New and looking for a generator

[GravelRider]

Hello everyone. I'm buying my first travel trailer, a Forest River Cherokee Wolf Pup 16BHS. I am planning to do a lot of boondocking, and I want a generator. I want a small portable generator, but I don't want to go too small. I'm thinking I can comfortably do a 3000 watt generator, but I'd like to get some opinions of experienced RVers.

The travel trailer has a 13,500 BTU AC unit, a microwave, and I think everything else will be DC. We'll be running the normal lights, water pumps, etc., charging a couple phones and tablets, and may add a DC television as well. That's about it. I'm completely fine with shutting off the AC while using the microwave.

What size generator do I need?

And any suggestions on quiet cheap generators? (quiet being more important than cheap, but I'd prefer not to spend a ton)

Thanks everyone.

[Kavoom]

I have to recommend the Westinghouse 2500 that can be handled by one person is quiet and has great reviews. I've been researching generators for over 10 years when the ONLY good ones available were the Honda and Yamaha. I almost went with one called Kipor out about 10 years ago and it was a Chinese rip off of the Honda. Honda made a boo boo and licensed their tech to a Chinese company that promptly began ripping them off. They spent years hunting them down and finally actually stopped them in China. I bet that wasn't cheap.

So, anyway, Westinghouse got back into the generator market about 10 years ago with at first a 2000 unit at a decent price about half of the Honda. I bought it and am still using it and it runs a 13,500 airco at 7,000 feet. After much research and prompting an engineer who was testing different units http://performanceresearch.us/padgett/ I found out by research and prompting an engineer to test them that Westinghouse was sitting on a bunch of legacy patents and essentially went back to the library of them and now is a big deal in the home generator market here about 10 years later. The big problem was quietness in inverter generators 10 years ago. Westinghouse had a counter-rotating fan patent that cancelled noise somehow. They also designed the engine internals using some proprietary tech something in the guts that addressed the surge on start up of like an air conditioner that shut others down. Now they upped the watts on their unit to 2500 surge and I think it is designed to find the sweet spot of being able to power most TT's, be quiet and be able to be handled by one person. And it's at a reasonable price with very high stars in all settings around customer satisfaction... https://www.lowes.com/pd/Westinghouse-iGen-2500-Watt-Inverter-Gasoline-Portable-Generator/1002780854?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-sol-_-bing-_-pla-_-240-_-1002780854-_-0&kpid&placeholder=null&ds_rl=1286981&msclkid=6f225dcdaa3b1de4e8993d622ac983e6&gclid=6f225dcdaa3b1de4e8993d622ac983e6&gclsrc=3p.ds

They also have a 4500 watt unit but if and when I jump again, I will likely look at two of the 2500's in parallel at not much more than the larger unit and still able to move the system around with one person. Much more flexibility with two units and redundancy. I'll start with one.

[Last_Train]

Partsbob wrote:
I don’t see that anyone has mentioned WEN brand inverter generators, so I’ll throw that suggestion out there to consider. I did a lot of research for over a year before buying my 3800 watt WEN unit for our 32’ TT and couldn’t be happier. Granted the unit does weight 98lbs, but it’s very well built, super quiet, has more than enough power for our needs (with 15K AC for our pup in the Summer) and we caught it ON SALE for well under the Champion 3400 watt I had originally considered! Even when not on sale, it is priced below most and ships free when purchased directly from WEN.
I had also considered buying (2) of the WEN 2300 watt units with parallel cables, allowing me to use a single unit in Spring & Fall or both during the Summer months, but ultimately decided to just go with the single 3800 watt for less maintenance. Plus, the 3800 unit already has the 30A outlet built-in, so no adapters needed like on the Predator and some other brands!

Similar story as above. We also ended up with the WEN 3400/3800 genny. When shopping our comparison spreadsheet that analyzed similar models eventually steered us toward this unit, and we have been absolutely delighted. As to an important comment above on real world use (altitude, etc), our relevant experience was an all-nighter in Santa Rosa, NM at the Pilot/Flying J. Altitude is 4,600' and our WEN ran our 15,000 btu Dometic A/C without a hiccup - all night long. With fuel to spare in the tank.

Unrelated to RV'ng, but as a testament to the endurance and efficiency of this unit, during the recent really hard freeze in Texas, we set the WEN up in an outdoor courtyard at a safe distance from the house (which had lost power) with power cords from both 15 amp/120V outlets plus a 6 ga extension cord from the 30 amp RV outlet (with an adapter for household current) all running through a window gap - that in turn had a 3-way splitter outlet for more access to power . . . Well, we ran our home's fridge, a 50" plasma TV, stuff for 'net access, various lamps as needed and the same ceramic heater we carry in our travel trailer - all for 3 days or so.

Funny thing: we decided on this WEN as a dual use machine - mostly for our RV needs as necessary . . . but also in case we needed to get through yet another Gulf Coast HURRICANE! But it ran happily while surrounded by 3" of gradually melting snow!

That said, I appreciate the excellent Champion (& Predator) units out there. There is surely a reason that one can read so many favorable comments about them. But we surely can affirm this WEN unit.

[Kavoom]

ktmrfs wrote:
3000 watt likely will do what you want, but may be heavier than you want to handle.

A 2000W inverter generator is likely to have problems starting the AC unit, especially at higher altitude. But it will be quite and easy to carry around. Add a micro air easy start to the AC and the 2000/2200W generator will likely do what you want.

