Generator options

[jholovacs]

I'm a fulltimer in an RV park, so I generally don't have to worry about power, but I also live in southern Florida and I'm told we will lose power quite often in the wake of a bad storm or hurricane.

I just picked up a new Open Range 5th wheel, with 2 A/C units (one 15KBTU and 1 13.5KBTU) plus a washer/ dryer unit. I'd like to have some assurance that I could keep power going when I need to.

To this end, I'm looking for something small (space is at a premium), fairly low-maintenance, and powerful enough to power my RV like I was plugged in, but not cost a boatload.

I originally looked at the LP generator option available for the Open Range, but the dealer was quoting me $7500-$8500. I suppose that would make sense if I wanted the cadillac of bivouacking, where noise and vibration and convenience were a big deal, but that's not what I'm looking for.

Any recommendations?

[pianotuna]

The 50 amp is 6000 watts per leg for a total of 12000 watts.

There are several paths to follow to be able to run both air conditioners at the same time.

If you want the lightest weight solution, then you would have to have a 24 volt battery bank, mated to a 4000 watt hybrid inverter, powered by a 3500 watt Champion inverter generator. Dry weight under 100 lbs. A dc to dc converter would provide for the 12 volt needs for the RV. This may be the most expensive route.

Next lightest weight would be the Yamaha 4500 watt inverter generator. The dry weight is 194 lbs.

The Honda 6500 is 260 lbs dry weight.

[jholovacs]

Well, to be fair, Open Range just put in the wiring. They don't sell the genset. The dealer wanted to charge $8K for it.

Thanks for the info.

[Sandia_Man]

Most rigs with 2 AC units come specked with an Onan 5500 watt onboard genny that is capable of running both ACs at the same time. Don't know why Open Range wanted to charge $8K for an onboard as they can be installed aftermarket for considerably less. That is the ideal situation for your specific needs.

There are no easily luggable or easily stored 6000 watt, quiet inverter generators, and open frame versions are even heavier. Maybe pairing a couple of 3000 watt inverter generators will give you the juice you need to run your entire rig for the few minutes or even hours until power is restored.

Since this scenario, although possibly commonplace in Florida, is sporadic at best with no defining timeframe. Who knows if you will need to run both ACs and your W/D units at the same time during such an outage, particularly since most are short lived events and could occur when temps aren't so unbearable.

We have an onboard Onan that easily powers our rig as if plugged into shore power, we fear not such events occurring. We primarily utilize our genny when RVing off the power grid which constitutes about half of our excursions. We have put nearly 1K hours on our Onan over 9 years and wouldn't RV without it.

With an onboard there is no lugging or worries about storage, and fuel is part of their rig's common supply. Problem is they are way overkill for most situations. We purchased a remote start Champion 3100 inverter genny that powers most everything including a single AC unit. It stores easily in truck bed or basement pass-through storage.

[jholovacs]

Wow. OK, I guess I don't really need to have the same as park power. Not buying a 12KW genset. I guess I'll look into the 6500 range.

[laknox]

jholovacs wrote:
I'm a fulltimer in an RV park, so I generally don't have to worry about power, but I also live in southern Florida and I'm told we will lose power quite often in the wake of a bad storm or hurricane.

I just picked up a new Open Range 5th wheel, with 2 A/C units (one 15KBTU and 1 13.5KBTU) plus a washer/ dryer unit. I'd like to have some assurance that I could keep power going when I need to.

To this end, I'm looking for something small (space is at a premium), fairly low-maintenance, and powerful enough to power my RV like I was plugged in, but not cost a boatload.

I originally looked at the LP generator option available for the Open Range, but the dealer was quoting me $7500-$8500. I suppose that would make sense if I wanted the cadillac of bivouacking, where noise and vibration and convenience were a big deal, but that's not what I'm looking for.

Any recommendations?

50a with 2 A/C's and washer/dryer and you want to function "normally" in a power outage? Won't be small, cheap or real quiet. Something like my dad's old MultiQuip Whisperwatt 25kw with an Isuzu diesel 4-banger would work great! 🙂 Seriously, you're looking at +/- 7-10kw, gas or diesel (personally, I'd go diesel if I could afford it) to run everything. Now, if you want to be more conservative, then 4-5kw would be a bit easier to deal with and you'll just have to deal with power management, shutting down things to run others. Either way, you're going to be dealing with something that's heavy enough that you'll need help schlepping it around and you'll have to feed it, so you'll need to have fuel on hand, and a fair bit of it. With a major outage, you're likely to have problems finding fuel since stations local to you will likely be out, too. So, you either store it on site or you drive out of the outage area for it.

Lyle

[2oldman]

50a is 12,000 watts.

[jholovacs]

Yeah I don't imagine I would normally have it wired up; just when the power goes out and doesn't look like it's coming back anytime soon, so I probably wouldn't care too much about a transfer switch. I'd just plug in the genset and start it up.

That being said, the size of the unit is a concern for me. I want to fit it into my fifth wheel basement without giving myself a hernia when it's not in use; if that is not an option, it should go in the bed of my truck and not interfere with the hitch. Naturally, not giving myself a hernia getting it in and out of the truck bed is important too. I have a strict no-hernia policy.

I guess the first question is, what capacity (in watts) does a 50A "shore power" duplicate? All my previous RV's have been travel trailers with 30A service, so I'm kinda out of my element here. There's an added complication in that I believe the 50A is two-phase 240V, whereas the 30A is single-phase 120V, so I'm not clear on the minimum specs my genset needs to support.

[pianotuna]

No need for a transfer switch. Get a Yamaha or Honda 6000 watt unit. Plug the shore power cord in to the generator. Start the generator. Done.

Yamaha does make a 4500 watt unit as well which might be a better fit.

[WNYBob]

Since you're full-time / permanent, I would suggest a small manual transfer switch. It is wired to allow only CG or Generator power at one time. This prevents you back feeding the gen. power to the "CG" grid. A few hundred dollars to be safe and for others that think their power is off.

Shold be under $500 maybe a litte more if you have an electrician do it.

[C_B_]

I have a Honda 6500isA which was just checked out by my electrician for output. With both 15,000BTU AC,s running had plenty of power to run micro. Washing machine shouldn't be a problem not sure about dryer (don't have one). Plus it's quiet 53-60dB.



C.B.