Is an RV generator worth it?

CoeyCoey wrote:

2oldman wrote:

HadEnough wrote:
Yikes. 00 is where I'd be. At least.

Yeah. His post seems to indicate he's running 4 separate #10 to the inverter. Length of wire, connections and TIME are what make #10 for 30 amps risky. Running high-amp draws requires extra due diligence. Charts are one thing, operation is another. I speak from experience.

I'll go by what engineers have discovered rather than the anecdotal experiences of someone online, thanks. Also, been an aircraft mechanic for over 25 years, and never have I seen an issue from using the wire sizes stated in the charts.

Well, you didn't name the distance yet, now did you?

If we're having a pee niss contest here, things I've designed and built are still in space and make the news on occasion, as they send data back to Earth regarding plasma levels in the heliosphere.

But I do stand corrected in the sense this is an inverter connection you're talking about. I had thought this was your run from the monster alternator you'll need to install to the battery bank.

In any case, get the generator fixed. As an engineer you should already see that you absolutely cannot run your air conditioner off the setup you propose.

Your LRA is around 3500 watts. At 12v that's 291 amps between the inverter a d batteries not counting losses from the inversion process. So round to 300 amps on those wires.

You're at 1500 watts all day long running that air conditioning. That's 125 amps per hour battery draw all day long. Or... If running that engine you need to increase the idle and have about a 200amp rated alternator to keep up. With no other load. Except at idle, even high idle, a 200amp alternator puts out less than half its rated current. Or put another way, you can't do this. You can't get an alternator that will keep up with an RV air conditioner. You'd have to use a belt driven compressor.

By the time you Rube Goldberg all that together, you would have made a far better choice just fixing the Onan.