Portable Generator. - Page 2 - Montana Owners Club

trukdoc · 01-10-2005, 01:21 PM

A good place to look and there is a bunch to compare to and diffirent prices. $900 does not buy much.
I spent considerably more for a generator to power the trailer and or some of the house in an emergency. I got an 8000 watt. More than enough to run a refrigerator, freezer and the RV AC.
Keep in mind if a $900 dollar generator does not do what you want then it is a waste of money.
Research what you need then look for price.
Try http://www.northerntool.com/
Hope this helps.
Rick

RC and Samantha · 01-10-2005, 01:31 PM

We plan on buying the Honda 2000 EU and eventually buy two of them. We just have not been able to come up with the needed funds yet. We really thought about the larger one but the weight and storage is a big issue for us, especially with a short bed truck.

I have to admit that so far we haven't needed one in two years, there has been a couple of campgrounds we couldn't use though because they had no hookups.

If you never plan to use it while camping in a park that has no hookups and only plan to use it for ERs, then how loud it is may not be a factor you want to consider. If that's the case my sister, Sue, a member on this forum bought one that works very well for her and it wasn't very expensive and seemed to take care of all her needs.

Patty

palebluedot · 01-10-2005, 02:54 PM

RC,
Forgive me for getting off subject, but that looks like "Bird Woman" falls in the background of your photo --- AAAAHHHH !! GLACIER !!!

315RLS · 01-11-2005, 01:30 AM

We have 2 of the Honda EU2000i that we purchased from Hayes Equipment last year. They were $899 w/shipping and we also purchased the parallel kit for an additional $269 so the total price was $2,067. The upside for us on this approach is there is a good part of the season that we don't need to run our 15,000 BTU AC and only need to bring along one unit. The downside is even with the system run in parallel they are still only 110 and it would be great to be able to use the same units for the house in the case of power outages. As our well runs on 220 that is sort of a necessity so we'll have a little generator collection. We have been very pleased with these little honda units. I had someone over snooping around the back of our unit only to find out he was settling a bet with his wife who claimed the unit was running and he thought it was off. We did also purchase a 10' kryptonite lock cable to tie it to the back bumper. It seems enough of a deterrent from someone just walking by and lifting the unit.

Flastro · 01-11-2005, 03:14 AM

We too have the EU2000 Honda, its a sweet little unit, and yes its pricey, As others have said, its not recommended to start and run the 15K btu A/C but it did ours by mistake, I had hooked everything up while dry camping but had previously failed to shut off the A/C at the thermostat, walked by the unit once and noticed the generator overload light faintly flickering, ran around and opened the camper door and A/C was just a humming along, nice and frosty inside. So in our case it did, but I know the Honda was overloaded because the kids had lights and TV on also. We are planning on getting a second one in the future along with the parrallel cables, Figure we can use them as back up for the house also and since I have a 5500 watt Coleman Powermate also, that one handles all of the 220 requirements as it did during our last influx of Hurricanes and power outages. To sum it up, yes the Hondas are expensive, but for light weight and quietness, they are hard to beat and ours has been used to power pole chain saws and other tools around our property because of their light weight, easier than dragging out 200 feet of ext cords.

NJ Hillbilly · 01-11-2005, 06:43 AM

For about $20 You can make parallel cables. The magic is in the generators not the kit.

John

ronstan · 01-11-2005, 07:21 AM

Somewhere I found pictures on making your own kit. Not sure where it was now. Could have been on this forum or rvnet. I saved the pictures if anyone wants to see them send email

Flastro · 01-11-2005, 09:34 AM

Ill bite on the making the cables myself, if I can save 200.00!
Thanks

OntMont · 01-11-2005, 11:42 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by NJ Hillbilly

For about $20 You can make parallel cables. The magic is in the generators not the kit.

Having worked in a generating station, where synchronizing a generator with the grid was a big deal, I always wondered how they managed to synchronize the two Hondas. What is the "magic"?

ronstan · 01-11-2005, 01:24 PM

okay here is the place to get pictures and directions. Had a couple of e-mails so thought I would put it here.
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/...63&gid=848900&

William H. Collier · 01-11-2005, 01:58 PM

If there are any doubts if this works, I made a set of these last summer and they work great. I also use an 18 gallon marine gas tank to fuel the two of them.

NJ Hillbilly · 01-11-2005, 02:31 PM

The cables I use are a pair of cords about 5' long each that I ran to a junction box. I bought a 30 amp female pigtail from CW for about $5, ran all the wires into the box and tied the blacks together, whites together and greens together. I can post a pic of the adapter tomorrow.

