air conditioner

[ronson]

I have a 2006 Laredo 28rl 5th wheel. one big slide. works great for us. I have a 3100 powerhouse generator. today soon as I turn the air on the breakers on the generator kick off. the trailer breakers are not kicking off. the fan on air conditioner works fine. I even tried low fan with the air, still kicks off or doesn't turn on. the air conditioner is a coleman.
thanks ronson

[chuckster57]

3100 watts is probably the "peak" that your gen produces. When you got things going like the refrigerator and electric hot water heater, you don't have enough reserve to run the A/C.

Make sure everything that can operate on propane, is and all other 110V draws are turned off of possible. Then try your A/C again. If it still wont start, then you need a bigger generator.

3500 watts is the general accepted minimum for operating A/C in an RV.

[wahoonc]

My vote is that the generator is too small. You also have a variety of items that can draw power, some like the fridge can be turned off, the converter also draws power.

If you plan to run the AC on generator I would also invest in a "hard start" kit for it. FWIW there are a few air conditioners that will run on a 3100 watt generator but most won't.

Aaron

[ronson]

I will try putting everything else on propane and see what happens. I have run the air conditioner with this generator before. thanks for the info. I will keep you updated. thanks everyone. ronson

[ronson]

I changed the refrigerator to gas, ran the generator for a while to charge the batteries, turned on the air conditioner and everything is good. like you guys said I probably need a larger generator or do what I did. thank you much and my WIFE thanks you. ronson

[Festus2]

The generator you have will do provided you take steps to make sure that you don't have other high current draw items operating at the same time. As mentioned, the HW heater is one, the microwave would be another, as well as hair dryers, coffee pots, toasters, and the like.
As Aaron pointed out, a hard-start kit might be something to consider or if having to think and worry about "what else is on" is too annoying and frustrating, a bigger generator might be the way to go.