Solar paneling or generator

It's hard to make too many good recommendations (or even not so good recommendations) without a little more information on what sort of an RV you have, what generator (if any) you currently use, what your battery bank is like, what loads you need to power, and perhaps also what converter you have.

If it's only short spans of dry camping (a couple nights at a time, say), it may be most effective to upgrade the battery bank if you're rather limited there. For regular 12V loads, but not for air conditioning or extensive microwaving or similar things, solar has a bunch of advantages over a generator. Naturally, solar is more effective in some climates and campground settings than others. (It's not particularly valuable for winter camping in Alaska or Iceland, for instance.)

We originally purchased a Honda EU2000i as we boon dock the majority of time, about a year ago we purchased solar and (WOW) were we surprised as to it's capabilities. We now use the solar all the time (weather permitting) but take the Honda along should it be needed (Bad weather, need to run A/C, Microwave, etc)

Hi,

I run my rv 100% electrically. Boondocking is done with solar and a medium size battery bank.

I do have a generator, but I filled the fuel tank 4 times last year. In hindsight I wish I had invested the costs of the generator ($2700) in solar, then I would not have the nuisance of the oil changes etc.

The only item I run the generator for is the air conditioner all other loads are run from the battery bank.

Cost for materials for solar is $3 per watt not including batteries or an inverter.

If you'll need to run an air conditioner or other heavy draw appliance or power tool then a generator is needed.

Otherwise solar will meet most needs.

We chose to go with 2 Honda 2000i generators because we need to run our air conditioner and some times our washer dryer plus some power tools.

We mostly dry camp and initially went with the generator (Honda 2000i), but got tired of lugging it around along with the extra gasoline.

Installed solar with inverter a few years ago and now leave the generator at home for backup when the power goes out.

400 watts of solar with 440 amps storage and a 1500 watt pure sine wave inverter takes care of all of our needs.