The Official unofficial CPE 2000i Generator Thread

[pritch272]

8/1/2010 edit: Thread renamed at the suggestion of the Professor.
Renamed from: Champion Inverter and Remote Gens Promo on CPE's web site)

3/22/2011 edit: Thread renamed ...
Renamed from: Official CPE 2000 Watt Inverter Generator Thread

3/23/2011 edit: Thread renamed at the suggestion of the Professor.
Renamed from: (Un)Official CPE 2000 Watt Inverter Generator Thread

Inverter Available August 2010



Remote Available July 2010

[tvman44]

WOW $699.00 is too much, even thou I am thinking about one I would not pay $699.00, you can get a Honda for a few dollars more with a bigger engine.

[MrRchitty]

#40Fan wrote:
Found one local for $489. Is that a good price? Anyone seen them on sale for less?

I think so. I was at Cabellas yesterday. $699.99

[_40Fan]

Found one local for $489. Is that a good price? Anyone seen them on sale for less?

[professor95]

DrBaker wrote:
DW likes to sleep in a fridge and our temps are 100+ daily. I have been thinking of adding a small roof AC in the bedroom. Probably 9200btu or less. It would be great if I could find one that ran reliably off 1 Champ 2000. In the cooler months I could get by with just one small gen since the big AC wouldn't be needed.

Any suggestions on a small AC?

You can purchase a Polar Cub but it most likely will not run off of a CPE2000i.

Now, if you are up to "conversions" you might consider what I did a few years back. I was given a Dometic A/C by my RV dealer (bad compressor). I then bought a Samsung 6,000 BTU window air conditioner at Lowe's and put it into the Dometic RV casing. I did have to purchase the inside ceiling piece. Three years later still going strong and blowing COLD air. Works great off of the CPE2000i or my 1200 watt inverter. Just close the bedroom door and sleep in a refrigerator. Second advantage is A/C even in older CG's that only offer 15/20 amp service and the ability to run both the 15K BTU and small unit off of 30 amp service.

I wrote it up of this forum, but a different thread. You can find it here.

A couple of other guys that did the same after seeing my posting DID NOT have to open the system. They were able to move things around without loosing Freon.

Let me know if you decide to go this route.

[DrBaker]

MrRchitty wrote:

MrRchitty wrote:

DrBaker wrote:

professor95 wrote:

DrBaker wrote:
If you don't stack them, what way would you position them side by side? I want to leave them in the truck bed and have limited space. My concern is exhaust heat from one blowing in to the other.

I thought about having them face each other and then decided that it would not work since the exhaust from one would be right on the tailgate. IIRC, you must leave a certain amount of space around the gen for it to breathe.

My goal is to run the gens without unhitching the truck. Space constraints leave the gens behind the hitch.

It is a problem no matter how you look at it. Stacked is a pain since you have to lift one off to add fuel. I prefer side-by-side. But, as you noted, having both in a line facing out puts the exhaust of one up close to the cool air intake of the other. One in front of the other spaced as far apart as the cable allows seems to work best for me. The outlet part of the parallel cables does NOT have to reside on top of one of the gensets which gives you additional space. There is no magic inside, only a set of outlets and crimp connections. We set such on the ground all the time with a simple plastic cover held down with rocks.

Maybe we can convince CPE to design both a left hand and a right hand genset? That would solve the problem nicely 😉

If the exhaust is pointed toward the tailgate of the truck, how many inches do you recommend I give it to breathe? Same question on the other gen, but for the fresh air intake? I don't want to limit their breathing room too much.

I am going to say that I would do my best not to back the Little Champ close to any kind of obstruction on the exhaust side. Reason is that there is a cold air intake on the exhaust side to cool the alternator part of the generator. I would fear introducing warmed or significantly warmed air from the exit side of the generator may decrease the cooling affect on the alternator. Just my opinion.

DrBaker, Let me apologize.

I took the back of the cover off of my 2000i (time to clean the spark arrestor) and took a good look inside. I noticed that this cold air intake was, for the most part, solid. Only towards the very center, if I turned the engine over slowly, did I see two very small openings in the back of this area. The exit of this area (now I know to be the back side of a centrifugal fan)I can place my fingers inside and feel the fins. These fins are open facing the alternator and appear to pull air through the motor area and then the alternator. Perhaps some pictures tomorrow, unless your good.

Otherwise, how many inches from a wall or obstruction you can place the back of the generator, I don't know. As long as the air is free to escape.

Thanks for the update. The more I look at it, I don't think they will fit and allow the pinbox to swivel side ti side in turns. I will try to test fit them this weekend.

