mordecai81 wrote:
I have a Champion 3000w generator that will run the AC and a stand alone 60 amp Boondocker charger that I plug into the generator and then use jumper cables to attach to the battery posts. It charges the battery as efficiently as is possible via a generator. We also have roof and portable solar that is either very helpful or not at all depending on weather and shade. If you charge only with the built in converter/charger, NPS campgrounds don't have long enough generator hours to get the batts fully charged.
I don't think this actually means "fully charged" as stated, but more of in general terms. You would never try to do the last 10% of SOC on generator even if they let you and you had enough gas for the generator. You do 50-80s or 50-90s. Maybe 40-80s. Whatever works.
Even so, the gen hours may be too short to do a 50-90 or 50-80 unless you have the set-up to do that. I had to equip for doing a 50-90 in two hours to meet gen hours, with a 450 AH bank at 50%.
I was able to do that by using enough charging amps at the proper voltage of 14.8 (15.2 at 35F when I was doing this sometimes) which was 130 amps of non-PF corrected chargers adding their amps. To run those I had to max out my Honda 3000is. One more charging amp and it would pop the breaker :)
In the above case, a second 60 amper at the same set voltage would provide 120 amps and would run off that 3000w gen.
These days I only have a smaller generator that is maxed out running a 75 amp charger. I am reduced to doing 50-80s not 50-90s in the two hours or else cheat and leave it to run overtime. Park Rangers don't seem to care that much, so I have been getting away with going a bit longer.
Point being, you can arrange things to suit the scenario. You are not stuck with what the trailer came with.
