Generator for Casita trailer

[glamourpets]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

What size roof top a/c do you have in your Boler?

I dont have an a/c on my boler. My understanding is that the roof isn't strong enough to support one. I may put a window unit in somewhere. We will see.

As indicated in the previous post, the generator in question was used for "commercial purposes." The generator I spoke of was powering an A/C on the roof of mobile pet grooming studio. The air conditioner in question was puchased from a RV parts retailer, and is identical to the A/C unit found on many RVs and Trailers. I depend on generator power for my daily livelyhood.

Derek

[deryk]

Well Derek, what size roof unit and how many amps/watts. You might have been at the upper end of the 2400's capabilities and replaced it with 1 nearly twice as powerful.

deryk

[cpaharley2008]

Exactly,
These rooftop units come in 11,000 and 13,500 btu and 15,000 btu, some with soft starts, most without.

[deryk]

Yeah, your going to have a problem if the unit is underpowered for the load, at elevations, and long runs of high gauge extention cords.

Now, does running an inverter generator at a low load for hours on end do it harm?

deryk

[cpaharley2008]

According to my Yamaha manual, no harm. That is what they are made for. Just change oil regularly and the plug yearly. Plus 3 year warranty.

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

Exactly,
These rooftop units come in 11,000 and 13,500 btu and 15,000 btu, some with soft starts, most without.

The Coleman Polar Cub is 9200btu, plenty of cool for most of these trailers.

[cpaharley2008]

Yes, that is the topic I raised Donna, but others have complained about the a/c in their rv or vans or work trucks not working off generators. As Deryk pointed out, the sizes are from small to large, or 11-15,000 BTU so without specific information, an answer can not be given as to why a generator can not not operate a rooftop a/c. I have previously posted being able to operate my Polar Cub with my 2000 watt generator.

[dustchaser]

i have the yamaha 3000iseb. Its awesum, and powers everything at once . I have a Bigfoot 25 RQ.

[Thomas G.]

Why screw around? Just get a real manly generator.

[Daniel A.]

I'm going to go with the Honda 2000 for my Coleman Polar Cub 9200btu .

[DeadEyeDan]

Originally Posted by deryk

Jon is correct, altitude does lower hp of engines THE AFFECT of ALTITUDE on VEHICLE HORSEPOWER - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Dan, can I ask your ac unit, is it a window or rooftop style, how old is it, and the btu, amp and watt rateing if you know?

The idea of linking two 2000 watt units does have some appeal and I can easily carry a 45 lb unit in each arm lol

thanks

deryk

Our Casita has a 9000 BTU Roof Top A/C(pretty sure). It is a 2005. We just returned from the Quartszite Gathering and almost all the generators I saw there were 2000's.

[deryk]

Thanks Dan, Good to see!

deryk

[TomB44]

Originally Posted by deryk

Thanks Dan, Good to see!

deryk

Thanks guys for all the input. After reading all the pros and cons we decided on the Honda EU 2000i. Check out www.RVPartsCountry.com. They have some good prices on Honda generators. TomB

[David and Nancy]

My 2004 Casita had a Polar Cub air conditioner that worked perfectly with my Honda 2000. Polar Cubs have gone through several models with BTU ratings from 7700 up to 9200. Honda 2000 is fine for that BTU range. However I am not sure what Casita is now installing in their trailers. You should try to find out what model and BTU rating you have in order to properly match to the correct generator. My current Bigfoot has an AC rated at 1100 BTU and the Honda 2000 will not keep it going. It starts OK, but after the compressor cycles a few times, the generator will shut down. I had to decide between replacing the AC or upgrading to a larger generator. I finally decided to buy a Honda 2000 companion generator. It was the cheapest option at the time, and I don't have to lift a heavier unit into the back of my truck. But if I was starting from scratch I would have probably gone with a 2400 watt or higher generator to begin with for the Bigfoot. Hopefully your Casita has an AC that is compatible with one Honda 2000.

[Bob Miller]

As mentioned, a Honda 2000 will run most a/c up to 10,000 btu without problems. But the more common 13,500 BTU units will have a hard time "Restarting" with only 2000 watts. Look for something called "Locked Rotor Current" which is what is required to restart the compressor on a running a/c unit. If you do have a 13,500 BTU unit it MIGHT help if you get a low current restart or soft start modification kit to reduce this requirement.

[deryk]

Might need larger then 2400 watts, the Yamaha 2400i says it will start "most" 13500 ac's... I think when you start getting into larger air conditioners run 2=-2000 watt units or move up to a 3000 watt unit.


deryk

[David and Nancy]

I sold my Casita in 2008 and bought a Bigfoot 21 without AC. I started shopping for an AC unit that would work with the Honda 2000 I already had. Local RV techs were not much help so I called tech support at the company that makes Coleman RV air conditioners. They recommended the Coleman Power Saver rated at 1100 btu. (The Power Saver models come in several sizes.) That setup worked well until I sold that trailer a couple of years later. My current Bigfoot 25 has a factory installed Duotherm 1100 that will not operate with the Honda 2000. The Coleman Power Saver has the soft re-start technology and the Duotherm apparently does not. In my case I had a good outcome from talking to the manufacturer about AC/generator matchups. For some reason, the latest crop of AC air conditioners tend to be 13,500 btu or larger. Even with soft-start mods, this would probably put a real strain on a Honda 2000 if it worked at all.

[Thomas G.]

An interesting aside to the generator / air conditioner discussion is that some people are using a sophisticated inverter with the generator. The inverter is used to provide the surge load for start up, which is seconds, and the generator provides the power for running the AC (hours). This allows a much smaller generator to do the job, as you are not over sizing just for the surge load.

From discussions that I skimmed, it looks like the Prosine 2.0 has an internal transfer switch so that it switches totally to the inverter when the generator falters, then back to the generator a few seconds later.

Another more sophisticated and expensive inverter, the Magnum MSH2812M, augments the power similar to the way two Honda 2000 generators can be connected together to provide in-phase power.

All in all, a much smarter way of handing the surge problem IMHO.

[SilverGhost]

Funny you mention this Tom, I was already looking at units to replace my basic charger in the Egg. Just a matter of cost at this point. I already spent some decent coin on solar so it's going to be a while for that upgrade.

Jason

[Daniel A.]

My Polar Cub 9200 puts out far more than I need in my 17 foot sitting in direct sun at 100 degrees.

• Running Watts for Cooling - 1010 to 1260 Watts
• Approximate full load amps - cooling - 11.5 amps

The Coleman Power Saver rated at 1100 btu has good numbers as well.