Community Forums

Off Road · 04-19-2019, 09:24 PM

I have a Yamaha 2000 watt inverter, it runs great and is very quiet. I bought a extension cord for my rig and now I hide the Yamaha behind a tree. Can hardly hear it and it sips fuel.

Chevyguy1973 · 04-20-2019, 07:06 AM

A quick update, we purchased a Rainier R2200i generator on Amazon for $375. It has a fuel shutoff switch and a fuel gauge, but still no hour meter. I'll probably add an hour meter later so I can keep better tracking of service intervals. The generator is very quiet and sips fuels, much better than the onboard Generac on both accounts. I just run an extension cord from the power inverter directly to the generator set in front of the RV, and run it a couple hours in the morning and then again in the evening. It's been getting down in the 40's at night (on vacation in Utah) so the furnace is running quite a bit, but this little guy is keeping the batteries charged up very nicely. Today is Saturday and we've been doing this for a week now, and I've filled the 1.3 gallon tank once so far. I couldn't be happier with the performance of our little Rainier. I bought the extended warranty on it through Amazon, and hope to get a good 3-4 years use from this little guy. Pretty good investment if I do. Happy Trails!

Gerryl · 04-20-2019, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ByeTheWay

Honda. You get what you pay for. Easy start, mine on the first pull. Easy to maintain. The only advantage I've seen to a HF is no one steals them...

Busskipper · 04-20-2019, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chevyguy1973

..............

In preparing for travels this year, I'm considering buying a small, quiet generator (1kw or 2kw) for our boondocking nights. We have an onboard 5.5kw genny that works fine, but most evenings we're only running it for a couple hours so the converter will charge the batteries and it's overkill, louder than we'd prefer, and uses more fuel than necessary. My thought was a small genny with the converter plugged directly into it would sip fuel, be much quieter, and wouldn't add much to our load in the grand scheme of things. A solar panel charging system would be much quieter and use no fuel obviously, but I'm not interested in that option for a couple of reasons. Plus, a small generator would be nice to take with us on the infrequent tent camping trip to charge phones, run a small ceramic heater on cold mornings, etc.

As you can probably tell, I've pretty much talked myself into the $500-600 expense at this point, but I'm wondering if there's considerations I'm not thinking of or other options I'm not aware of at this point. Anyone else gone this route and then discovered it wasn't as good an idea as they thought?

Thank you for any insight or recommendations,
Dave

You are Gas and it is Gas so it will make things easy - Add a T to the line by the generator to get fuel - I used a Home Depot - https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-Re...2200/206850743 - that I bought off CraigsList for $250 - In the Box - and they are GREAT - Never leave the Fuel in it or they will clog - use Fuel treat - Quiet - sip fuel and you will Love it - Need to have a way to Lock it Down as it will grow legs - a Gallon of gas will last most of the Day and everything will be charged - go with the 2200 an if the A/C is not 15000 it will even run it

Report back as to the decision

Best of Luck,

packnrat · 04-30-2019, 08:59 PM

not a small gen, but a honda eu 3000, on a rear bumper mount. very quiet, and can be set up with a after market remote start/stop,
it sat for 10 months with fuel in it, but does have a fuel cut off, and yes i tend to run to dry.
but it started cold after sitting out in the weather all winter. and having a large tree fall on it. and i was only trying to turn it over to lube it up.

and i use cheap wally world batt as i install a new one each year or two.
buy the best, as you only have to cry once.

Roadglide54 · 04-30-2019, 09:52 PM

I have the same champion generator bought at quartzsite. I have been using it 4 years average average 3 hours night . After the session I drain the fuel and the next season it's read to go easy start.

Chevyguy1973 · 06-29-2019, 10:22 PM

Okay, the 90-day update. The little Rainier has worked out very well for us. It's so portable and easy to move I've used it for a couple other small non-camping projects. A slightly bigger generator would have been nice, but this one fits perfect into an under utilized belly compartment, so I'm still confident it was the best choice for our needs. Next trip will be the Ouray, Colorado in August, then Branson, Missouri in September. Glad we've added this backup power source to the load plan.

idnative1948 · 07-05-2019, 01:45 PM

We went with a 3 month-old Honda EU2200i (she had the fuel recall addressed) purchased from a 80+ year-old lady who was having too much trouble trying to pull start it (??). $350 less than new so couldn't pass it up. We love it!

becks · 07-06-2019, 08:21 AM

We're in the market for a genny also, however we would like to be able to run one 15000 air conditioner. What size would we need. Thanks in advance for your help.

Gerryl · 07-06-2019, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by becks

We're in the market for a genny also, however we would like to be able to run one 15000 air conditioner. What size would we need. Thanks in advance for your help.

I have run my 13,500 AC with a Honda EU2000 because I added a "micro-air soft start". Now I have a Honda EU2200. We are big fans of the Honda inverters and have used them hard since they first came out both at our camp and the RVs.

https://www.microair.net/products/ea...nt=30176048267

See post #26 for more.

astrocamper · 07-06-2019, 08:10 PM

I just got back from 7 nights of camping without hookups. The weather was great and we never needed air conditioning so my Honda 2200 was unused this time. Last summer I needed to run it every afternoon camping in July/August.

LeisurePursuits · 07-10-2019, 04:36 PM

Please consider more batteries or a stronger converter/charger or solar if you're running your generator just to use your lights and/or water pump. Don't get me wrong. I have a honda 2200 but my plan is to use it if I need air conditioning or if I'm parked under trees were my solar can't keep up. In the later case I will use it to power my aftermarket 90 amp charger to bring my batteries up to 80% in short order.

unyalli · 07-10-2019, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by becks

We're in the market for a genny also, however we would like to be able to run one 15000 air conditioner. What size would we need. Thanks in advance for your help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9wc4ULWuus

LeisurePursuits · 07-10-2019, 05:42 PM

I recommend the Honda EU2200i along with this Easy Start kit. We can even run the air conditioner for a short time on our 2000 watt Xantrex inverter when we use the Easy Start.