SoonerWing03 wrote:
For this trip I doubt we will need the AC but if I am going to purchase a generator I might as well get one big enough to run the AC in the event that we want to go off the grid in lower elevations. Going off grid just opens up sooooo many more opportunities and is really at the essence of what I want our family camping experiences to be. However my wife is more of a "glamper" so I will have to meet her in the middle.
We like our coffee in the morning and the kids will want to be able to charge their phones at night. We would probably watch 1 maybe 2 tv's for an hour or two in the evening and may play a movie on 1 of them requiring a DVD player. If the phones have much of a signal at al, they will opt for playing around on them rather than the TV once the sun goes down. 1 or 2 lights max would be all we need and they are already LED's.
Just run the generator for an hour or two in the morning while the coffee is brewing.
Get a 12v car adapter for phone charging (most RVs have a cigarette lighter plug).
Only thing that might be a minor issue is the TV. Unless it's a 12v model, you will need a small inverter (converts 12v DC to 120v AC). For the TV, you don't need anything big.
One thing to note: You won't get the batteries up to 100% charge. As you get up around 80-90% full, the amount of charge they will take starts to drop off...the result is that last 10% can take hours to refill. So plan to operate between 50%-90% charge. (lower than 50% is hard on batteries)
Just get it up around 80-90% full on the generator and when you get home plug in so it occasionally gets up to 100% and its not a problem.
If you find yourself doing a lot of boondocking without air/con, you might want to consider a solar system but once you have a generator, the incremental cost of fuel saved will likely never cover the cost of a solar system...it would mostly be about the advantage of set it and forget it.
