Generator handling?
Coach has a Onan 6500 watt Propane gen. Way too loud and sucks waay too much propane when most run time is to charge house bank. Solution: 4500 watt portable…… next challenge: how to load / unload 93l...
Forum Discussion
That 6500 watt generator is going to be mighty heavy. You don't say how high it is, but you might also consider renting an engine hoist both for taking out the old one and installing the new one.
If fuel consumption and noise are your complaints about a generator used mostly just to charge your house batteries, it would appear that your most cost effective solution would be solar, not a smaller generator. I'm guessing that a 40 foot RV with a 6500 watt generator would have more than just one 80 Amp Hour house battery, which would clearly require more than just 100 watts of solar to keep charged up. As it turns out, solar prices have come down to the point now where the up-front cost of solar is competitive with generators, still more than the very cheapest, but less than the high end generators. Throw in the savings from no fuel, spark plugs, etc. and the 25 year expected life, and the totally silent and automatic operation are serious bonuses.
May I suggest, before you pull the trigger on that 4500 watt generator, you at least look into solar. A great place to start would be here. As a very rough guesstimate (in lieu of actually doing the calculations) you need 100 watts of solar panels for every 80-100 Amp Hours of lead-acid house batteries, and solar systems are now around $1 per watt of panel.
If fuel consumption and noise are your complaints about a generator used mostly just to charge your house batteries, it would appear that your most cost effective solution would be solar, not a smaller generator. I'm guessing that a 40 foot RV with a 6500 watt generator would have more than just one 80 Amp Hour house battery, which would clearly require more than just 100 watts of solar to keep charged up. As it turns out, solar prices have come down to the point now where the up-front cost of solar is competitive with generators, still more than the very cheapest, but less than the high end generators. Throw in the savings from no fuel, spark plugs, etc. and the 25 year expected life, and the totally silent and automatic operation are serious bonuses.
May I suggest, before you pull the trigger on that 4500 watt generator, you at least look into solar. A great place to start would be here. As a very rough guesstimate (in lieu of actually doing the calculations) you need 100 watts of solar panels for every 80-100 Amp Hours of lead-acid house batteries, and solar systems are now around $1 per watt of panel.