The kit that You buy utilizes banana plugs that tie into the front panel along with a ground wire that needs to be attached under a screw. The way I did it uses the plug for the grounding and also works through the built in circuit breaker of the generator. I beilive the banana plug circuit bypasses the circuit breaker so an external one needs to be added.

As for the "magic" and the synchronizing, the inverters in the generators do it themselves. Just plug in the adapter to both generators, start the first one. It sets the power sine wave, then when the second generator is started it will synchronize itself to the first one. Kinda neat. The reality is if more power is desired, an infinite number of these units can be linked together as long as they are connected to the operating ones before they are started. If You want 50 amps and 6000 watts, tie 3 together.

One drawback is the possible danger of a plug coming out of a generator and the potential shock hazerd of the exposed energized prongs, but I feel if one gets disconnected than the other will become overloaded quickly and shut off the power anyway.

Hope this helps and I can post pics and any other details to help.

John

Flastro · 01-12-2005, 01:29 AM

Thanks ronstan and NJ hillbilly, great info, making these up is very simple, thinking before , it had to use the provided parralleling ports was a little of a deterant, but now that you all have explained it, its really very basic. Thanks !!!
One other thought, lets say your all wired up and running both units, would one of the gens handle it if someone was to plug into one of the recepticals thats still avail? will the units be able to sync properly while pulling more of a load from the unit that was hooked into ? like someone wanted to hook up at the gens to power lights? elec blower ? ETC

Montana_2821 · 01-12-2005, 02:14 AM

OntMont, the difference is the complexity of the grid. Paralleling these two generators is more comparable to paralleling two batteries than in connecting a generator to the operating grid.

There will probably be some inefficiencies involved but it should work nicely.

Flastro · 01-12-2005, 02:18 AM

By the way, I did not mean to high jack the thread, with all due respect to everyone, I became very interested in the subject the Floridanomads started and have once again learned a lot from this forum. Hopefully I asked some questions that were helpful to others also.
Thank You again.

Theadamsfamily · 01-15-2005, 03:04 AM

I have read through all the posts and went to my trusty Northern tool catalog that I received last week. I noticed that Honda also has an EU 3000 ($1,800). Does anyone have any experience with this model? Northern also offers a North Star brand (5500 watt) equipped with a Honda engine and muffler for $1,100. The price difference is substantial though I do not have a real feel for the difference in noise generated by the units. I would like to have something for home in emergency situations as well as to use while camping when necessary. Any advice??

HamRad · 01-15-2005, 03:38 AM

The Honda EU 3000 series is a VERY quiet machine. It may even be a bit quieter than the 2000!

The problem with the 3000 is that it weighs a little more... Too much for one person to easily horse around. When shopping it was one we considered but went with the smaller and lighter 2000.

At the MOC Rally this past year our neighbor, Random Line, had a 3000. He had also made an alteration to his rig to carry it. Really a neat improvement. He cut the lip off of the front compartment and then re-installed it with a "piano" hinge. This allows him to put a ramp up to the compartment to get the 3000 in and out much more easily.

If you plan to EVER use the generator in a CG setting then PLEASE get a quiet one. Both you and ALL your neighbors will really appreciate the quieter running machines.

HamRad

Montana_2785 · 01-15-2005, 05:10 AM

I park my camper at a place that doesn't have electricity. I finally
got an EU3000 last year primarily to do maintenance. Since it is in a residential area, I wanted a quiet genny. I went with the EU3000 because I needed to run as large an air compressor as I could manage (Still pretty small...)

Since I alreay have it, I'll carry it at times when we camp.

Anyway, I ran across this fellow who has devised an interesting way to carry his EU3000. I need to evaluate my rig to see if it is doable..

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/...03&uid=2140267

The advantage of his solution is that it looks like it wouldn't be difficult for a single person to load and unload by himself.

The disadvantage is that I don't think the generator is protected from the elements well enough. I want to see if I can devise some kind of cover that will allow it to be run and still be protected.

Eric

Theadamsfamily · 01-22-2005, 02:38 PM

Does anyone have experience or knowledge of a Sinemaster generator. From what I have read, they are comparable to Hondas and Yamahas but much lower in price.

315RLS · 01-23-2005, 01:32 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Theadamsfamily

Does anyone have experience or knowledge of a Sinemaster generator. From what I have read, they are comparable to Hondas and Yamahas but much lower in price.

I found this on another forum when looking at these the other day. -

"The Sinemaster is almost unknown in North America, there are only two dealers. It is built by Philips AG (of Europe). In Europe it is reported to outsell everything, except the Honda.

The trip is... there is no 30amp outlet. There are two 20/15 amp (NOT 15 amp)."

I'd be concerned of not being able to get this serviced or its warranty backed with such a small marketshare. I expect we'll see
a flood of these on eBay then all the backlash of service issues.

You may also like: