I found a USED 1000w Honda Generator

96Bounder30E wrote:

mlts22 wrote:
A 1000 watt generator has two uses in a motorhome for me, especially since it is small enough to be put somewhere in the RV and forgotten about (assuming it is stored properly with a drained carb, the fuel is fresh, oil changed, etc.):

1: Something that is used with a Schumacher charger to get power to the batteries so the onboard genset can be started, if the house batteries are very depleted.

2: If boondocking and the MH doesn't have an inverter, it can be something to power the 120VAC side for low wattage loads. Stick it on Eco-Throttle (where it will chug on its fraction of a gallon gas tank for 12-15 hours), use it for charging laptops, shavers, smartphones, and so on. (This is assuming nobody else is around for etiquette's sake.) It also helps offset the power loss from the RV's furnace fan if someone doesn't have a solar charger or many amp-hours.

As an emergency generator or one just to power low loads without having to fire up the main genset, having a small 1000 watt Honda can come very much in handy.

I use my Honda 1000 for recharging my 2 6 volt Trojans through my PD9160 all the time......once in a while my batteries are to far discharged......in that case I charge them with the on board ONAN for about 20 minutes then switch over to the Honda.....


Normally, I only use my ONAN for microwave use, vacuuming and hair drying......


I would dislike dry camping very much if I did not have the Honda 1000

I bought my Honda EU1000i long before I had a 21 foot travel trailer. I love everything about it, but it won't run the microwave oven, and sometimes, being single, tying flies for fishing takes precedent over cooking dinner, so a dinner that can be popped in the microwave is nice. But that takes an Eu2000i to run it.

The Honda Eu1000i with a PD 9245 and boost charge on a low set of batteries will run the EU1000i hard in the beginning. Let the little motor warm up fully before you sentence it to hard labor charging low batteries. I usually warm the motor up, 2 minutes or so, shut it off, then plug in and restart it. Your 1000 may be maxed out for a few minutes if the batteries are really low, and if you do this in the morning before solar charging with panels, your coffee maker, if added in will bury the eu1000i.

So consider your needs carefully, electrically, before making a choice between an Eu1000i and an Eu2000i. The Eu1000i cuts it pretty thin beyond charging up batteries and running something else, unless you wait for it to get to a point out of heavy bulk charging mode. Depends on how deeply depleted your batteries are.

I like to start my coffee first thing in the morning, then turn the water heater on using propane, 12 to 15 minutes of that, take a shower using the water pump while the genny is running, drink coffee and check emails, some internet surfing, and by then, I'm an hour to 1.5 into the generator, and easily at a point to let the 120Watt portable solar panel knock down the last 15 to 20% of charging top off of the batteries for the day. Let the genny do what it does best, bulk charge, early in the day, most amps for gas burned, and let the solar do what it does best during the sunny days, top things off where the genny and PD 9245 lose a lot of efficiency.

I got very good advice from folks here in the tech section before I started spending money to keep me in electrical comfort while dry camping. A good analysis of power usage, solar usage, and charge controller usage will give you a balanced, integrated recharging power package/system, that will best determine your generator needs.

I would get solar panels first, then a proper off the grid charge controller that can bulk charge your batteries, and then the generator.