Are Generators worth the $$'s

If your batteries are low, they are worth a lot of $$...;)

If you end up not needing it after this trip you won't have an issue finding someone to buy it from you.

What are your electrical usage habits?

For things like lights, charging phones, water pump, that's all battery. If you want to get into entertainment like TV, radios and anything that needs 120v, an inverter is much cheaper and way less noisy than a couple generators! You must have a good way to charge your batteries, and I'm not sure the vehicle is a good way. Takes a long time - but then again, if your usage is very light, no matter.

I've been around people using a gen to watch TV, but it's kinda annoying because it drones on for hours, and I know that's what they're doing. I've dry camped a lot in all kinds of situations, and I very rarely see people running air from their gens.

They're only worth the money if you need them. I have two Honda 2000's and use them some. I never use them to watch TV even when boondocking. I have a 12 volt TV in the bedroom that we can bring to the living area and plug into 12 volt there if we really want to watch something (usually a DVD but the TV has it built in). The main thing I use them for is A/C and coffee maker (and I don't even drink coffee but others do). Depending on how long I am camping I may need one to charge the batteries. We have a week long trip planned in a couple of weeks to the mountains where they are getting snow tonight. In that case we will probably run the heat at night so will need to charge the batteries daily. You only need one to charge the batteries or even use the microwave. You only need two to run the A/C.

Generators.......

Depends on need and use whether they are worth the $$

When without AC Power we use ours to:
Maintain charge on batteries
And provide AC POWER for microwave, A/C, outlets when appropriate to use generator

It also provides AC Power source just in case........rig is our emergency shelter.

Maintaining battery charge via truck.......hours and hours needed due to limitations of truck charge line---size/amps.
Truck charge line is more for maintaining trailer battery charge vs recharging a low battery

Yes.

For a one time trip I can understand what you are talking about. How long is your stay there? You may be able to rent a generator for that time and save a lot of money.

The park is above 8000 ft so there may be a chance you will not need AC, then again I've seen it 80 in the shade at 10,000 ft so who knows. (record setting year)

You can keep you battery charged up with a pair of battery cables off your truck. It wont be the most efficient but it will cost a lot less. We did it for a week when we first started while needing the furnace nightly.

You could get a few inexpensive ebay LEDs to replace your most used light while there. $10 could save a lot of battery. Cob style go in and out like a regular bulb.

After reading these posts, I think 'yes' will need these. I believe that if this goes good, then my wife would be more apt to boondock...and I love going places where its not an RV parking lot. I also forgot the all important coffee maker and microwave. We most likely won't be watching TV, but the AC may be a necessity.

I hear that Honda 2000i is a great generator because its very quiet. We went to the river where friends had their camper and Honda Gen, and we didn't even know it was on the majority of the time. I would definitely get 2 and then we would have that extra since of security at our house.

I am biased because I come from a canoe camping background, but I do not consider a generator worth the trouble.

If no electric, we use batteries, if batteries are not practical, we use candles. The point is to match the camping you do to the environment you want. If I go to the wilderness I want wilderness, if the kids want a pool, I go to Yogi Bear etc.

We camped in Michigan State Parks that did not even offer electric. We knew it beforehand so we were prepared to operate without it.

Will you be in the shade or sun? Unless you need air conditioning I will encourage you to get 150 to 300 watts of solar. Watch tv or charge small items can be done with a small inverter. Microwave, coffee maker, hair dryer need a large inverter (1800w) that will add cost and complexity.

Google images shows lots of sunny campsites and you do not need perfect sun all day to get a decent recharge.

If the day is hot you will be looking to drive/walk to a cool shaded stream or lake. Last thing you want is to be trapped in your RV with the air running and the generators howling all afternoon. It should not be the muggy heat you have in AR.

Forum Members Solar Installations With Pics

For the price of one Honda you can self install a nice system.

You also have to consider when you can run your generator. Here on the East side of the US including Arkansas you have all of the generator run time restriction in place. This means you are only allowed to run your generator at public camp grounds usually from 8AM-10AM and then again maybe from 4:30PM to 7:30PM. This doesn't give much time to enjoy running an on-board air conditioner with one.

What we did is beef up our OFF-ROAD trailer operations to almost everything we want to do running from the batteries and then use the high dollar generator to run the the trailer when allowed to just re-charge the batteries using smart mode charging in a quick three hour generator run time.

Out West you may find some dispersed camping places that allows you to run your generator whenever you want to. Those kinds of camp ground grounds are few here on the East side of the USA. We have found some Natl Forest areas that allows you generator run times from 8AM to 8PM but have never found any public place you can run one after 8PM at night.

To us a generator is a must have item but in our case is only used to re-charge our batteries three hours a day so we can run the next day/night run off the batteries.

even doing this this we run into problems when we do a 50% to 90% SOC re-charge period everyday for over 12-14 times and the batteries start dropping off in performance. Then we have to do a full 100% SOC which will take around 12-13 hours of generator run time which is usually not allowed where we are camping - This is when we head back for the house haha...


Just my take on Generators. That was the first thing I got before we started camping off the power grids in our OFF-ROAD Camper SETUP like we do. My generator sits secured in the back of truck bed next to the tailgate. It is covered with a lockable folding hard plastic bed cover. It has saved our trips too many times to count...

No way would I consider going out in the woods somewhere without my generator. Its all about having PLAN Bs...

Roy Ken