Generator Yes, or No ?

[jbstack28]

Well we started looking at Class A motorhomes to begin our journey fulltiming it across the country. We wound up with a fifth wheel. Looking at differences, one big one is a Generator. Do we need one? Why, and how often. Built in or Portable. If portable, what keeps someone from walking off with it?

Thanks so much,

Charlie Stackpole

[teamfamily5]

Also travel with full water tank last year spent a week in Julian CA at KQ resort well they ran out of water which they have to also keep in tanks they have to haul in water tank trucks to fill there tanks that feed the RV sites. Always good to be ready and prepared 🙂

[teamfamily5]

Just bought a champion 9375 watt gen will run everything in our fith wheel both ac with everything else on at the same time 699.00 at Costco right now we really needed one on our resent trip from San Diego to Oklahoma the. Texas my daughter and wife were both driving other vech had to stop what seemed to me every other hour ecause some one was tired and needed a nap or eat/fuel void ect... No fun trying to rest in the pickup truck in needles ca I. 110 degree air. Now I have a generator and will fire it up and rest when and were I choose when traveling with my girls 🙂

[jnharley]

A generator is a very good thing to have whether portable or built in. We are fulltimers and started with Honda portables. Since we have a diesel truck, we found it inconvenient to carry a fuel we only needed for the generators. In an emergency with wide spread power outages, we had to drive miles to find gasoline and of course, there was always the worry of the generators being stolen. We had an aftermarket Onan 5500 propane generator installed. We found an excellent price on line and had it drop shipped to our manufacturer and later installed at a much lower price than an install at build. We used it quite a bit on our recent trip to Alaska. We stayed in Denali National Park for 6 nights (the limit of our fresh water) and that was possible only because we had a generator. Solar would have not worked because it was heavily treed. The use of a generator has opened up a whole different camping experience for us because we now stay at many more places without hook ups and for a much longer time. By the way, we did not find that our generator sucked great quantities of propane. We only had to fill a tank 3 times on our entire trip (4 1/2 months) and that was for all our propane needs including heat. We had to balance the loss of storage space with the addition of a built in generator with the generator winning out. Portable or built in, they are a good thing to have.

[nancyebm]

Wife and I carry our portable in the back of the truck on a lot of our trips. Sometimes we'll pull over to eat lunch, and sometimes take a nap under the cool AC. We forgot to check our air pressure in the 5th wheel tires on one trip. About 50 miles down the road we remembered. We always carry a small air compressor, so we just pulled over and took care of that problem. The gen came in handy in that case.

[Poppy_s_5th_Whe]

Wow, so much controversy over whether or not you should have a generator.

Pretty straightforward for me. If you ever expect to camp where there are no hookups for more than a night or two, I think you would want one. I carry 2 Honda 2000s because we frequently beach camp and mountain camp where we don't have city electricity. We do have GC battries and a 2000w inverter but will run the generator to recharge our battery bank every other day or so. Plus, we will run them together if we need the A/C or microwave.

Even if we know we are on a trip which will be mostly in campgrounds with hookups we bring them in case we stop along the way and want to leave the dog in the trailer and it's hot out so we can run the A/C for her.

Bottom line is, for us, we use them on a regular basis and wouldn't want to go out without them.

I have a custom made rack to carry them.

[jalichty]

Let me get this straight, we are pulling a FW that weighs anywhere between 6,500 and 12,500 pounds and we are worrying about a generator(s) that weigh around 90 pounds for two Honda 2000s or about 150 pounds for a Honda 3000. If the extra 150 pounds is a problem, then maybe you don't need a generator.

[Bumpyroad]

I would never full time/travel without a generator. at a bare minimum, have it generator prepped so when you come to your senses you can easily install one.
bumpy

[Winged_One]

I prefer my portable. I need the space it would take in the 5th.

[avvidclif1]

The inverter Champions might be fine, never been around one. The others are called "jackhammers" for a good reason and about as popular in a campground as the plague. You can hear one for a loooong way and it's an aggravating sound.

[ol_Bombero-JC]

Oasisbob wrote:
Do you need one? Depends. Do you plan on camping where there is no hook ups for more than a day or two? If yes or maybe might as well get a Generator. We can camp three days on only our twin group 27 batteries. We then use a HONDA EU 1000 portable gen set to charge. If you have room go with a built in unit. May I also ad don't scrimp on quality. Get a quiet reliable unit such as Yamaha or Honda or Onan. Stay away from the cut rate units IMHO Best of luck

Agree with *most* of the above - not sure what "cut rate units" means.
Champion generators (including inverter type) have a great reputation and first-rate service, and are less than half the cost of the red or blue ones.

OP: Suggest you order your trailer "Generator Ready" - then after you decide whether you like to camp with full hook-ups -or- "boondock" without hook-ups, you can either add a "built-in" gen -OR- go with a portable.

Bonus:
No matter which you choose, if you decide you need one - you will get a better deal than buying from the dealer!..;)

~

Also, a search will yield lots of Generator/s info - mostly on the *Tech Issues* forum.....
however this thread ran on 5th wheel forum a couple of weeks ago:

"Generator or no Generator"

The benefit of using "Search" - is (usually) the answer/s to your questions are already here.
No need to wait for replies..:C

~

[NC_Hauler]

fj12ryder wrote:

Sprink-Fitter wrote:

NC Hauler wrote:
They may camp where there is alway's electric hook up's, BUT WHAT IF power goes out due to a storm?...Has happened to us several times.....I'd opt for a generator, better to have one and not need it, then to not have one and your batteries run down and you want electricity..

