Hi PeterInSa, we have been on the road now for three years and while we are fully set up with sola, etc there are times when no matter how well you are set up to keep the electrical system operational things will be against you like days and days of rain, clouds, etc then solar has a bit of a problem. A lot is going to depend upon where you are going to camp up, free camp as against caravan park. You seem to be fairly well set up for battery, etc but to fully prepared for those times a generator cannot be beaten. I know there will be people who will disagree but in our experiences so far we would not be without a generator, especially if you have things like microwave oven, etc on board. We run a Honda 2kva and copes well in the times we use it. there are others on the market but just watch some of the cheaper ones as they just don't make it.
Hope that helps in the process and be prepared to enjoy the journey
Brian and Cheryl
-- Edited by briche on Monday 29th of July 2013 10:12:55 PM
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Been reading the interesting comments on generators, we are having a 200watt solar panel fitted on the van (fixed) in a couple of weeks also an inverter and two 100amp batteries we intend to do some free camping on the way but do we really need a jenny if the suns not shining the car will charge the batteries as we travel so 2 or 3 days on the batteries should keep us going, my biggest gripe is the weight of the jenny as if i did buy one i would get a 2.5kva, and if i dont get a jenny maybe could convince her indoors i could chuck a car topper on the tug instead
Neil
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Re [as we travel so 2 or 3 days]
To me things/people change, and if they change you may wish to stay 3 or 4 days and if overcast and you use the TV, vast box, inverter/shaver, lights, water pump to me your sola/battery set up is border line.
We have a similar setup and bring the Honda 20i, if it gets hot when bush camping., the geni's there to run the ac, or, or...
and with 320 w/solar .. 2 x 100 a/h batts, I still only travel with my aged 1kva Honda gennie primarily for the purpose of recharging the system and running the basics, when necessary.
A while back I considered upgrading to a 2 kva Honda, but testing showed the 2kva was only just borderline when used to supply to the air-con and didn't enjoy using both the air-con and microwave together at all. (I'm now considering upgrading to 3+ kva to replace my well used 6 year old gennie).
The 1kva still enables me to use selected hand tools or my little twin-tub washer when water is freely available when free-camping ..
These conditions exist with my own setup .. so depending on your own installed power demands, your own setups can present quite differently
