Portable Generator

[BeemerJoe]

Just curious. Does anyone carry a small portable generator when your rig has a built in one, and if so, WHY? We just purchased a toy hauler and it has a 5500 Onan in it. Can't see a reason to bring my 3500 Predator and take up room.

[travelin texans]

Originally Posted by BeemerJoe

Just curious. Does anyone carry a small portable generator when your rig has a built in one, and if so, WHY? We just purchased a toy hauler and it has a 5500 Onan in it. Can't see a reason to bring my 3500 Predator and take up room.

Why would you need to?
The onboard Genny WILL, or should, run everything in the rv with the flip of a switch, the portable may not & just takes up space & weight.

[snoobler]

A hardcore boondocker might want the redundancy.

It's really about preference. I have a complete backup system (batteries, inverter, solar charge controller) for my off-grid "shore power" in addition to a generator - basically a backup to the backup and my main system has dual inverters meaning, I have fault tolerance there. I also have a few spare 12V scattered here and there on float... just in case.

To be frank, it's more about making sure my wife is not inconvenienced significantly - to maintain her buy-in to the lifestyle

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by snoobler

A hardcore boondocker might want the redundancy.

It's really about preference. I have a complete backup system (batteries, inverter, solar charge controller) for my off-grid "shore power" in addition to a generator - basically a backup to the backup and my main system has dual inverters meaning, I have fault tolerance there. I also have a few spare 12V scattered here and there on float... just in case.

To be frank, it's more about making sure my wife is not inconvenienced significantly - to maintain her buy-in to the lifestyle

Why not just have a duplicate rig and pay someone to follow? Sorry to hear your DW is that intolerant but what's the real world failure rate of these systems?

[snoobler]

Originally Posted by flybouy

Why not just have a duplicate rig and pay someone to follow? Sorry to hear your DW is that intolerant but what's the real world failure rate of these systems?

A little more context might help. "off-grid shore power" is a solar power system in a 40' shipping container on-site with a NEMA 14-50 on a pedestal. 1000 gallons of water storage. No utilities of any kind.

There is actually a second 5th wheel, so no need to follow. They are essentially permanently on site. We are permanently boondocking, and I am powering 2X 5th wheels.

She's not intolerant. It's a personal point of pride to minimize impact and have the creature comforts within reason.

Don't care what the failure rate is. The cost for redundancy is a very small portion of the total. It's about being miles from convenience with no utilities.

[BeemerJoe]

thanks everyone.. guess my predator is going on marketplace lol.

[GHen]

I don’t consider a 3500 a small generator. I have carried a 1000 or 2000 to charge batteries, they use a lot less fuel than the 5500.

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by BeemerJoe

thanks everyone.. guess my predator is going on marketplace lol.

.....Yep... or keep it as a backup for when the toyhauler is at the dealership for warranty work and you're stuck with using the tent and sleeping bags for that next trip you can't postpone.... <joking of course>

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by snoobler

A little more context might help. "off-grid shore power" is a solar power system in a 40' shipping container on-site with a NEMA 14-50 on a pedestal. 1000 gallons of water storage. No utilities of any kind.

There is actually a second 5th wheel, so no need to follow. They are essentially permanently on site. We are permanently boondocking, and I am powering 2X 5th wheels.

She's not intolerant. It's a personal point of pride to minimize impact and have the creature comforts within reason.

Don't care what the failure rate is. The cost for redundancy is a very small portion of the total. It's about being miles from convenience with no utilities.

I don’t think of your description as "boondocking" but rather living off the grid. I'm not aware of boondockers traveling and setting up what sounds like a permenant compund.

[snoobler]

Originally Posted by flybouy

I don’t think of your description as "boondocking" but rather living off the grid. I'm not aware of boondockers traveling and setting up what sounds like a permenant compund.

You have confirmed that I provided sufficient context.

[Essvar]

Originally Posted by BeemerJoe

Just curious. Does anyone carry a small portable generator when your rig has a built in one, and if so, WHY? We just purchased a toy hauler and it has a 5500 Onan in it. Can't see a reason to bring my 3500 Predator and take up room.

I carry my Honda EU3500 for a couple reasons....



1) ITS QUIET, and I can place it at the back of the trailer behind everything and don't even hear it. The on board 5500 is louder and in the front where most of our time is spent.
2) Its much much more fuel efficient
3) It doesn't have an hour meter
4) Redundancy just incase....
5) To run Tire Warmers

[BeemerJoe]

those are good reasons, but on my toy hauler, the generator is in the front and the tail patio is in the back.

[Essvar]

Originally Posted by BeemerJoe

those are good reasons, but on my toy hauler, the generator is in the front and the tail patio is in the back.

True.... I don't use the patio when camping because we are always with friends and I don't want to seem like the elitist up on his patio while everyone else is down on the ground
Also, my outdoor fridge and TV are in the kitchen slide at ground level

[Lindyn]

Yes, I have always had an board generators, or portable Honda's, I carry a Honda 2,000, just for tire pressure, etc. Or to pull the fridge if the RV park loses, power. I do NO camping, I did enough while serving 26+ years in the US Army. I'm now a RV'er, which is why I always want 50amp service, when traveling.

Happy trails.

[BeemerJoe]

lindyn.... my toy hauler has an inverter that will run the fridge for at least 10 hours on my battery. I plan on replacing the one battery with 2 6vt ones and have plenty of power for a longer run. To be honest in the 35plus years I've been camping, I've never realy found myself in a situation where I'd need more power than that.

[flybouy]

In reading these responses I can’t help but wonder the following: if the reason to recommend taking a second generator is redundancy, then how mahy folks like the OP that has generator used before getting an on-board unit carried 2 generators? And I'm not talking about 2 identical units that you can bridge as that makes perfect sense to me. But carrying 2 identical generators "just in case" one fails just doesn’t seem logical to me. What am I not understanding?

[roadglide]

I had 2000 watt Champion generator I carried around in the garage for awhile . I would use it in the back of the truck and get 7 hours per gallon and it was quit . I went to 500 watt solar, 3 k inverter charger and controller and 3 big AGM batteries. The Champion 2000 W generator stays at home now .

[BeemerJoe]

I've been thinking the same thing.. the difference in fuel savings (to me) isn't that much. .6 on the Onan, and .25 on the 3500. If I can't afford that, I don't need to be RVing. The predator is going on marketplace.

[Essvar]

Originally Posted by flybouy

In reading these responses I can’t help but wonder the following: if the reason to recommend taking a second generator is redundancy, then how mahy folks like the OP that has generator used before getting an on-board unit carried 2 generators? And I'm not talking about 2 identical units that you can bridge as that makes perfect sense to me. But carrying 2 identical generators "just in case" one fails just doesn’t seem logical to me. What am I not understanding?

The redundancy comes in the the likely-hood of the onboard generator not working (most often due to battery issues) but there's a lot more going on with the onboard units that can fail. I've never had a pull start portable generator just "fail". I have had my onboard generators decide to not work based on a plethora of reasons.


As a side note, If I wasn't using my 3500 to run multiple sets of motorcycle tire warmers I would carry a 2000w as that's more than enough to power everything except the AC units and they are MUCH more transportable.

[Canonman]

After 3 seasons, I'm having a hard time justifying carrying any generator since setting up our solar package
Our Dometic 3k generator hasn't been needed but has been in the back of the truck just in case. As my granddad used to say, "better to have and not need, than to need an not have".
Not sure this applies to carrying 2 generators though