With that kind of thinking , I might as well haul 150 gallons of water in my tank, WHAT IF campground water dries up and I need water?

My thoughts exactly.

We didn't have a generator on our previous 5th wheel and never missed it, ever. We have a generator on this toyhauler and have never used it while camping. But that 450 lb. monstrosity is always along taking up space and being one more thing that needs maintenance.

We tried to get the dealer to remove it when we bought the toyhauler, but they weren't going to give us anything for it if they did, so it stayed.

Ours is up front in the basement, takes up very little space..came in handy June of 2012 when we had a huge wind storm come ( called a Derecho) while camping in Pence Springs WV at our campsite, trees down, power lines down, couldn't hardly get out to do anything because a lot of roads were blocked with down trees first couple of day's...lost power for 5 day's and the water supply (Pence Springs), couldn't pump water...just so happens we had a full fresh water tank, and a generator that we only had to run on occasion...propane ran the fridge, hot water and stove....electric we used when it got very hot and charge the battery....so, from experience, not big, bulky, not taking up a lot of room and for that really bad ONE time, it made life a lot easier when there was no power OR water....The other times we camped and lost power it wasn't no where near as bad as that time.

Oh, I've never owned a generator either until about 3 yrs ago...I did wish I had one a couple of times and since purchasing this one, glad I have one now and felt one would have come in handy in times past...guess some like me, learn the hard way...to me, it was well worth the money.....

I purchased it for a "just in case scenario"....and the above was the worse case..and the generator paid off in spades:)

[NC_Hauler]

Lantley wrote:

Sprink-Fitter wrote:

NC Hauler wrote:
They may camp where there is alway's electric hook up's, BUT WHAT IF power goes out due to a storm?...Has happened to us several times.....I'd opt for a generator, better to have one and not need it, then to not have one and your batteries run down and you want electricity..

With that kind of thinking , I might as well haul 150 gallons of water in my tank, WHAT IF campground water dries up and I need water?

I have a built in generator and always travel with a full fresh tank.
I am always self contained if need be.
A genset is not required depending on your camping style,many have camped for years without a genset.
However I enjoy the flexibility and convenience a genset provides.
You can overnight at a Wal-Mart,Cracker Barrel, etc.in hot weather without worrying about the heat. Stop for lunch along the way and instantly have A/C and microwave as needed. Of course a generator is great when camping off the grid.
Go into Cracker Barrel and leave the dog in the 5'er with A/C on.
Power Outages at a CG or at home are easy to deal with when your RV is fully self contained.
Built-in gensets are a pricey option. However they will give you a little pay back by allowing for lunches and dinners in the RV while traveling vs. stopping for fast food.
They also keep us out of CG's sometimes when overnighting on the way to our destination.
While portables generators will get the job done, a built in genset is all about convenience. Just push a button and I have full electric to power 2- A/C units and microwave instantly.
No set-up,no put away,no gas cans,no locks or chains,no security issues at all. Just push button convenience.
Because it is convenient, we use the genset regularly. If we had to set up and put it away each time we would be more reluctant to use it.
A generator is not for everyone,however we enjoy the convenience and versatility it provides.

My generator is a portable, located up front and hooked up...not built in..but I agree with you 100% on your analogy.

[NC_Hauler]

Sprink-Fitter wrote:

NC Hauler wrote:
They may camp where there is alway's electric hook up's, BUT WHAT IF power goes out due to a storm?...Has happened to us several times.....I'd opt for a generator, better to have one and not need it, then to not have one and your batteries run down and you want electricity..

With that kind of thinking , I might as well haul 150 gallons of water in my tank, WHAT IF campground water dries up and I need water?

Say What????? :h Guess the Boy Scout, "Be Prepared" motto came out in me...You could have a really bad storm, a hurricane, a tornado, lose power, but still have water:S..So all those campers out there with generators are not thinking???? REALLY ??? I've been camping several times over the years at campgrounds where we had full hook up's and lost power due to bad weather, but never lost water, though, in your infinite wisdom, even YOU know that too could happen....so it wouldn't be a bad idea to maybe have 50 gallons of water on board, again, just in case.

I still recommend a small generator whether you think it's smart or not and I would imagine the MAJORITY of campers in here would agree..especially in the 5th wheel section.

[fj12ryder]

Sprink-Fitter wrote:

NC Hauler wrote:
They may camp where there is alway's electric hook up's, BUT WHAT IF power goes out due to a storm?...Has happened to us several times.....I'd opt for a generator, better to have one and not need it, then to not have one and your batteries run down and you want electricity..

With that kind of thinking , I might as well haul 150 gallons of water in my tank, WHAT IF campground water dries up and I need water?

My thoughts exactly.

We didn't have a generator on our previous 5th wheel and never missed it, ever. We have a generator on this toyhauler and have never used it while camping. But that 450 lb. monstrosity is always along taking up space and being one more thing that needs maintenance.

We tried to get the dealer to remove it when we bought the toyhauler, but they weren't going to give us anything for it if they did, so it stayed.