Generator or not??

I have a great storage location that unfortunately does not have water or electric so having a generator has been invaluable...

thebudman wrote:

paulcardoza wrote:
I'm sure that it'll be a selling strength if we trade it in someday, but I don't see us using it, barring some natural disaster that knocks out power for days.

What if one of Ted Kennedy's kids drives off another bridge and knocks the power out for a couple of days? Then you'll wish you had the dealer run the generator for you.

Or just use the Honda 2000 that he already owns, worst case get a second for parallel.

paulcardoza wrote:
I'm sure that it'll be a selling strength if we trade it in someday, but I don't see us using it, barring some natural disaster that knocks out power for days.

What if one of Ted Kennedy's kids drives off another bridge and knocks the power out for a couple of days? Then you'll wish you had the dealer run the generator for you.

When we went shopping for our TH, we found our current model which had everything we wanted plus the Onan that we felt we didnt need. When we took delivery I told the dealer not to put any gas in the storage tank and there was no need to run the genny for me. I'm sure that it'll be a selling strength if we trade it in someday, but I don't see us using it, barring some natural disaster that knocks out power for days.

I'm either at the beach or the desert so it's nice to have the AC when needed push the button. If you choose to mirco something you have it. Or if the wifey wants to blow dry her hair your covered. I've found that since I converted to running two deep cycle 6 volt batteries and changed out all my lights to LED I'm not using the genny as much. But if I choose to with a few movies at night I'll fire up the genny. Some others here have great insight on using solar panels also that's another route you may want to look into.

I don't use my on board genny all that much but it’s sure nice to have it. Forget to take dinner out of the freezer or want to microwave something then all it takes is a push of the genny button to have power. Hot day and the trailer is still baking at bed time, well fire up the genny and cool things down before bed. Few cloudy days and the solar didn't keep up with the battery’s well a few hour running the gen set and all is well. I don't have to worry about throwing a genny and gas in the truck, setting it up or theft. It was a no brainer for me as I knew it would be used some and the price of the genny is wrapped up in the trailer cost so I wouldn't be running out and spending another bunch of money on a genny that would do half of what my on board will do.

I keep ethanol free gas in my on board tank in hopes I might not have gas related problems.

Generators are like 4WD... you don't always need it but when you do you'll be much happier with it than without.

Even though we don't dry camp, I did put an on-board generator in our rig and in 3 months we've already used it twice because of power failures in parks due to weather. When you're stuck inside in 90 degree heat with 100% humidity, it's nice to be able to run AC. With that said, your portable sounds like it has about the same load capacity as an on-board, so I'd save the expense and use what you've got.

Best of luck!

My toy hauler had a 5500w Onan with a dedicated plug for 50A output. I was able to reasonably run my house off our toy hauler that I had parked on the street plus I had 40 gallons of gasoline on tap. Our truck camper generator is only 2500w, so we just move to the camper instead of trying to power the house but we can plug our house fridge and freezer in to the TC with long extension cords.

Our home does not have air conditioning, so I will hop in the camper if we get a heat wave and crank up the air while I watch my neighbors wilt in the heat.

Really and truly depends on how you camp, though I would go with the external gensets.

For me and pardette (wife) we do a lot of dry camping. Down here we get plenty of hot nights most of the year. No power, no AC. When we dry camp, having the gensets is great. Biggest problem is that ethanol fuel derates the gensets. You might have to run gensets out of eco mode because they cannot ramp up load fast enough when the compressor kicks in.

Onboard gensets are nice for a variety of reasons. One of the best is remote start. You can leave the AC on in the RV with the genset off. When you get close to a rest stop for lunch, hit the remote start power comes on and so does the AC. You have a cool trailer for lunch.

Onboards are also nice since little setup is required. That is nice when camping at Camp Wally World. On our last trip (2.5 weeks) we spent 6 days in truck stops, rest stops, and Wally Worlds. While I don't have an onboard it takes me about 20 minutes to lineup gensets, tanks, cables. I can do it in as little as 10 minutes.

The advantage of externals is that they can be used elsewhere. It is nice to have generators when we work the range and I can drag around one of the 2000s to run the pole saw.

Generators also give you lifeboat mode at home. During one of the last hurricanes we were without power for a couple of days. I stayed in the TH with AC, satellite, and complete comfort. The mother-in-law who lived with us, God rest her soul (great lady), I could not convince to come out to RV! She said, "You aren't moving me out to that trailer. I said I would never live in one those and my daughter will stay with me!"

So my wife stayed in the house, sweltering, while I and dogs (no fools they) stayed in AC comfort.

So a generator will give you options you do not have, but if you really aren't going to boondock I would not get one.