Generator advice

[Monster1]

I'm looking at buying a generator. 95% of what I need it for is charging house battery while dry camping. The other 5% is to run the microwave for hot pockets and pizza for the kids. I borrowed a 2000w champion that falls right on its face and dies when trying to run the microwave. My friends 2200w power(something) will run the microwave but its wound out doing it. I should have bought the 3200w firman from costco when it dropped to $469 with manufactures discount before Christmas. That generator went up in price to 639. Still a good deal but I'm trying to explore other options. My other thought was to buy two 2000w ipower generators. One fir charging or both when needing more power. Would I be better suited with a large generator or two smaller in parallel when needed? IMO a large generator to just charge up a 12v battery might be overkill and inefficient. And yes, I know Honda is the best, but for only being used s few times a year, spending that kind of money is a waste.

[Range_Maggot_Bo]

Boon Docker wrote:

Monster1 wrote:

ppine wrote:
Just a thought. The whole point of camping to me is get away from modern life. Buying a large generator to run a microwave seems odd to me. You can easily make pizza in a Dutch oven on a fire. It is not instant, but it is quiet and you will always have enough fuel. No hookups, no generator, no problem. Teach your kids.

I fully agree with this. I grew up in the RV business and the boy scouts so I grew up both RV'ing and camping. I'm 45 years old now and this is my first RV. My family and I have been tent camping up till this point. It wasn't a light decision to buy our trailer. I knew there was a chance that we'd never be "camping" again. We've seen so many people pull up to a camp site, back there RV into the site and scramble out of the rig, look around and climb back into the unit never seeing them again unless it's to get into an outside compartment only to go back inside. To me, that isn't camping or even livin. I told the family if we were going to buy a trailer, it's for sleeping and getting out of inclement weather only (two years ago we were in a down pour for three days in our tent and I loved it!) Even though we now have the trailer, we still cook outside on the fire, sit around outside even though there is a nice comfortable couch inside, and we eat outside as well. The microwave is just for quick snacks and lunch when we don't have time to build a cook fire between adventures.

I totally agree with your camping style.
My wife and I are 70 years old and graduated to a trailer 11 years ago when we retired. We spend less time in this trailer than we did in our tent. Now when it rains we sit out under the awning instead have having to hide in a tent.
All the cooking is done outside on a camp stove or campfire along with eating and washing dishes outside.
The trailer is basically a place to sleep and shower. We also have an outdoor potty so we can extend our boon docking.
A generator is great for heating up left overs (in the mic) from the previous day.
Camp on my friend and enjoy!

I totally disagree with you guys. You're missing the point. People get out there and camp any way they can, whether it be from the trunk of your car, up to the top-of-the-line class A. You may not call it "camping", but those folks holed away in the motorhome do, and I'll bet you they even have a good time. Does it bother you that these people recreate in a different way than you do? Perhaps maybe these people just came in from a long week of hiking in the mountains somewhere and just wanted to hole up for a while and do nothing.

[pnichols]

pianotuna wrote:
Solar equals the sound of silence

Don, thanks much for that link! One of my favorite songs of all time ... a true classic.

[vermilye]

otrfun wrote:
Most microwaves are rated at 1,100-1,500 watts with a bit of inrush during startup. Even our Champion 3100 inverter generator tends to struggle a little starting up larger 1,500 watt units. The OP might find it cheaper and less hassle to simply replace their current microwave with a smaller 700-900 watt unit vs. purchasing another generator. Even the most crippled 2000 watt generator should be able to easily power a 700 watt microwave.

Another possibility is to replace the microwave with an inverter microwave such as the Panasonic Microwave Oven NN-SD372S. This is a 950 watt microwave that can be set at 10 different wattages. The lowest setting is under 600 watts. Of course it will take longer to cook, but has the advantage that you can use it at full power when you have hookups, and reduced power when running on an inverter or small generator.

It also does a better job of defrosting than a standard microwave. You don't get cooked outer edges of meat, since it used lower power to defrost.

[pianotuna]

Solar equals the sound of silence

[MrWizard]

maillemaker wrote:
Family time is family time. Inside the RV or outside the RV. Cooking over a fire or in a microwave. They key ingredient is the family time. My oldest kid will be out of the nest in 5 years. They grow up fast.

