Generator vs Battery/Inverter/Solar

Welcome to the forum. Tell us about your intended usage? Weekends; long stays; in a CG with power or boondocking in the forest...

Thanks for your reply. We tend to drive daily and stay overnight in campgrounds without power or boondock. We'll be doing a lot of 3-4 day trips and some longer trips (2 or three weeks). I don't see us sitting in one spot for more than a day. The camper has only 1 battery currently and has 2 propane tanks.

Is your use more like "tent on wheels" or do you want to use TV, DVD, laptop, CPAP, AC, microwave, etc etc?

Use it all! It has TV, AC (I think we'd have to be plugged into power to use??), I want to install a microwave, etc etc

A 2KW-3KW generator only needs fuel to operate.

The Large 2KW-3KW Power Inverters will require many many big batteries to operate it under load even for a short period of time and then you will need a way to recharge the batteries... The generator is the easiest solution to do this in a short time frame.

A typical 120WATT solar panel will only produce 5-6AMPS DC Current when in high Sun. You will need many many solar panels to come anywhere close to what a 2KW-3KW Generator will do. You will also need many many batteries to store the solar panel generated power in to able to use this power when you need it.

Most public camp grounds around all have generator run time restrictions and we have very few DISPERSED camping around here on the East side of the US. OFF-ROAD Camping out West is a totally different story...

To be able to camp OFF-GRID here on the East side of the US We beefed up our batteries and use a minimum wattage power inverter to run just the must have things we want to use when camping off the power grid. This does not include Air Conditioning or high wattage Microwave use. I can run 12VDC@20AMP capacity from 6PM to 11PM each night off my batteries and then can recharge them the next morning in an three hour generator run time when allowed using smart mode charging techniques. Adding solar panels will reduce my generator run time by two hours with my setup. Sometimes however you will not have high sun and then the only recourse is a generator. We deemed the generator the highest priority to have right away when we started out in 2008 and are just now thinking about adding solar panels. My roof top on my OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer which is much the same size as you TC Camper will only support a couple of solar panels.

It all depends on what you want to do...

Roy Ken

chobe2 wrote:
Use it all! It has TV, AC (I think we'd have to be plugged into power to use??), I want to install a microwave, etc etc

Then I suggest add the generator first and add solar later if you want. If you have room add another deep cycle battery.

If you need air conditioning without utility power you will need a large generator and plenty of fuel. Or if you want to camp well below freezing you may also need a generator. Although a small 1000w should be fine.

Otherwise solar/battery/inverter/propane can easily do the rest. Worst case you will need to find a place to plug in.
I recommend trying to avoid a generator.

If you're going to use the air conditioning or even the microwave, you're probably better off with the generator. The size of the battery bank, cables, inverter, and solar panels would be insane. I actually just purchased the Renogy solar panels (200 watts) and charge controller, so I'll have both, but really that's just to keep the batteries charged when boondocking. The air conditioning and microwave are pretty much going to require full AC power from a gen set.

If you want to run AC without plugging in you'll need the generator-- but as a potential co-resident of campgrounds I'd ask you not to-- quiet is one of the things we go camping for!

If you're driving every day your batteries should always be fully charged even without a solar panel (check that you've got a heavy enough wire from your truck to the camper to support charging, 8 AWG is recommended).

I've always gotten by fine for many days boondocking on one battery, but I use power very lightly, the CO and gas detectors are almost certainly my heaviest draws. I recently got a new (to me) camper with two batteries and a 150 watt solar panel, so I'm expecting to be able to go indefinitely without mechanical recharging.

You probably want to add up the draws from the things you anticipate using and see how that compares to your battery capacity to inform your decision. You may find that something as simple as swapping your conventional light bulbs for LEDs will eliminate the need for a generator with its added weight, noise, and storage requirement.

in another thread, we also established that if you want to run a hair dryer, your going to need a generator of around 2000 watts.

in my case, I have 200w solar. it allowed me to have my camper sitting with refrigerator running (on gas), not plugged into AC, and ready to go, fully charged at any minute. My solar and two 27 series AGM batteries cover any load I have had so far, accept microwave and or AC. If its hot and there is a chance I will need AC, I drag along the Honda 2K.

I have a 5er sitting on private property. last winter I left it there plugged in, and the bill went up $20 bucks per month. this is just RV sitting charging batteries over the winter.
AT home, I hardly ever plug my Wolf Creek in, it just uses solar to keep charged. I can official say that $20.00 per month electric saved is paying for solar system.