How often do you use your generator?

[daydreamer36535]

Hi all,
My wife and I will be fulltimers this time next year.
We are starting out as cheaply as possible, in case we find its not for us(although I don't think so). Will be living in a 30' airstream trailer.
As such, i'm reluctant to spend $2000+ for 2 hondas, but if we're gonna need it i'd go for them.
What are your thoughts?
thanks

[daydreamer36535]

Hi all,
My wife and I will be fulltimers this time next year.
We are starting out as cheaply as possible, in case we find its not for us(although I don't think so). Will be living in a 30' airstream trailer.
As such, i'm reluctant to spend $2000+ for 2 hondas, but if we're gonna need it i'd go for them.
What are your thoughts?
thanks

[AFChap]

We are in a motorhome and use our generator frequently, even when driving if we need a/c, etc. Buy your use in a trailer will no doubt differ from our use in a motorhome. Your need/use would really depend on your RV life-style. If you only stay where you have shore power connection ...and you have LP to run your refrigerator while driving (although some just turn it off and leave it closed and find that normally keeps the contents cold enough) ..., and you don't go to rallies where there are no connections, you may get along quite well without a generator. We're very glad we have ours, but you may not need one. Maybe some trailer owners will speak up and give their point of view...

[bdpreece]

Since we have a motor home we use the generator when traveling to power the roof air. If we are camping without hookups we try to keep our generator use to a minimum. I try to do my best not to use the generator in camping areas. It offends me when I have to put up with other people running generators so I do my best not to offend anyone. Most times we use our inverter and then run the generator during times it won't offend others. If we will be on the road the next day we run it while traveling.

[Zimectrin]

Use mine for an hour each month to excersise it. Some on the road at lunch to power the mircowave. Other than that, like some others, I wonder why I have it.

I could buy a lot of hot lunches for the cost of having it around.

Having said that, there are times when I was very glad that I did have it. Parks w/o power, boondocking, etc. If I had to do it again, I would still have it. Try without, you can add it later.

[rvgrandma]

We use ours when we don't have shore power. When we are on the road we usually will park in at parking lot somewhere and use it in the evening. Otherwise we 'exercise' it once a month to keep it in shape.

We went for years without one and there were times we wished we did cause we would stop in parking lots or go to rustic parks in the forest. It would have been nice to have a generator to recharge the batteries every couple days. If we ran low/out we would hook up to the pickup and charge them up.

As others said, it depends on your use. Until you find out if fulltiming is for you and where you prefer to park, I would hold off on the generator. Just have 2 good batteries and they should last you a weekend unless you run your furnace alot. We found 2 good batteries would last Friday - Sunday.