Camping generators

[PADDLES]

you wanna hear quiet griz? try one of the new hondas. you're right andy, people can be pretty inconsiderate with them. scotty, use VA (volt.amps) all the time to work out what capacity you need, your charger is about 180VA plus some losses. a 36W fluoro is about 120VA on start.

[griz066]

you wanna hear quiet griz? try one of the new hondas. you're right andy, people can be pretty inconsiderate with them. scotty, use VA (volt.amps) all the time to work out what capacity you need, your charger is about 180VA plus some losses. a 36W fluoro is about 120VA on start.

Yup i know we took a mates eu10i to Fraser a couple of years ago and we couldnt hear it on the other side of the ute. Just out of my price range is all. GMC will have to do for now

[johnny roger]

hey scottie,

i bought the honda 20i about 18 months ago. very quite, very smooth, and it didn't miss a beat for 5 days. it went through about 20 liters of fuel running day and night, powering a 70 liter and a 50 liter camping fridges. running lights at night, and even using the shears for a bit of a haircut! i know they cost a bit more, but after cyclone larry my wife and kids were without power for a week...this is really what made my buy a geny. so basically my geny has 2 uses. i tried it out on the house hold stuff and it went really good. i ran a 500 liter fridge, an upright freezer, a computer, and areial booster, and and LCD tv in the house for an hour. i think it was on its limit with all this going on because when either the fridge or freezer compessor kicked it, you could really hear the little motor start to labour for a split second, then up she went back into life again.

[SCOTTYGC]

thanks every one

like i said earlier i wont be running much of it and it will only be running a few hours a day to top up the betteries

cheers

[madman1]

A mate has one of those 850 watt GMC generators and runs three or four fluros, a XXXX can fridge, dvd players and a radio. Sure they are two strokes and may be a little noisy / smelly but he made up a ply wood insulation box and you hardly hear it at all. A tanks (a couple of litres) lasts a good 8 - 12 hours depending on what is running at the time.

Good luck with the decision.

Personally I would go the GMC for $99 from Bunnings as they have a 2 year replacement warranty.

Cheers


Mark

[Lucky_Phill]

Very interesting thread Scotty, and all good info from the people in the know.

This is the very reason I search here on AF before anywhere else.

In the end I see Scotty is buying his genie to a purpose and budget.

In the ideal world we would have the Honda's.

I have to agree with statements about noisey gen's, well inconsiderate owners of gens. Went to Fraser comp couple of years back and camped. Everyone seemed to have a jenny going... and some were down right LOUD, including ours ( 3.5kva ), but the guys that turned theirs on pre-dusk and left them going while they went fishing to the early hours needed to have think about it. I ended up pulling the plugs on the ones closest to us to get some sleep. Strange thing though, I went to talk to people the next day ( camped next to the inconsiderate guys )and the couple I was talking to though I was having a shot at them, but as they pointed out their genset was running as I talked to them. It was a Honda and was no more than 15ft away behind the camper trailer and I could not hear it.... fan-bloody-tastic. Anyway, talked to ferets, and they agreed and said we could turn off gens when we went to bed, no dramas.

Hope you have success in your generator hunting Scotty. See you in 2 weeks.

Cheers Phill

[northernblue]

I was charging up a waeco battery [they are agm or gel I can't remember] before going camping a couple of years ago.
I was using my old Yamaha, 1000 watt a 1995 vintage, non inverter type. I was using the direct charging leads from the Gennie to the battery, short story is that after about an hour and a half, battery goes
BANG!!
Went so good that the grunts who lived across the road came running outside to see what happened! [if your bang impresses them, then it must be good ]

The story is that these types of batteries don't like invert free gennies [lead acid I am told don't care]
Lucky for me Waeco came good with a replacement [did I forget to mention the Gennie to them? ]
But it was a really big bang, it totalled the plastic casing, the battery itself seemed to remain intact, I was lucky no one was next to it at the time.

[PADDLES]

the 12v feed from most older generators is fairly inefficient and usually of a very limited capacity, (probably really dodgy rectification to dc) you are way better off using a cheapo charger on the 240v feed, it'll charge at a much greater capacity.

[northernblue]

So I learned.
But at the time there was nothing in the Batteries manual saying not to charge directly with a gennie.

[Noelm]

not too sure why you want to go camping and then have a generator, you go camping for the peace and getting back to nature, all Electric devices should be at home where they belong, a campfire for cooking, a Battery torch maybe for seeing, a sleeping bag and tent for sleeping and your done, don't see how a Generator comes into it, ahhh the serenity!!!

[Reel Nauti]

It's not too serene Noel when you're camping in remote areas for a while and the torch has gone flat and the ice has run out.

Dave

[John_R]

I was charging up a waeco battery [they are agm or gel I can't remember] before going camping a couple of years ago.
I was using my old Yamaha, 1000 watt a 1995 vintage, non inverter type. I was using the direct charging leads from the Gennie to the battery, short story is that after about an hour and a half, battery goes
BANG!!
.

Those waeco batteries are usually about 35 amp/hr. If it was half full and you were putting 15 amps unregulated into it I can understand it blowing up.


I have a mate's Scorpion DW1000L genny. It has a 12v 10 amp circuit and a "DC protection" button. Don't have the manual and cannot tell if it is an inverter type or if the dc circuit is regulated. Can't find anything on the web about it either.

Also have (2) 100amp/hr gel type batteries to run the waeco freezer. I have a 65w solar panel which should just keep up with the freezer on a sunny day.

Assuming my 100 a/h battery is down to 11 volts - how long can I run it on the generator circuit without risking battery damage? I was thinking 4 hrs x 10 amps = 40 amps. The battery at 11v would be more than half discharged - so should be safe right?

[PADDLES]

g'day john, i don't know a great deal about gel batteries but i believe they need to be charged a special way. i can tell you though that a lead acid type battery will take whatever you throw at it current wise and this is what kills them. generally you want your charge cycle to last 10 to 12 hours, apparently this is what they are designed to withstand. for example a fully discharged 40 amp hour battery should be charged at about 4 amps for 10 hours. this is a general rule of thumb though. ideally you want your discharge/charge cycle to be around 50% of your capacity to give maximum life (again some battery constructions let you discharge further for no loss of life). what this is saying is that for a 40 amp hour basic lead acid battery you should be using around 20 amp hours and then charging it again. this was info i picked up from an exide rep for a standby application for work.

[northernblue]

John_r what does a 65w solar panel set you back?

[Seaking]

Hi guys

Supercheap has a 4 stroke petrol generator at $299.00. Doesn't look half bad. 1800watt, 1.8KVA, 5.5 HP, 70 DB noise level, low oil alarm system.

MMMMMMMMMMMMM I wonder?????

Hope someone can benifit from this.