Does Anyone See A Need For a Portable Generator?

[obiwancanoli]

I have a 2017 Class A with an 8K onboard generator. Does anyone see a need to take a portable generator, and if so, would you kindly state your reasons?

I'm thinking I don't need to have this tool along on my adventures, most of which, I expect, will be boondocking hither and yon... and, having recently used a Honda 2K to charge my house batteries (don't ask, long story, not relevant), the small generator was ruined due to the high demands of the coach charging system.

Thanks for your input,

MJ

[pianotuna]

My brother purchased a 2000 watt inverter generator. He took it on a trip. It was run for about 3 hours, under medium to high loads. He shut it off. The inverter more or less melted. Game over for that unit.


Always do a cool off for generators. (and inverters, too)

[bukhrn]

gbopp wrote:
If you have an onboard generator that is working as it should, I don't see a need for an additional portable generator.

X-2

[time2roll]

I carry a small propane generator and separate small battery charger to avoid overload.
Just for emergency use and I have no on-board generator besides solar. Probably never use it.

[wildmanbaker93]

If the Generator was overloaded, it should have tripped the output and got a warning light on the set. We have a gas MH, and carry a 2K generator, even though we have an onboard 5.5 gen. The 2K will run for 6 to 8 hours on a gallon, the onboard uses .9 gallons per hour. If is is hot, we use the onboard gen as the 2K will not start either AC unit. We use the 2K when watching TV, be it Sat or DVDs. We have Solar, but they are aging out and their output is getting lower each year.

[obiwancanoli]

Matt_Colie wrote:

obiwancanoli wrote:

I'm thinking I don't need to have this tool along on my adventures, most of which, I expect, will be boondocking hither and yon... and, having recently used a Honda 2K to charge my house batteries (don't ask, long story, not relevant), the small generator was ruined due to the high demands of the coach charging system.

Thanks for your input,

MJ

MJ,
If you ruined that Honda trying to recover the house bank, you did something that was drastically wrong. I actually can't imagine what it might have been. What you should have done was connect the portable to the shore power feed and let the coach's charger do the job.
Matt

That's exactly what we did... the genny whined high and low throughout the charging process... now, maybe there was something wrong with the generator itself before starting the process, but there was no way to know this, as it appeared to work fine before starting

[Matt_Colie]

obiwancanoli wrote:

I'm thinking I don't need to have this tool along on my adventures, most of which, I expect, will be boondocking hither and yon... and, having recently used a Honda 2K to charge my house batteries (don't ask, long story, not relevant), the small generator was ruined due to the high demands of the coach charging system.

Thanks for your input,

MJ

MJ,
If you ruined that Honda trying to recover the house bank, you did something that was drastically wrong. I actually can't imagine what it might have been. What you should have done was connect the portable to the shore power feed and let the coach's charger do the job.
Matt

[Lwiddis]

I take my portable every trip…and don’t use it. One of these days it stays home.

[theoldwizard1]

obiwancanoli wrote:
having recently used a Honda 2K to charge my house batteries (don't ask, long story, not relevant), the small generator was ruined due to the high demands of the coach charging system.

Sadly, you learned the hard way ! NEVER use the 12V outlet of a portable generator !! I don't know why they are even on most generators.

[obiwancanoli]

Thanks, everyone, for your input. As I suspected, there's really no good reason to have an external generator. FWIW, I have 600W solar, 4 LiPo batteries (400Ah), and no, I don't really want to have to store gas for the genny onboard... yes, I agree it's a hassle, that was one reason I posed the question... and I, too, typically run my onboard generator when using a high Amp appliance.

As for the consequences to the external genny, I don't know why it didn't function properly after charging my battery bank... it would start and run briefly, then shut down. Can't tell you if time has healed it, for it belonged to someone else, and he used his all the time for his setup (pull behind trailer, no onboard genny)... thankfully, he had two.

I'll save the external genny for power outages at home...

[way2roll]

Curious why you think you would need an extra genny. And is there a reason your onboard genny doesn't charge your house batts? And how does charging batteries ruin a stand alone gen?

[Ivylog]

Do you really want gasoline stored in your MH? The best thing you can do for a generator is to use it and at half a gallon/hour, how much fuel are you saving with a portable and are they really quieter for those with delicate hearing?

My generator run time decreased from 2 hour to 1.5 when I installed a residential refrigerator by adding a $200, 100A charger, doubling my charging capacity.

Since then I DIYed 900 W of solar with a payback of 25+ years because the secret of boondocking in the summer (only time we do) is elevation and SHADE so you do not need AC. My generator run time is still over 1 hour…I run it anytime I’m using a high amp appliance.

[dodge_guy]

Spend the money on solar, batteries and an inverter.

[gbopp]

If you have an onboard generator that is working as it should, I don't see a need for an additional portable generator.

[valhalla360]

Falls under "penny wise, pound foolish". Yeah, you might burn a little more fuel in the onboard generator but the cost and hassle of a 2nd generator likely far outweighs the extra fuel burn.

As far as the 2000w generator being damaged, that doesn't make much sense. Either it should work or it shouldn't (if it doesn't, it will simply overload and the generator will cut power to the outlet). Nothing should be back feeding to damage the generator.

[pianotuna]

Sounds as if the 2k generator was not allowed to cool down before it was turned off?

May I ask the size of the battery bank? Chemistry of batteries?

I'd add some solar. 400 to 800 watts.

If there is no inverter, I'd add one of the hybrid's from Victron or Outback.