsite; 93 days without hookups.

My vote is for two generators for short-term camping:

- A small generator for supplying small power up to it's capacity any time in any weather.

- A large generator for supplying large power any time in extreme heat when air conditioning is needed.

Solar is too restrictive for flexible RV use ... maybe add it later after you have added the proper generator capacity.

Our 24 foot MH has both a 650 watt generator and a 4000 watt generator. We find that this combination is just the ticket for short term hit-and-run low altitude, high altitude, coastal, inland, summer, and winter camping.

100 to 200 watts solar and a second battery should be fine through the weekend.

So with the on board Gen you run for the weekend 6-8 hrs at 1/2 gal and hour and you have a Gen that needs exercise anyway. 4 gal of gas for how many weekends. At $10-$15 worth of gas per weekend, how long will it take to pay for a small gas saving Gen or enough Solar to power your needs. This has been my problem, dragging xtra **** along, for what saving? We boondock over 50 nights a year, some we need no power at all or just enough for a bit of cooking. Either way sounds like a lot of work for little if any return. JMO

LEN

OP: Why are you going through all this expense for weekend camping? Take a good book along and ditch the T.V. :) Or...take a nice long hike during the day to wear yourself out and go to bed early. Really....two nights without T.V. is not a hardship and it would save you a lot of money.

Hi,

I have a scant 256 watts of solar on my RV. It cost $1700. Since 2009 it has paid for itself many times over, since I can boondock rather than pay for $30 per night for a campsite. When I was part time I was camping for 50 nights per year.

Busskipper wrote:
Solar is way overrated (have it on the house and the RV and the payback will not happen in my lifetime on either - been 12 years on both and am still 30+ from payback)