I've read some older posts (in Nomad Forums) regarding generators and the consensus seems to favour the Honda. I've always been a bit of an overkill kind of bloke and based on an old electrical usage formula of "three times the power rating of the item" I feel the 2.0kw unit that a lot of people recommend might not cut it. I've also discovered an issue with the Fuji Micro 3.4kva that is probably reflected in their buy price of around $400 on Ebay. A firm in WA - MickeyBLU, no longer sells them because of the failure rate of the "inverter plate". They are offering a 4.8kva unit, @ 28kgs, for $1499. It has a constant output of 4000kva @ 57dba, with 10 hours running an air-con and fridge all night, whilst charging batteries. It is has remote control start which I find a very convenient attraction. Of course it will cost me a few quid to get it freighted over here and then there's the service issues if something goes wrong. On on....
These are much the same but a lot cheaper than Honda etc, I have a 3.5 never had a problem in 3 years, mostly only use for Air-Con when free camping if it gets to hot during the day.
Be careful, the honda is 2KVA unit, in real terms this is about 1600W. Dont ask me to explain why it has everthing to do with AC and Trigonometry.
We try NOT to run too much AC gear at camp, all our lighting, TV, cooking etc are all 12VDC or gas. When we want to keep warm our electric blankets run on the inverter, when we want to charge the batteries we either use the solar or our Honda ui2 generator (rarely used). Sometimes we use the genny to run our washing machine when we run out of undies.
Take care
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P B Crockart EX RAAF Electrician,
Aircraft Avionics tech. Senior high school teacher.
Thanks mate. I thought the 2.0kva unit would be too small. I'm going to punt with the Tomahawk 5.0kva - currently highest bidder on EBay at $675. It's advertised weight is 28kgs - rated continuous out of 4000 Watts and is remote controlled.
Cheers - Keith
Retired ex RAAF Airframe Fitter - the ones that got their hand dirty!
Thanks Snow - I've bought a Tomahawk 5.0kva - continuous output rating 4000 watts and it's remote controlled. 59dba at full draw. Overkill maybe, but I'll not be found wanting I feel.
Cheers - Keith
-- Edited by PurgaEd on Tuesday 16th of September 2014 11:38:27 PM
The one we have is a 4.4 not 3.5, senior moment lol, they are a little heavier than a Honda, but are about the same running an Air-Con noise wise, remote comes in handy.
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Russue Roamin, see you around.
Your life doesnt get better by chance, It gets better by change.
We have a Honda EU20i rated at 1.6KVA and it's happily running the full size fridge, full size freezer and a 47" flat screen telly with digital recorder plus a couple fluros. Has been since last Tuesday (about 15 hours a day), when we lost power to the house in the big storms. I've got econo throttle selected and it runs fairly steadily until both the fridge and freezer kick in at the same time, then it gets a bit of grunt going. It still hasn't been unable to handle the load though. It'll need a good service by the time we get power back on I reckon.
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Yes I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