Now quiet & cheap are somewhat mutually exclusive. PLEASE do NOT buy an open frame cheap generator. Spend some money on a quiet inverter generator. honda yamaha and champion have some nice decent quality quiet generators in the 2000-3000W range.

We boondock a lot, have a 13,500 BTU AC unit, an 1000W microwave and have a single honda 2200 W generator. My brother has the same. The AC units have the micro air easy start installed. Both of us consistently run the AC units at altitude approaching 7000ft with zip problems starting or running the AC. That said a honda 2000, or yamaha 2000 will eventually (20 minutes or so) overload at altitude above about 4500ft.

Just can't run the AC AND microwave at the same time, but a 3000W wouldn't let you run both at the same time either.

Good points, but over the last 10 years many other companies have come into the market with relatively inexpensive and quiet units. It used to be Honda and Yamaha and all the Chinese knockoffs. Now you have options like Westinghouse and even the Harbor Freights "predator" has decent marks and reviews and is just as quiet. You will spend a minimum of 600 bucks for a good 2000 unit and a thousand for a 3000. AND they have sized units and adjusted the tech now to start a 13,500 RV airco unit consistently... Look for ones with the start up power around 2K above the usual operating watts. Definitely do your research online from people who have used them. I have personally found Westinghouse units to be very good at about half the price of a Honda and Yamaha. But that's just one opinion.

[2112]

I have an electric start Champion 3400W inverter model 100261. It was delivered with a dead battery as well. I called Champion and had a new battery on my front porch in 2 days. Overall I'm quite impressive with it, but there are a few things I don't like.

The wheels are small with very little clearance. It rolls well on pavement. Once you get it off pavement you have to drag it through the grass due to low bottom clearance.

The small wheels are recessed in wheel wells. It's stylish in design but causes issues in practice. While dragging it off pavement the wheel wells collect leaves and twigs to the point where they get clogged and stop rolling. This makes it even harder to drag around in the grass. I have to push it backwards to clear the debris.

It's a major disassembly process to remove the carburator compared to their open frame models. I dry the tank and carb for long term storage. I need to rethink this strategy for the inverter model.

I haven't tried to start it without a battery. I'll test that next time I pull it out of storage and fuel it up again.

[Huntindog]

Just because a generator will run your AC in your driveway doesn't mean it will when you are camping.
Generators lose power as altitude increases AND as tempertures rise... To make it a triple whammy, ACs need MORE power as the temp rises.
I have seen quite a few people frustrated at an event when their generator failed to run their AC when they needed it to.... They all said the same thing..... "It worked great at home when I tested it"

[bobbick]

I got the Wen 2300 and love it. It is enough to run my 8k but AC unit.

[Partsbob]

I don’t see that anyone has mentioned WEN brand inverter generators, so I’ll throw that suggestion out there to consider. I did a lot of research for over a year before buying my 3800 watt WEN unit for our 32’ TT and couldn’t be happier. Granted the unit does weight 98lbs, but it’s very well built, super quiet, has more than enough power for our needs (with 15K AC for our pup in the Summer) and we caught it ON SALE for well under the Champion 3400 watt I had originally considered! Even when not on sale, it is priced below most and ships free when purchased directly from WEN.
I had also considered buying (2) of the WEN 2300 watt units with parallel cables, allowing me to use a single unit in Spring & Fall or both during the Summer months, but ultimately decided to just go with the single 3800 watt for less maintenance. Plus, the 3800 unit already has the 30A outlet built-in, so no adapters needed like on the Predator and some other brands!

[harwester]

Really cool post Thanks.

[72cougarxr7]

Glad it is working well for you. I am happy with my Champion 3400 inverter as well.
I also have found the noise levels to be comperable with similar Honda or Yamaha models.

If the battery seems to keep giving you trouble, i bet a call to Champion might get you one sent out for free.

[GravelRider]

The generator worked great. A guy a campsite over had a nice looking Yamaha and I honestly didn't notice a difference in noise between the two at all. Of course, I don't know the loads the generators were under, so who knows. But, I was very happy with the overall noise level, even when running the AC unit.

I did notice the first day the battery was a bit sluggish to start it. Given it was at 5 volts when I got it, I worry the battery may not be in the best health... Worst case, a battery is fairly cheap and very easy to replace.

[GravelRider]

I'm picking up my new travel trailer June 6, and then taking it out to a national forest for a long four day weekend the following weekend. There won't be any hookups, so I'll report back how the new generator works.

[Gdetrailer]

GravelRider wrote:

Gulfcoast wrote:
Mine started with a dead battery, just pulled the rope twice.

I'm hoping it just needed a first initial start and then I'll be good to go. Or maybe the oil did just need to settle longer? I don't know.

Glad you got it running!

Not sure if the battery really played a part in not running, typically most all of the portable gens are designed to run the ignition from a magneto meaning it shouldn't need a battery for the ignition system.

May have taken some time to get the oil sensor broke loose as they obviously get stuck sometimes when shipped empty of oil from Champions troubleshooting info.

[GravelRider]

Gulfcoast wrote:
Mine started with a dead battery, just pulled the rope twice.

I'm hoping it just needed a first initial start and then I'll be good to go. Or maybe the oil did just need to settle longer? I don't know.

[TomG2]

Huntindog wrote:
That sounds sort of messed up.

What is messed up? Redundancy costs weight, complexity, and money. They could put both magneto and battery powered ignition on the generator. Champion makes great, easy to start, generators with consideration given to weight, complexity, and price. I suspect that somewhere in the owner's manual it mentions having a fully charged battery installed.