Do any of you MH owners use a small invertor gen ?

Veebyes wrote:
An inverter genny is sooo much nicer for the neighbours than the screaming demon running at full RPM while only needing to produce little power.

Try listening to a Honda EX650 some time if you can hear it ... if you can find someone who still has one. Ours is over 30 years old and is in near mint condition.

They are a legendary suitcase generator with a terrible weight to watt ratio - which is probably why they sound only slightly louder than 650 watts of solar :) : http://www.tappedin.com/hop/html/litegen.htm

Funny how when people talk about how quiet their gennys are they are talking about the sound level they hear from INSIDE their unit not the sound level to others OUTSIDE of their unit.

An inverter genny is sooo much nicer for the neighbours than the screaming demon running at full RPM while only needing to produce little power.

Want to really reduce your noise footprint? Spend the money on a large battery bank & a pure sine wave inverter/charger with the inverter genny for when a charge is needed. Solar is nice but expensive to buy a worthwhile setup that does not work well on cloudy days & does not work at all in the shade or at night.

When you use the genny is important too. Start up when others nearby start up whether you really need to or not. No harm in topping off the battery bank & maybe running power hungry things while others are making a noise.

luberhill wrote:
So if winter or fall camping or when you are dry camping and just want to watch tv do you bring along a small Honda or whatever generator instead of using the onboard LOUDER generator ?
I know some have said they use the small Honda’s to run their ac too with that Soft Start or whatever it’s called add in

We carry along a very small and ultra-quiet 650 watt four-cycle Honda generator along with us in our Class C motorhome to use for battery charging. We save the built-in Onan generator for air conditioning, microwave cooking, hair dryers, emergency electric heating, etc..

The little Honda runs at a steady 54 dB sound level at all times - no irritating up and down RPM changing noise like the inverter Honda generators produce. It runs 5-6 hours on 1/2 gallon of gas.

However, in between running the little genny for periodic battery charging, we run the propane furnace, watch TV, and charge phones from our coach batteries. When drycamping we can get by doing this for about 3 days before we have to fire up the Honda for a quiet 5-6 hour run.

We have a small Class C motorhome, so we can also idle the main engine to fast charge the RV batteries for an hour or two from the alternator. Idling the main engine is way quieter than any generator.

Even with a vehicle that has a built in Onan, I like having a generator with me. Since the eu2200i is not that bigger than the 1000 watt model, I might as well have one of those. Coupled with a soft-start system for the A/C, a 2000 watt generator can handle my power needs, using a fraction of the gas the onboard Onan uses. Plus, if something happens and the batteries are too low, the Onan won't start or run, so having some type of generator that starts via a pull start can get me back on the road again in a pinch.

This doesn't say the Onan is useless. However, there are times when one just needs power to top off the batteries or handle the furnace amp draw. For these, a smaller, portable generator is ideal.

Lwiddis wrote:
“use a Honda 1000. let it run until the gas runs out sometime around 2 or 3 AM.“

Please don’t camp near me.

I will take a 1000 anyday vs a diesel generator spewing direct at me.
We were run out of our campsite for the day when the new host rolled in and needed the main generator on a few hours. (Yosemite)

theoldwizard1 wrote:

John Wayne wrote:
Luberhill Just put a "T" fitting inline after the generator fuel pump then put a shut off in the T to a lenght of clear fuel line.

If by "clear fuel line" you mean the vinyl tubing that they sell in hardware stores, that is not rated as "fuel line". It will work, but it will likely not have a very long life.

The only "clear" fuel rate flexible hose I know of is Tygon. It is not really clear, but rather a see through yellow.

Neither of these flexible hoses are rated for "pressure", that is, to be mounted after a fuel pump. If there is no restriction at the end (i.e. it is dumping into a tank with no valve), you can get away with it. The short piece of line from your T to the shut off should be normal, low pressure, neoprene automotive fuel line.

Splicing into a high pressure fuel line that is feeding a fuel injector is NOT a good idea !

H said to splice into the line that feeds the generator NOT the injector line

I carry a Honda 2000i to power items in the cargo trailer and on occasion use it for the MH. Onboard generator for the MH is propane so if propane is getting low or if it is really cold and want to keep electric heat on through the night I will use the Honda. Noise level between the two is about the same.

John Wayne wrote:
Luberhill Just put a "T" fitting inline after the generator fuel pump then put a shut off in the T to a lenght of clear fuel line.

If by "clear fuel line" you mean the vinyl tubing that they sell in hardware stores, that is not rated as "fuel line". It will work, but it will likely not have a very long life.

The only "clear" fuel rate flexible hose I know of is Tygon. It is not really clear, but rather a see through yellow.

Neither of these flexible hoses are rated for "pressure", that is, to be mounted after a fuel pump. If there is no restriction at the end (i.e. it is dumping into a tank with no valve), you can get away with it. The short piece of line from your T to the shut off should be normal, low pressure, neoprene automotive fuel line.

Splicing into a high pressure fuel line that is feeding a fuel injector is NOT a good idea !

I do have a not so small inverter generator in addition to my on board 5500 Onan. We did go for years without one but now after having had it, I'm happy to have it when we're boondocking and it is fantastic when we're at the kids desert cabin and power is $30,000 away or when I prune the trees and bushes that scratch the dickens out of my Winnie driving up to our home.

I'm not trying to put you down for asking a good question but there are a few really good sources of information online regarding RV electrical. Reading "The 12 volt side of life, Pts. 1 and 2" are among the best. The reason I suggest this is that the truly helpful answers you get will make more sense if you are familiar with the basics and the vernacular of the field. I've been in the electrical trade it seems forever and still there are idiosyncrasies that RVs have and I am still learning about RV electrical.

It’s a converter I guess no inverter... it has two new coach deep cycle batteries and one cranking battery