Leaderboard

After many years of searching and much advice from various people, it appears that the Yamaha 2800i is the best generator for all round performance and reliability. In particular to run an Aircon up north. Many manufacturers claim their cheaper generators will do the job, but I am not convinced. Any other opinions or experiences out there??

We sold our generator last year for similar reasons as Pete has said. The extra room, weight, fuel that it took was not worth it. Even when it is hot we rarely use our air conditioner as it is far too noisy. Love our 12 volt fans. Over the years we have gone back to basic caravanning. Two solar panels, two batteries, 3 way fridge, no washing machine. We probably spend 20 weeks a year travelling, last year was 27weeks. Clive

Hi Ecoranger. Generators......a much discussed subject during Happy Hour. We carried a Honda 2 around for over 12 years or so, and rarely used it. We can't see any point in running a noisy generator at the free camp somewhere just to run the airconditioner. If it's that hot that we need to run the airconditioner, we go to a town and book a powered site in a caravan park and use their facilities, the pool, camp kitchen, endless power and water etc. As for charging our 360 amp Lithium battery pack, we have 1040 watts of solar, a 50 amp DC to DC charger, and a 60 amp AC charger. Our 1800 watt inverter easily runs our microwave. We usually travel in the cooler months and for 5 to 6 months a year in northern Australia and have not taken our generator with us for a few years now. We are even thinking of selling it. Cheers from Pete.

I have run a Honda 2.0i for 10 years, it has excellent voltage regulation and has never missed a beat. Over that period we have run the AC probably a dozen times and interestingly it will do so at sea level but will not hang onto the load at any altitude over 1,000 ft. One of the larger capacity Honda or Yamaha machines will hang onto an AC load somewhat better. On a recent caravanning trip with friends I saw a brand new Honda 2.0i fail to start after it had been servicing a light load for 2 or 3 days (that is all the work it had done). I did the usual things - changed fuel and checked the plug to no avail. The problem turned out to be a failed " ignition initiator", in other words an ignition coil timed by the flywheel. After this 10 year experience I have come to the conclusion that our main generator need is as backup for the batteries and I am now carrying a Yamaha 1.0i which easily runs my charger at 40A for 30 mins if it has to, but more importantly gives me a weight saving of 18kg. ATV2 towed by 200 Series Grahame

Also, is it even worth taking a generator on such a trip? I have 3 solar panels and 3 AGM Batteries with backup Redarc chargers in both van and vehicle?

** Be aware ** We ordered a Chinese takeaway from a local place (I won't name them) just been to pick it up and as I was driving home, I heard the bags rustling and moving!!WTF??!!! I thought what the hell is that. Has something got in the bag, I thought I could see a little pair of eyes peering out at me. I was driving so I leaned forward, picked up the bag, put it on the passenger seat and there it was again, more rustling and little eyes looking out behind the prawn crackers, I thought its got to be a rat or a mouse or something, so I carefully pulled the bag down ... And there it was ... ... A Peeking Duck!!!

THE OLDER I GET, THE MORE I HAVE IN COMMON WITH COMPUTERS. WE BOTH START WITH LOTS OF MEMORY AND DRIVE, THEN BECOME OUTDATED, UNEXPECTEDLY, AND EVENTUALLY HAVE TO HAVE OUR PARTS REPLACED!