Question about Generators and boon docking

dvitale300 wrote:
The more I thought about this the more I thought I should ask.

Just returned from our first boon docking trip on a generator. I know the led lights, bathroom fan, radio, etc. are all 12V and draw from the battery. When you have a generator on do they draw from the generator power, or from the inverter (I think that's the term) which is powered by the generator? If you have a lot of led's and the radio on - would that cause any kind of significant draw on the generator?

thanks

In short no. Before we swapped our traditional light bulbs for LEDs we'd hear the converter's fan come on if we had more than 2 of them turned on at once. Now it doesn't matter how many are on and even if the bathroom fan is running.

The only "significant" draw on the generator is the converter's work to recharge your batteries since you ran it last. Even then, it may not be that much - my Honda stayed at idle in Eco mode over the weekend (after 2 days/nights of dry camping since unplugging from home).

You didn't say how long you were camping, nor if you have more than 1 battery on your TT. We've found that even with using the furnace at night, we can go for more than 2 days on batteries alone. I only ran my genny on this trip since I didn't want to hassle with getting the covers off my batteries to check their voltage (a better measurement than the 4 lights on the TT's info panel).