generator back up for solar system

[cyberhuff]

Hi, I'm a full time van camper living in a chevy G-20 van. I have two 60 watt solar panels running through a charge controller charging two 80 amp hour batteries which are connected to a 1200 watt inverter. This set up is fine for what I use it for; tv, computer, playstation, and occasionally the mini fridge. I was thinking about getting a small 900 watt generator to charge my batteries on cloudy days.
Can I just clamp a battery charger to the batteries, or do I have to disconnect the panels and inverter from the batteries before charging them with the generator?

[gatorcq]

Hope you don't buy one of those HF ones.

[RJsfishin]

My H 1000 will charge 45 amps, (on 2 different ammeters) but its working hard for the 1st couple minutes.
And that's thru a PD9245, which is not the most efficient charger made. So I wouldn't see it having a problem w/ any 40 amp charger.
But at the same time, for the price of that charger, I'd rather have the converter.

[mena661]

smkettner wrote:
Honda 1000 with Black & Decker 40 amp portable would be perfect.
Just slap it on and let it rip.

Can a Honda 1000 run one of those?

[time2roll]

Honda 1000 with Black & Decker 40 amp portable would be perfect.
Just slap it on and let it rip.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Make sure the charger draws a maximum of 3/4 of what the generator outputs. Genny's are rated in Volt Amps which ends up being fewer watts.

If you have more room on the roof, it may be better to add another couple of panels.

[RoyB]

In my OFF-ROAD Camping I master the camping off the power grid first by using more batteries and recharged them with the 2KW Generator with my 30A Shore Power cable plugged directly into the generator 120VAC receptacle.

Now I am going to add SOLAR PANEL to back-up the generator so I hopefully don't have to run it as much.

I am pulling alot of power from my battery bank and it is a MUST DO for us to always start out each day/night run with the batteries at their 90% charge state or better if we are going to make it through the night. My battery bank is a 255AH setup. This works out fine for us and by 8AM the next morning my bank is down to around 50% charge state. I will probably run the generator for an hour so to get the batteries charged up over the BOAST MODE which in my case draws around 53 Amps from the on-board converter/charger for 20 minutes or so being fed by my generator. After that the batteries will settle down to around 8-10AMPS which I will be able to supply with SOLAR PANELS during the high SUN day. The standard 120WATT SOLAR Panel will only produce around 5-6AMPS during high sun.

This is going to be my plan at any rate using both Generator as primary Charge mode and adding SOLAR PANELS to get the batteries up to at least 90% charge state before I lose HIGH SUN. If it looks like I will not attain the required 90% charge then I will run the generator again while I am still allowed to run my generator.

If you are just going to be a casual user of DC POWER when camping off the power grid all of this will not be necessary. My style of camping consumes around 250-300WATTS between 4PM and 11PM each day in addition to the parasitic draw for each day which is probably more than the average camper wants to do...

Roy Ken

[cyberhuff]

Thanks...I'll go buy the generator now

[mena661]

MrWizard wrote:
You do not have disconnect anything
Just connect the charger to the batteries

This.

[2oldman]

no

[MrWizard]

You do not have disconnect anything
Just connect the charger to the batteries