Alternative Generator For our campers
Given the limited space in truck campers and to avoid carrying gas I was wondering what people think about something like this: Car Based power generator They seem to have both a "1000" watt and...
Forum Discussion
JoeChiOhki wrote:
You'd be better served getting a belt driven generator kit from fabco.com if you wanted to add 110volt power generation directly to your vehicles engine, though the better ones are RealPower's PTO drive generator kits
This product reminds of what I've doing lately when drycamping:
Our small motorhome on the Ford E450 chassis has the V10 in it. When drycamping and the coach batteries get low, I bring them up a bit by idling the V10 for awhile. It's fed off the main 55 gallon tank and it idles very quiet. It's 130 amp alternator dumps way more current into the batteries initially, when they're quite low, than the motorhome's built-in charger can. Doing this shortens overall charge time quite a bit for when using the motorhome's generator or a portable generator to finish up the charging. While doing this V10 idling, we can also use the main cab heating and air conditioning systems to also heat/cool the entire coach area.
So ... idling a vehicle engine to supply non-motive power can be a viable thing in certain situations.
