generator use
Would like to know about generator use in national parks, as many don't have electrical hookups. Thank you for any info, Dave
Forum Discussion
Having run into this at various places I went ahead and beefed up my trailer system to operate all of the things we want to have with us both 120VAC and 12VDC. We increased our battery setup to allow us to do this for the one day/night camping run from our increased battery bank. The next morning when allowed to run our 2KW Honda generator we would connect the trailer shore power cable directly to the generator 120VAC receptacle using a RV30A-15A long adapter. Using our smart mode technology converter/charger we can re-charge our batteries back up to their 90% charge state in just three hours generator run times so we can do all of this all over again for the next day/night camping run. If we end up staying more than 10-12 days then we have to run the generator for some 12 hours to be able to re-charge our batteries to a full 100% charge state otherwise we will start doing damage to our deep cycle batteries.
It does take some planning and we have been very successful doing this over the past few years and don't seem to hardly bother anyone with our generator only running just around three hours aday usually during breakfast.
We have found most camp grounds have generator run times from 8Am-10AM and then again from 4:30PM to 7:30PM. This is still true at some Natl Forest sites as well. More and more of Natl Forest sites are now allowing the use of generators from 8AM to 8PM but it is not guaranteed. One must check with the camp ground regs before going to the the camp grounds.
Of course this does not include the use of air conditioning or high wattage item like the microwaves. Also when heat all night long is needed creates another problem area as the propane heater 12VDC blower motors are a real high usage item from the batteries. You have to develop work arounds for these times...
What we found out rather quick was you just can't show up at weekend camping trip off the power grid and expect to automatically do all things you normally do at a regular electric site. It takes some planning...
Its all about having PLAN Bs inplace to be successful
just my thoughs
Roy and Carolyn
It does take some planning and we have been very successful doing this over the past few years and don't seem to hardly bother anyone with our generator only running just around three hours aday usually during breakfast.
We have found most camp grounds have generator run times from 8Am-10AM and then again from 4:30PM to 7:30PM. This is still true at some Natl Forest sites as well. More and more of Natl Forest sites are now allowing the use of generators from 8AM to 8PM but it is not guaranteed. One must check with the camp ground regs before going to the the camp grounds.
Of course this does not include the use of air conditioning or high wattage item like the microwaves. Also when heat all night long is needed creates another problem area as the propane heater 12VDC blower motors are a real high usage item from the batteries. You have to develop work arounds for these times...
What we found out rather quick was you just can't show up at weekend camping trip off the power grid and expect to automatically do all things you normally do at a regular electric site. It takes some planning...
Its all about having PLAN Bs inplace to be successful
just my thoughs
Roy and Carolyn
