What can I do with/expect from a generator?

where are you skiing? I suspect taking the trailer will cost more than the holiday inn off site.

rvshrinker wrote:
We have boondocked four days easily without, but for skiing this winter and possibly up to one week of boondocking... Saw a used Honda 3000ec available for $750. What will that do for us? How long do I need to run something like that the charge our batteries up? I have two 6v batteries.

Look at the bigger picture, your profile says you have a travel trailer, how many gals of FW does your tank hold? If it is 50 gals or less that will be your limiting factor especially if you have not dry camped before with your wife. A Buddy heater as Bud suggested uses no battery power and will heat a small trailer. With two 6 V GC batteries with lights, water pump, refer on propane mine will last 7 days before they reach 50% SOC and with 60 gals of FW my water tank will be empty. I don't know what other electrical requirement you have. If you take showers every day you will probably use your water up in 5 days or less. Can you get FW in the winter where you ski, how big is your grey tank? Can you dump at the ski area? Not knowing the details of how you camp or your electrical needs it is hard to say if you need a genset or not. My guess you will run out of water before you run out of battery power.

philh wrote:

K3WE wrote:
Edit: Also, arguably you probably don't want to heat water with a generator when boon-docking. Probably better to use LP.

If the generator is already running, AND you have capacity, why wouldn't you use electric to heat water?

You saw the words 'arguably' and 'probably' in my post, right?

It's rather inefficient to burn gas to make electricity to heat water versus burning gas to heat water directly. Gas engines are pretty inefficient.

That being said, you CAN do it as you say, and maybe filling the gasoline tank is easier than filling the LP tank, so efficiency doesn't matter, but not using electricity to heat water can help you get by with a smaller generator...

Lots of trade offs to tip the scale one way or another, but it is less efficient.

Yeah that’s the generator. I’ll pass on it.

In the near future I don’t see a need for a 3000w generator because we don’t need ac. We live in the pacific northwest and if we go east of the mountains in summer we’ll be hooked up. If down the road that changes I can get bigger.

So for now a 2000 watt if I want to run the heater in the winter (while skiing) and sometimes the microwave?

We’ve been on about 16 trips and a total of 60 days in almost two years and only run the AC for about 3 hours one day.

I checked the batteries and the water is full. No evidence of boil off. We’ve boondocked 4 days and had 2/3 of battery power left. So far no problem with staying plugged in. If I don’t stay plugged in, what is the solution? Isn’t it also unhealthy to have the batteries discharge?

While part timing I would often heat the water electrically as I was trundling down the road. I used a duty cycle of ten minutes heating, and twenty minutes off. It worked well for me.

K3WE wrote:
Edit: Also, arguably you probably don't want to heat water with a generator when boon-docking. Probably better to use LP.

If the generator is already running, AND you have capacity, why wouldn't you use electric to heat water?

This?

rvshrinker wrote:
That's an interesting link, over my head a lot of it... I have left our rig plugged into a 110 socket for months at a time. It runs the fridge and LED lights and in the winter the furnace on subfreezing nights, maybe 20 nights per year. Battery panel always says fully charged but I've never tried to look in closer detail. I've also never, gulp, checked the water level. Have had rig almost two years. I'll try to figure that out today.

We are building a true 30 and 50 amp hookup this summer.

When I first read this I interpreted "for months at a time" as basically meaning always hooked up. Before I did any winter camping I would have those batteries checked. Here is what happened to me. We bought our trailer used and the PO left it plugged in all the time. The converter was constantly overcharging the batteries and they were shot. When we looked at it, everything was working just fine and the monitor showed fully charged batteries. On the way home we stayed overnight and plugged it in. On our first dry camping trial it all came home, we had two bad batteries and a bad converter too. As long as you are hooked up your batteries will always show full charge. Unplug the trailer and wait a few hours and then check them.

So, to charge batteries you don't need a big generator but you do need a good converter and two good batteries. We have a Honda 2000 and a few hours a day works for us.

SoundGuy wrote:

rvshrinker wrote:
Saw a used Honda 3000ec available for $750.

bikendan wrote:
That's a great price for a Honda 3000i.

Problem is, the OP didn't say it was an EU3000i or even an EU3000iS so we really don't know what genset the OP is talking about. AFAIK there's no such thing as a Honda "3000ec" ... who knows, maybe it's an open frame genset. It's also hard to believe anyone would be selling an EU3000i or EU3000iS for just $750.

An EC3000 is a contractor style conventional generator, not an inverter.
The EC was not made for sale in the US.

It will charge the OP's batteries fine as long as he can put up with the racket. Personally I would get a real long cord to deal with that, about 4000' should do nicely LOL.

I don't know that it matters a whole lot for WINTERTIME use...Yeah don't run too many heat appliances at the same time (Microwave, coffee maker, hair drier)...but nice 'small' quiet 2000 watt generators should run those things and charge batteries.

To run an air conditioner- THEN you have some requirements.

Edit: Also, arguably you probably don't want to heat water with a generator when boon-docking. Probably better to use LP.