Generator Sizing for RVs with Josh the RV Nerd

hey guys Josh cr-v nerd here a linear view of Coldwater Michigan and a very common question and a very good question one that seems like you would have a very simple and obvious answer but can be a little complicated is what size generator do I need to run my camper here in the Midwest we park camp a lot like I took my family camping vacation and people saw how the campsites are all stacked up next to each other like what well that's how you can't peer in the Midwest we tend to you know campground park camp and the sites are small but I know that there's a lot of places especially out west maybe desert camp or whatever you tend to boondock quite a bit and you have to you know come up with your own power source so you can get really technical really specific with this and I know that there's those like engineer guys out there who you're gonna sit there with a spreadsheet and they're gonna calculate everything down and I'm gonna leave that to you that's that's gonna be a homework assignment for you but if you're gonna get technical what you have to do here is you need to kind of match the rated output of a generator with the expected power use and a lot of times people like to calculate in a figure worst case scenario meaning maximum possible like if I plugged in every darn thing and I used every darn thing in this camper at the same time what kind of generator do I need and for doing that you know a little bit of science content you're gonna get what is it amps times volts equals watts just basic sort of electrical engineering equation and now you can sit there and do all that or you can use a sort of like three-point general guideline here that I have for it that will work about 99% of the time for any sort of casual camp Muser this is going to work just fine so let's say now now here's here's another thing what I'm going to share really only matters if you're like trying to run the air conditioner in your camper without park power hookup because well a lot of people don't realize is like lights refrigerator furnace that stuff sips power and really does not need a lot of power it's at what those things can be 12-volt appliances assuming your the propane site on your fridge um so you know those things don't need a ton of power if you're not gonna run the air conditioner if you're not worried about constantly running a blow-dryer a curling iron a coffee pot is actually a pretty big thing well then you you might be able just to throw a little 2000 watt out there just for small appliance use you know small things you're not gonna need a big generator for small usage but the if there's things that need high power demand like an air conditioner let's start with let's say you have a 30 amp camper and a well really it's not even a amp of camper but a single 13,500 BTU air conditioner that's your target that's what you're going to use primarily and this assumes that most of the time you're not running a refrigerator on electric you're running anything you can on like propane boondock friendly mode the only thing you're trying to run is just really the air conditioner a 3,000 watt generator will run a 13,500 BTU air barely it kind of struggles with the startup there's kind of a way around it you can get what's called a hard start kit which without getting too technical and oversimplifying a way that isn't necessarily a hundred percent accurate but in a way that you can understand it it kind of has what you do is you're sort of charging a little Power Cell to sort of like help with the startup spike of the generator again it's not exactly how it works but it's it's something that people understand well enough once that air is up and running you're gonna be okay you're gonna want to be very selective on what you run you're gonna want to know what you're plugging in when you plug in maybe if you want to turn something on over here you want to wait until the air conditioner is done or showed it off for a little bit but ah you know as soon as we step up to like a 15,000 BT rear most 3000 watt generators really struggle and some will fail to even be able to supply the power you need here's the thing on a 30 year 3,000 watt generator it does not actually supply a full 30 amps to a campsite so you have to kind of keep that in mind now you're thinking in your head well there must be like a 3,500 or something like that well really most of the time a true generator those 35 hundreds those are mostly just a 3,000 with like a little boost kit it's not a true 3500 generator true generators typically go from 3000 watt to 4500 now 4500 generator it'll run any one air conditioner camper almost any appliance you want as long as you're not trying to run a blow dryer in a coffee pot in a microwave and an air conditioner simultaneously you'll be able to enjoy normal function of a camper with a 4500 Y generator sounds great of course it's significantly more expensive than a 3000 watt generator the other thing though is when you take it out of just theoretical application and into practical application a 4500 generator is a freakin Hoss it's a big old chunk of equipment and it can be hard to manage it can be hard to like lift it up and get it put in the bed of the truck or the back of the SUV or whatever you're gonna wherever you're gonna put it now if you got a toy hauler the ramp door it is a lot easier just kind of muscle it up that ramp it's probably on wheels most those 45 hundreds are but the easy workaround get a pair of two thousands and they make a little parallel kit where you can hook them together and it functions as a single 4,000 watt generator and that is something we recommend just we sell tons tons of those to thousands on those parallel kits because it gives people who have a single 15,000 BTU air conditioner too lightweight easy move generators where I don't need to be a muscle-bound lug to have to heave this thing up I can do it alone I don't need a friends help my wife could do it on her own um you know it's it's just nice things like they its ease of use ease of convenience sort of situations the other thing is again let's say it's spring in its fall and you want to go camping for the weekend and it's really not gonna be that screaming-hot you're actually gonna leave the windows open enjoy some fresh air most of the time well that's when the you can just grab one of those 2000 watt generators and you can run your lights your fans your your modest power use stuff and still have enough power like run a high voltage appliance now and then like a blow-dry a coffeepot etc you get the idea now let's say you want to start jumping up to these 50 amp - air conditioner units and bigger for something like that guys you better just have a built-in like 5500 Onan like you find on those 5th wheels here at Haley Darby because to get a portable you can get a 6500 watt portable but I don't think you want to physically move pole pickup manipulate like a 250 pound portable generator with frequency so just kind of recap this and boiled down very simply you can get technical and you can add up the lights of every single light bulb and stuff like that or you could just kind of say okay I'm only gonna run one air conditioner I'm gonna run out sometimes maybe I can get buying a 3000 or I want more full function to my RV I don't have the space for a single 4500 unit I better do a pair of 2000s or I think I can easily manage a single 4500 or I better have a 5500 enlarger built in so it's kind of you got like four choices there but at the end of the day the 3000 the dual twos and the 45 for any sort of portable generator application that's what that's what's going to satisfy 99% of anyone who wants to what size generator do I need to run my camper 99% of you will be satisfied with that answer right there now quick caveat here I am NOT a specific generator trained specialist I know just enough to get myself in trouble kind of like marriage to get myself in trouble anyway the point we're making here if I can keep off my tangents is we have guys who are actually generator trained like there's actual there's a thing Yamaha University we send our guys to be generator trained on this stuff so if you're interested in buying a camper from Hayward RV and you want to have a generator included along with that give our guys a call if our salesmen can't answer the basic things like I've done here we will get our generator specialist will contact him for you basically and say here's their scenario here's how they're going to camp what is the exact thing that we're going to need to make sure they're gonna be settled and again 9% of your gonna fall right back into the solutions that I've already presented so hopefully that helps give you an idea with that take care stay safe have fun and happy camping everyone you

Channel: Josh the RV Nerd at Bish's RV

Views: 130,696

Keywords: Michigan, RV Dealer, camper, wholesale, guaranty, bullyan

Id: fASNeLn-UP8

Length: 9min 0sec (540 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 30 2018