help the newbe

[Waynem]

Your heater needs 12v to run the igniter.

[snfexpress]

If you have a GM truck, the auxillary battery will drain if continually used; however, your starting battery (for your engine) will not be affected.

We have used the Truck/Cable thing and also we have 2 Honda 2000i generators. The generators were purchased when I wanted to start roaming the country and my wife was worried that we might not find an RV park. After a couple of years, we have used ours just twice - once when the power in the park went out and once on the road at a rest stop, but our choice. However, we will have these two generators until we stop traveling because my wife wants them.

[Jim Jarvis]

My wife and I do 95% of our camping by boondocking. We have the Onan 6500 or 5500 genset, isn't that crazy but I can't remember which one at the moment. It works well except the problems associated with propane, level in the bottle and outside temps. It cost a lot of money plus it is costly to run. We also have a 2000 watt inverter and 4 six volt golf cart batteries. This system works well but if I were to do it over again I would invest in solar panels and then a smaller genset. Solar is the ideal way to go. The upfront cost is high but ongoing cost is low. You would only occasionally need to run your genset after a period of cloudy days. I will be adding solar in the future.

[Dave Anderson]

JIM Right on!!! We now have 450 watts of Solar,dropped down to a 2000honda (54lbs) and have all the power we can use! Even run a 5 cuft freezer all the time we'er boondocking On the coast in Mexico. Total freedom in the Southwest...........Dave

[simonsrf]

quote:Originally posted by Dave Anderson

JIM Right on!!! We now have 450 watts of Solar,dropped down to a 2000honda (54lbs) and have all the power we can use! Even run a 5 cuft freezer all the time we'er boondocking On the coast in Mexico. Total freedom in the Southwest...........Dave

Have to agree with Dave here, we love our 660 watts of solar, and the 2000i honda for those cloudy days. You need the 'bank' of batteries to complete the system. Our freezer runs all the time.

Solar is expensive, but living outside of a RV park is priceless whether you go the solar route or the generator!