Adding an onboard generator.

[Starmaster]

Hi Scott,

I thought I would mention a couple of things that comes to mind when considering an on board generator. The first thing is added pin weight. An on board gen will add about 300 lbs for the gen set itself. In addition to that, there is the added weight for the fuel. Total weight can reach 400 lbs or more depending on fuel type and amount. Depending on what your TV is and how heavy you load, this could be pushing its GVW over the top.

The other consideration that comes to mind is the amount of storage for other things you give up for the gen and fuel tank. Our Montana has a big basement and front storage area but I would hate to give up the area needed for the on-board system.

We decided to go with two Honda EU2000 portable units. These are small and light weight (about 50 lbs each with fuel) and easy for me to handle. I had also looked at a 3000 Honda or Yamaha but like you, the 175 lbs weight was more than I could wrestle.
Two of these tied together will run one air conditioner, or the microwave, or the hot water heater, or just about everything else together.

One advantage of a 5500 on-board system is that it will run almost (but not quit) everything at the same time and you don't have to add fuel nearly as often because you have a much larger fuel tank. The fueling issue with portable units can be addressed with an extended run fuel tank. My two Hondas with the extra tank can run my air conditioner for over 14 hrs.

A final consideration is price. A pair of Hondas is a little less than $2000 and there are other brands of inverter generators that are just over half that amount. An Onan 5500 system and fuel supply can run up to around $5000 for a turnkey installation. I'm sure there are other options that can reduce that price by maybe $1000.

While not as slick as an installed gen set, we felt the paralleled Hondas meet our needs. I'm not trying to discourage you from going the on-board route, but just wanted to mention a few things that you might not of considered yet.

There are several others on the forum that have on-board systems and I bet some of them have installed them post trailer purchase, I'm sure they'll provide some insight on those systems.

Good luck and let us know what your final decision is.

Dave