This 🙂
I took my kids camping
We had plain vans, bubble top camper vans, pop-up tent trailers
And MHs
Lots of hiking and sight seeing and picture taking
My son was always eager to go
Had a lot of campfires , cooking outside and inside

The memories are never forgotten, the family bonds stronger

[pnichols]

Just as a reminder of something so obvious that probably many already "know it", but ... the large built-in constant speed RV generators consume fuel in varying amounts versus the loads on them ... just like an inverter generator consumes more/less fuel when it goes up and down in speed in response to the loads on it.

What this means is our constant speed 4000 watt RV generator when delivering, say 1000 watts, most likely consumes only a relatively small amount more fuel than a 3500 watt inverter generator does when delivering 1000 watts.

Regarding generator noise, the inverter generators are only "real quiet" when not providing much power. Another issue not talked much about is: At least with respect to our RV's built-in Onan generator - it also makes less noise when it's delivering loads less than it's maximum.

[maillemaker]

Family time is family time. Inside the RV or outside the RV. Cooking over a fire or in a microwave. They key ingredient is the family time. My oldest kid will be out of the nest in 5 years. They grow up fast.

[otrfun]

Most microwaves are rated at 1,100-1,500 watts with a bit of inrush during startup. Even our Champion 3100 inverter generator tends to struggle a little starting up larger 1,500 watt units. The OP might find it cheaper and less hassle to simply replace their current microwave with a smaller 700-900 watt unit vs. purchasing another generator. Even the most crippled 2000 watt generator should be able to easily power a 700 watt microwave.

[ppine]

I have never liked micro-waved pizza. It is much better in an oven or a Dutch oven. People can do whatever they want.

When we were kids, we went every where. We slept on our boat all the time. We went tent camping for weeks at a time. We got out of school to go deer hunting. But our parents made the rules. Times have changed.

[jjrbus]

Having camped in SE Asia for 13 months in my youth, often digging a nice personal safe space to sleep in at night. Heating my canned meals and coffee with heat tabs, sometimes heating the coffee water with C4. Going up to a month without a warm shower while out hiking the countryside. I have no desire to recreate the experience.

I live in SW Fl, the hurricane zone and consider the Toyota, not only a luxury treat but an escape pod, which it was used for during Hurricane Irma. I was an evacuee/vacationer during that period. Had the house been destroyed I would have used it as a base of operations during rebuilding or relocating.

And yes I do question my use of a 25 year old vehicle for emergency use : )

I have made concessions on the genset. I am doing the best I can to run the Toy with a Honda 2000. I use an inexpensive low powered microwave. Does it really make much of a difference if the happy meal takes 54 seconds to heat instead of the 32 seconds it does in the over the stove $500 unit at home? I also have to turn off the AC when using the microwave. The AC goes off for 54 seconds, honest I can live with that.

I have installed an 8000 btu window AC in my Toy which the Honda runs at any altitude or temperature, even worked in death valley!

[Atlee]

The way you use an RV is a very legitimate way to use one.

Fortunately, RV's can be very versatile. For me, my travel trailer
affords me the ability to be with my friends at college football games in the fall. So obviously, we are not looking for peace and quiet. But we do want the ability to cool the interior of the TT when outside in early September, the temperatures are in the upper nineties.

And we like the ability to watch other games on TV when not in the stadium. For these reasons, generators are very necessary tools.

My TT also affords us the ability to take 8900 mile tours to see this great country. In this case, I'm not interested in sitting out under the shade. We're out looking at the sights.
Once we come home, if we haven't eaten while out, we'll just heat up something in the micro (if electricity is available) or quickly heat up something on the stove top. When we've seen what we want to see, we pull up anchor and move to the next place.

So for me, using the RV to go to some remote location to commune with nature is not in the playbook.

Fortunately, RV's are very flexible in their use.

ppine wrote:
Just a thought. The whole point of camping to me is get away from modern life. Buying a large generator to run a microwave seems odd to me. You can easily make pizza in a Dutch oven on a fire. It is not instant, but it is quiet and you will always have enough fuel. No hookups, no generator, no problem. Teach your kids.

[Monster1]

Thanks again for all the helpful information about the original subject. Can't wait to go "camping" and microwave some pizzas with my new generator.

[wif]

burningman wrote:
I thought the point of owning an RV was to provide all the comforts of a little hotel room anywhere you park it.

THIS!!

[Boon_Docker]

burningman wrote:
I thought the point of owning an RV was to provide all the comforts of a little hotel room anywhere you park it.

That's true, a place to sleep after a day of adventuring. 🙂

[burningman]

I thought the point of owning an RV was to provide all the comforts of a little hotel room anywhere you park it.