On board generator

jnharley wrote:
Love our onboard Onan 5500 propane generator. It gave us many more camping options on our summer trip to Alaska. We had it installed a year after build by our manufacturer. We found a fabulous deal for the generator on line and our 5th wheel manufacturer let us drop ship it to them for installation. It actually cost us less after market that it would have if installed during build. We also installed a PSW inverter (we did that ourselves) and now have most of the outlets able to run off the inverter. We do routine maintenance on the generator and run it under load once a month. Now no worries about finding fuel for a portable or having it walk away.

Finding fuel for a portable ( gas ) would be much easier then finding propane I would have to think. I guess if you have a large enough bank of batteries, then you can get away with having to just run the generator to charge the batteries . Having no experience with an inverter I don't know. I do know my 5500LP is a lousy power source for consistent use, great for that hour or two of emergency power, but beyond that it uses too much propane to make it practical . Don't get me wrong love the onan, but I would probably go the two honda deal the next time. Less weight ,probably less then half the cost to purchase.

Spent a week hunting in October using just one Honda 2000, used about 6 gallons of gas in that time, have no idea how many hours, but I had the satellite setup, so TV, and lights were on a lot to keep everyone happy. Nice thing was the occasional use of the microwave ran fine on the honda, as long as there was nothing else going. Worked out great . I could not have done this with the Onan, too far away from propane. The Onan has its place, but its limited.


While on the subject of inverters, what kind of power is need to run a fifth wheel for say 4-5 hours of TV, some lights , maybe occasional microwave use , and how much generator time to charge the batteries back up. How many batteries are required etc.