[MrRchitty]

MrRchitty wrote:

DrBaker wrote:

professor95 wrote:

DrBaker wrote:
If you don't stack them, what way would you position them side by side? I want to leave them in the truck bed and have limited space. My concern is exhaust heat from one blowing in to the other.

I thought about having them face each other and then decided that it would not work since the exhaust from one would be right on the tailgate. IIRC, you must leave a certain amount of space around the gen for it to breathe.

My goal is to run the gens without unhitching the truck. Space constraints leave the gens behind the hitch.

It is a problem no matter how you look at it. Stacked is a pain since you have to lift one off to add fuel. I prefer side-by-side. But, as you noted, having both in a line facing out puts the exhaust of one up close to the cool air intake of the other. One in front of the other spaced as far apart as the cable allows seems to work best for me. The outlet part of the parallel cables does NOT have to reside on top of one of the gensets which gives you additional space. There is no magic inside, only a set of outlets and crimp connections. We set such on the ground all the time with a simple plastic cover held down with rocks.

Maybe we can convince CPE to design both a left hand and a right hand genset? That would solve the problem nicely 😉

If the exhaust is pointed toward the tailgate of the truck, how many inches do you recommend I give it to breathe? Same question on the other gen, but for the fresh air intake? I don't want to limit their breathing room too much.

I am going to say that I would do my best not to back the Little Champ close to any kind of obstruction on the exhaust side. Reason is that there is a cold air intake on the exhaust side to cool the alternator part of the generator. I would fear introducing warmed or significantly warmed air from the exit side of the generator may decrease the cooling affect on the alternator. Just my opinion.

DrBaker, Let me apologize.

I took the back of the cover off of my 2000i (time to clean the spark arrestor) and took a good look inside. I noticed that this cold air intake was, for the most part, solid. Only towards the very center, if I turned the engine over slowly, did I see two very small openings in the back of this area. The exit of this area (now I know to be the back side of a centrifugal fan)I can place my fingers inside and feel the fins. These fins are open facing the alternator and appear to pull air through the motor area and then the alternator. Perhaps some pictures tomorrow, unless your good.

Otherwise, how many inches from a wall or obstruction you can place the back of the generator, I don't know. As long as the air is free to escape.

[MnDuckBoatguy]

MrRchitty wrote:

BENT ARROW wrote:
For the Honda you can buy a extra after market fuel tank or just a tank cap with hose on Ebay and use your own tank for extra run time. With 158 pages here has anyone come up with the same setup for the Champion. Might save trouble and time refilling tanks if 2 are stacked. I though about drilling the cap and adding a gas line but theres not enough space unless I tear the cap apart. Guess I will start checking bottle caps for size and thread just to give it a try.

Professor did a whole write up on this. If I'm not mistaken, it appears twice. With photos. The Little Champ, however is gravity feed and a supply tank would have to be at the same level as the tank in the Little Champ or slightly higher, allowing for proper siphoning.

Well I tried out the professors method of gas tank extension and found it worked well to extend the method to include a "T" in the line to link to my parallel 2000i's. I found extra caps and did not use the stock caps. Turns out that a Honda lawn mower cap fits , 2 caps at Northern Tool was less than $10.00. Threading in the caps with an evenrude quick connects after drilling slightly under size then with some gas tank repair putty was enough to make the caps sturdy when connected. So far it seems if you use the check valve to pump up and keep the gen tanks full when you begin the check valve will pump em full to allow for a vacuum feed to continue. 🙂

[DrBaker]

DW likes to sleep in a fridge and our temps are 100+ daily. I have been thinking of adding a small roof AC in the bedroom. Probably 9200btu or less. It would be great if I could find one that ran reliably off 1 Champ 2000. In the cooler months I could get by with just one small gen since the big AC wouldn't be needed.

Any suggestions on a small AC?

[MrRchitty]

DrBaker wrote:

professor95 wrote:

DrBaker wrote:
If you don't stack them, what way would you position them side by side? I want to leave them in the truck bed and have limited space. My concern is exhaust heat from one blowing in to the other.

I thought about having them face each other and then decided that it would not work since the exhaust from one would be right on the tailgate. IIRC, you must leave a certain amount of space around the gen for it to breathe.

My goal is to run the gens without unhitching the truck. Space constraints leave the gens behind the hitch.

It is a problem no matter how you look at it. Stacked is a pain since you have to lift one off to add fuel. I prefer side-by-side. But, as you noted, having both in a line facing out puts the exhaust of one up close to the cool air intake of the other. One in front of the other spaced as far apart as the cable allows seems to work best for me. The outlet part of the parallel cables does NOT have to reside on top of one of the gensets which gives you additional space. There is no magic inside, only a set of outlets and crimp connections. We set such on the ground all the time with a simple plastic cover held down with rocks.

