GENERATOR FOR TRAVEL TRAILER

[Karl]

Mike,

I looked at the test results provided in your link and, quite frankly, am somewhat puzzled. To me, the test and the subsequent results are seriously flawed, and I will contact Dr. Steve Shepard with my concerns, and will post his reply as soon as it's received.

 

[Fred_M]

Another alternative when dry camping is to start your truck every day or two to recharge the trailer batteries and use an inverter and a dual or triple deepcycles system.  I owned a generator, but it drove me batty listening to it rumble and vibrate.  I now just let the truck idle an hour or two a day.  Doesn't seem to even use more gas than a generator.  If it's hot, I head for the campground's AC plug. Fred 

 

[GaryB]

Another alternative when dry camping is to start your truck every day or two to recharge the trailer batteries and use an inverter and a dual or triple deepcycles system.? .... Fred?

Fred - This sounds like an interesting idea.  By "dual or triple deepcycles system", do you mean 2 or 3 sets of batteries connected in parallel?

Also, how do you connect your inverter charger to your truck battery?  Is it a simple, direct cable connection?

Thanks
Gary

 

[Lou Schneider]

Another alternative when dry camping is to start your truck every day or two to recharge the trailer batteries and use an inverter and a dual or triple deepcycles system.

The problem is the charging wire won't pass enough current to recharge the batteries in a reasonable length of time. Even after I installed a #8 wire I still wouldn't get above 20 amps into a moderately discharged set of trailer batteries.

So I mounted a second inverter in my truck, whose sole function was to supply 120 volt power to the Progressive Dynamics converter in the trailer.  This let the PD charge the batteries at it's regular rate of 40-45 amps while the truck idled.  Yes, this did draw more power from the truck's battery than the alternator replaced at idle ,but it recovered during the latter part of the cycle when the converter tapered off to 20 amps or less.  Or it stayed partially discharged until the next time I drove the truck.

 

[Houseofarticcats]

We have 2 Honda EU2000i's.  Parallel they can run the A/C plus any other device at the same time except for the microwave. We have about $2200 invested in it.. I also have a 6500 watt gen(very loud)  that I use to power my House if we need it.. (but sense we got it 5 years ago.. that has not happened only a few times..heheh Think we scared the power Com..)heheheh