So I had the parents out to the acreage where we all boondocked, hauled water, the whole deal for 4 days! This was the first time my dad had dry camped with the 2000i being the sole source of power for more than 1 day, we compared my 1200 / 1500 watt (model 42431) open frame CPE, to his 2000i here are some observations....
-I had a heavy mat draped on my 42431, and at no point was my draped 42431 as obtrusive as his undraped 2000i, my mom and dad commented on this a number of times.
-The 2000i ran his micro, even on eco, no problem, as long as either his battery was almost fully charged, or he would have to shut off his converter. FWIW - My 42431 ran his micro with some laboring, but interestingly, mine ran his converter and micro, without tripping stalling or overloading. Output voltage drooped as low as 105 volts, the 2000i just overloaded, end of story.
-With his battery at less than 50% SOC, he could not run his toaster oven, or his micro with the converter on. He did not have the converter startup / overload that I had when he was just starting a depleted battery charge, but he has a 15' run of what looks like 10ga to his single grp 24 battery.
-My 42431 ran just shy of 11 hours while charging my rig through the converter, same as my 2000i, apples to apples. My dad never got 10 hours to a tank of fuel, but he was running bigger loads.
-And the big news, that was the make or break deal... Plugging in the converter with a discharged battery. Plugging in it would the voltage and RPM would sag, down to about 105 volts, and labor it's way back up to 120 volts. It was full load and would take around 5 seconds to reach full RPM.
If the 2000i and the 42431 cost the same, I would, (and did) spring for the 1200/1500 watt open frame model and a thick floormat. It uses the same amount of fuel, makes no more noise (verified through 15 hours of side by side operation). The 2000i stood out because of its revving, farting, and burping. The 42431 blended as background noise, running the same tenor, less blating, and the same RPM all the time.
Here's the deal, as I see it, at $174 shipped, all in, it not only cost less than half as much, but it does everything, no problems, overloads, or shutdowns.
So the punch line of my highjack, is that I was completely impressed, nothing but happy with the new gen, that never overloaded or stalled even once. My dad was a little baffled / frustrated at the overloads, and the high rpm racket, but he was overall content, but I know where his money would have gone had he not kept the 2000i.
Happy camping.