Maybe we can convince CPE to design both a left hand and a right hand genset? That would solve the problem nicely 😉

If the exhaust is pointed toward the tailgate of the truck, how many inches do you recommend I give it to breathe? Same question on the other gen, but for the fresh air intake? I don't want to limit their breathing room too much.

I am going to say that I would do my best not to back the Little Champ close to any kind of obstruction on the exhaust side. Reason is that there is a cold air intake on the exhaust side to cool the alternator part of the generator. I would fear introducing warmed or significantly warmed air from the exit side of the generator may decrease the cooling affect on the alternator. Just my opinion.

[DrBaker]

professor95 wrote:

DrBaker wrote:
If you don't stack them, what way would you position them side by side? I want to leave them in the truck bed and have limited space. My concern is exhaust heat from one blowing in to the other.

I thought about having them face each other and then decided that it would not work since the exhaust from one would be right on the tailgate. IIRC, you must leave a certain amount of space around the gen for it to breathe.

My goal is to run the gens without unhitching the truck. Space constraints leave the gens behind the hitch.

It is a problem no matter how you look at it. Stacked is a pain since you have to lift one off to add fuel. I prefer side-by-side. But, as you noted, having both in a line facing out puts the exhaust of one up close to the cool air intake of the other. One in front of the other spaced as far apart as the cable allows seems to work best for me. The outlet part of the parallel cables does NOT have to reside on top of one of the gensets which gives you additional space. There is no magic inside, only a set of outlets and crimp connections. We set such on the ground all the time with a simple plastic cover held down with rocks.

Maybe we can convince CPE to design both a left hand and a right hand genset? That would solve the problem nicely 😉

If the exhaust is pointed toward the tailgate of the truck, how many inches do you recommend I give it to breathe? Same question on the other gen, but for the fresh air intake? I don't want to limit their breathing room too much.

[BENT_ARROW]

McRchitty
Thanks for the info, I found his post on page 102. Looks like all I need is a second cap I have everything else from my old trolling motor.

[jumper0407]

Wayne Dohnal wrote:
Jumper - I needed to run the eu2000i anyway so I gathered some data that might partially answer your question. A few introductory comments: The eu2000i outputs 128 volts with no load or light loads. At its rated 1,600 VA, the voltage is down to 124. With greater loads it decays faster. IMO when it's down to 120, the genny is working pretty hard. Somewhere around 115, the generator transitions to the backside of its power curve, where adding more load increases the output in terms of amps, but the voltage goes down to the point where there is no power increase or the power output might even be lower. IMO, when the output voltage gets down to 115, you're maxed out in practical terms. Under 115, IMO, you're abusing the poor thing. When I talk about light bulbs, that's the labeled wattage, not the actual wattage. The atmospheric conditions were 80* and 3,500 feet. Here are the numbers. (Truncated, see page 157)

Thanks for the data, Wayne.

Today, humid and cooler and with the converter running only at 0.8 amps the microwave will run. My amp meter indicates 12.2 amps.

Test 2. I hooked up a "1500" watt quartz heater and got about 12.2 amps again. Adding a 1.8 amp rated orbital sander (I'm fishing for loads here) and it went to about 13.2. Added another little orbital sander and I got 14.1 amps at 118 volts. The engine sounded happy but clearly fully loaded.

Mine happens to be a Cabella unit and its rated at 14.2 running amps (1700 watts at 120V). Given some altitude adjustment, I'd say, now, that its running as advertised. Then engine may even be a little more broken in and making a little more power. I just won't be able to run the microwave at 5000 feet with low house batteries.

[MrRchitty]

BENT ARROW wrote:
For the Honda you can buy a extra after market fuel tank or just a tank cap with hose on Ebay and use your own tank for extra run time. With 158 pages here has anyone come up with the same setup for the Champion. Might save trouble and time refilling tanks if 2 are stacked. I though about drilling the cap and adding a gas line but theres not enough space unless I tear the cap apart. Guess I will start checking bottle caps for size and thread just to give it a try.

Professor did a whole write up on this. If I'm not mistaken, it appears twice. With photos. The Little Champ, however is gravity feed and a supply tank would have to be at the same level as the tank in the Little Champ or slightly higher, allowing for proper siphoning.

[BENT_ARROW]

For the Honda you can buy a extra after market fuel tank or just a tank cap with hose on Ebay and use your own tank for extra run time. With 158 pages here has anyone come up with the same setup for the Champion. Might save trouble and time refilling tanks if 2 are stacked. I though about drilling the cap and adding a gas line but theres not enough space unless I tear the cap apart. Guess I will start checking bottle caps for size and thread just to give it a try.

[MrRchitty]

Duplicate post.