Generator advice

Family time is family time. Inside the RV or outside the RV. Cooking over a fire or in a microwave. They key ingredient is the family time. My oldest kid will be out of the nest in 5 years. They grow up fast.

Most microwaves are rated at 1,100-1,500 watts with a bit of inrush during startup. Even our Champion 3100 inverter generator tends to struggle a little starting up larger 1,500 watt units. The OP might find it cheaper and less hassle to simply replace their current microwave with a smaller 700-900 watt unit vs. purchasing another generator. Even the most crippled 2000 watt generator should be able to easily power a 700 watt microwave.

I have never liked micro-waved pizza. It is much better in an oven or a Dutch oven. People can do whatever they want.

When we were kids, we went every where. We slept on our boat all the time. We went tent camping for weeks at a time. We got out of school to go deer hunting. But our parents made the rules. Times have changed.

Having camped in SE Asia for 13 months in my youth, often digging a nice personal safe space to sleep in at night. Heating my canned meals and coffee with heat tabs, sometimes heating the coffee water with C4. Going up to a month without a warm shower while out hiking the countryside. I have no desire to recreate the experience.

I live in SW Fl, the hurricane zone and consider the Toyota, not only a luxury treat but an escape pod, which it was used for during Hurricane Irma. I was an evacuee/vacationer during that period. Had the house been destroyed I would have used it as a base of operations during rebuilding or relocating.

And yes I do question my use of a 25 year old vehicle for emergency use : )

I have made concessions on the genset. I am doing the best I can to run the Toy with a Honda 2000. I use an inexpensive low powered microwave. Does it really make much of a difference if the happy meal takes 54 seconds to heat instead of the 32 seconds it does in the over the stove $500 unit at home? I also have to turn off the AC when using the microwave. The AC goes off for 54 seconds, honest I can live with that.

I have installed an 8000 btu window AC in my Toy which the Honda runs at any altitude or temperature, even worked in death valley!

The way you use an RV is a very legitimate way to use one.

Fortunately, RV's can be very versatile. For me, my travel trailer
affords me the ability to be with my friends at college football games in the fall. So obviously, we are not looking for peace and quiet. But we do want the ability to cool the interior of the TT when outside in early September, the temperatures are in the upper nineties.

And we like the ability to watch other games on TV when not in the stadium. For these reasons, generators are very necessary tools.

My TT also affords us the ability to take 8900 mile tours to see this great country. In this case, I'm not interested in sitting out under the shade. We're out looking at the sights.
Once we come home, if we haven't eaten while out, we'll just heat up something in the micro (if electricity is available) or quickly heat up something on the stove top. When we've seen what we want to see, we pull up anchor and move to the next place.

So for me, using the RV to go to some remote location to commune with nature is not in the playbook.

Fortunately, RV's are very flexible in their use.

ppine wrote:
Just a thought. The whole point of camping to me is get away from modern life. Buying a large generator to run a microwave seems odd to me. You can easily make pizza in a Dutch oven on a fire. It is not instant, but it is quiet and you will always have enough fuel. No hookups, no generator, no problem. Teach your kids.

Thanks again for all the helpful information about the original subject. Can't wait to go "camping" and microwave some pizzas with my new generator.

burningman wrote:
I thought the point of owning an RV was to provide all the comforts of a little hotel room anywhere you park it.

THIS!!

burningman wrote:
I thought the point of owning an RV was to provide all the comforts of a little hotel room anywhere you park it.

That's true, a place to sleep after a day of adventuring. :)

I thought the point of owning an RV was to provide all the comforts of a little hotel room anywhere you park it.

pnichols wrote:

BFL13 wrote:
"Real camping " is when you join the army and have to sleep in a mud-muddle. I chose the navy instead. No mud-puddles. I feel the same about RVing!

BF ... no,no. "Real camping" is when you're in the Air Force and sleep in the heated and air conditioned barracks before jumping into the heated and air conditioned plane. No cold ocean water. :C and :B

We leave the RV to hunt rocks fish, hike, photograph, bird watch, etc.. But when back in the RV we like the environment inside the box to be completely under our control at all times - unlike my backpacking days in a tent at 10,000 feet.

Dad took us camping up-Island in a tent when I was a kid. A bear tried to get in the tent with us. Mum was not amused! After that, Dad got us a TT. Lesson learned :)