Auxiliary generator questions

[joe_blow]

Hi,

I have a somewhat technical question for the electrical gurus.

I have a 5500 ONAN house gen on my 2008 WW 5th wheel and do a moderate amount of dry camping in the desert.

I recently bought a yamaha 2000W inverter/gen 30A that I want to use for the cold nights to power the trailer lights (LED) and also energize the outlets for running two small LASKO heaters and charging phones overnight. Most of my friends do the same and it really saves propane and battery use, from cycling the heater all night.

Anyway, my question is this:

Is it possible to add a 30A plug/junction box that ties into the 50A house junction box, so I don't have to constantly unplug the 50A house cord to run the small generator?

Obviously both generators would never be run together, but I am concerned with either one back feeding into each other and ruining the small generator's inverter or my main house inverter.

Hopefully the question makes sense.

Thanks for the help

Joe

[Sandia_Man]

We also have an onboard Onan and have purchased a portable Champion 3.1K inverter genny to power our RV since the Onan is way overkill most times, as well as noisier and less efficient. Although we don't run the Champion genny all night, we do run it while watching a late night movie and run electric heaters to get our rig very toasty before heading to bed.

We then set the propane heater for 55 or so and it may kick on a time or two during the night, early in the morning before we rise I will use the remote start on our Champion from the comfort of our bed to get our rig nice and warm for when we finally decide to roll out of bed.

Keep in mind this practice is only done when we are boondocking in frigid temps with no RVing neighbors anywhere around, we do several of these trips each year. There is a 30 amp outlet on our Champion and we just plug our shore cord directly, amazingly it still has plenty of residual power for other items in our rig even with our AC unit running.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Take the easy route and just plug the heater directly into the generator? It is only going to power one 1500 watt unit.

[Blackdiamond]

I run my propane furnace and 2 Cpaps all night long off 2 costco 6v batteries and that often involves some TV time late night off the inverter, still have plenty of power to start the Onan in the morning.

[joe_blow]

Thanks for the replies.

The generator would run until it is out of fuel and then the house propane furnace would take over.

I currently have solar but not converted to 6 volt yet, but plan to later this year.

[2oldman]

..and you sure as heck don't need a generator to run LED lights.

[Bedlam]

It is more efficient to create heat by burning propane rather than making electrically resistive heat by generator. If it is a matter of the batteries not lasting all night when the propane heater fans run, you need to replace the batteries with more capacity.

Your setup would benefit from a solar installation to keep the batteries topped off during the day. I have three 160w panels in the cloudy NW that keeps my batteries fully charged even if efficiency is less than half on many rainy or overcast days that are short in the winter months.

I do know some people run a small generator in very cold weather to keep the propane furnace fans going due to lack of battery capacity and solar recharging I described above. There is no reason why you cannot use your current 50A cord with an adapter on a smaller generator, but you will have to remember that it may not power your air conditioner and maybe some appliances will have to be run one at a time rather than together. I know I was spoiled with my 5500 and large fuel tank. I could run everything in my toy hauler without thought to duration or load. My thinking had to change when I switched to truck campers which run small LPG generators.

[nayther]

joe blow wrote:
Hi,

I have a somewhat technical question for the electrical gurus.

I have a 5500 ONAN house gen on my 2008 WW 5th wheel and do a moderate amount of dry camping in the desert.

I recently bought a yamaha 2000W inverter/gen 30A that I want to use for the cold nights to power the trailer lights (LED) and also energize the outlets for running two small LASKO heaters and charging phones overnight. Most of my friends do the same and it really saves propane and battery use, from cycling the heater all night.

Anyway, my question is this:

Is it possible to add a 30A plug/junction box that ties into the 50A house junction box, so I don't have to constantly unplug the 50A house cord to run the small generator?

Obviously both generators would never be run together, but I am concerned with either one back feeding into each other and ruining the small generator's inverter or my main house inverter.

Hopefully the question makes sense.

Thanks for the help

Joe

As stated I doubt your 2000 will run all night on a tank of gas. Most small electric heaters are 1000-1500 watts of RESISTANCE heat, meaning it translates directly to the load on the generator. Look at the rating of the generator, it is probably rated for less than 2000 watts CONTINUOUS, more like 1500-1700 with the 2000 being "inrush". You certainly could wire in a 30 amp plug in parallel with the 50 amp but you'd have to split it to both 50 amp legs, not a big deal and certainly doable if you know electricity.

Personally we do a LOT of dry camping in the desert but usually around others (racing and family riding) and I know I hate waking up to the sound of a generator in the middle of the night. No matter how quiet of an inverter generator you have sound travels really well in the desert. And if you're running the generator flat out to run heaters it will not be very quiet.

Why can't you just run the furnace at night and then charge batteries in the morning/evening with the 2000? That's what we do and have done it that way for years. Suggest more battery instead of running a gennie all night.

[2oldman]

You mean the 50a house cord has to be unplugged from the Onan?

I don't know of anybody who runs a generator all night, perhaps I hang with a different crowd. What about running out of gas? What are the wattages of these heaters?