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We have just bought our first Motorhome and would appreciate any advice experienced motorhomers can give. In particular, we would welcome advice/comments re the pros and cons of taking a portbale generator with us on our travels for "wild camping" purposes.
You need to think about your power consumption, do you actually need a gennie?? What 240volt appliances do you think you will be using?? Would a couple of decent leisure batteries and an inverter be more appropriate, will you be staying in one place? or moving around? If moving around then when your engine is running it will re-charge your leisure batteries etc etc.
Do a search on the subject, this question has been asked many times before on the forum !!
There is no definative answer t depends on SO many factors !!!
We had a caravan for 30 years and rarely used EHU, we then bought a MH in 2004 and have JUST bought a generator (Honda 1.0) for just such trips.
Our single leisure battery has sufficed up until now - we have a small briefcase type solar panel which works well but we are economical with electricity and do not use an inverter - if we have a 12v appliance, that's OK, if not we go without......
We have used our MH most days - that helps to keep the battery charged and we bought the gennie simply as an assurance that all would be OK if we did not move, we do not envisage using it a great deal.
It is very much a balancing act - how much you use the MH and how much electricity you need to use - that will depend on a variety of other factors such as weather and usage of such things as TV.
So I am afraid I think only you can really decide how important it would be to have the alternative power source,
I hope that does not cause too many conflicting thoughts
If you're using 12v only, and if you are concerned about ensuring that your battery(ies) are adequately charged, then a Sterling batery to battery charger may be an option.
You're likely to find that you're able to start and idle your engine most places where you can fire up a genny. And the B-to-B charger is quite efficient at getting your leisure battery charged up again.
Also, even if you have relatively short drives between camping spots, the charger should get your leisure batteries charged.
As mentioned it all depends on how much you use and how often you can charge and how big your battery is.
The best way to judge things is try and project how much energy you would use a day and how many days you want to be independent of charging/EHU. You should not discharge your battery below 50% if you want it to last.
If your use would be mainly in Summer, then solar panels are a nice (quiet) way to extend the number of days you can be away from EHU.
In the winter solar won't be much help, so it is either more batteries or more charging. Charging then can be EHU, but also driving (where the above mentioned B2B charger can improve the rate at which you charge) and the generator you considered.
As others have said it all depends on whether or not you really need a sustained source of 240volts or not. If it's just to keep the 12v battery topped up for lights, water pump and TV (not too much of that though) then using the motorhome day by day should be more than sufficient.
In our caravanning days we used our gennie a fair bit on non-EHU sites but we rarely bother to take it with us now we've changed to a motorhome. It's just one more thing to lug around, plus the need to carry petrol.
My suggestion is to try without for a few months, and see just how many times you really would need 240v.
By the way, many people get seriously wound up about noise from generators but the latest inverter types are fairly quiet and so long as they are used considerately and well away from other campers they are fine.
Agree with all the above and would add - look at the total electricity you are using and see where savings can be made. For example one way of saving masses of electric is to make sure all your lights are LED. Many new MH's fit LED's today but didn't have them 2 or 3 years ago.
1 Habitation bulb may well be 10W whereas the LED replacement will be less than a 10th of that - add that up over the whole MH and see what savings can be made
Okay, first the "telling off bit". This has been covered many, many, many, many times before. A quick search is likely to have sourced all the info you require
Now the (hopefully) useful bit. Do you really NEED a gennie? I am a big gennie fan and have a Kipor copy of a Honda which cost about £350 back in the day. I've used it for motorhoming 4 times.
The reason? We move regularly (stay 2 nights max) and then move elsewhere thus charging the batteries. The cheapest way of having more power is to fit an extra battery. If you have the payload for a gennie, so do you for an extra batt.
If you remain static for long periods when wilding, then a more permanent set up is required, either by gennie or solar. I would love to go solar but dont have the pennies at the mo. A decent solar set up fitted DIY will cost no more than £500.
However, power isn't available instantly and you cannot power large appliances for long if at all. Gennies can do this and mostly there are 3 types. Open frame (industrial), 2 stroke (very cheap) and suitcase (silent). Silent isn't silent Around 60dB is common. 2 strokes cost about £90 but are throwaways when they go wrong and are noisy/smelly. Open frames are very reliable and have long run times but are VERY noisy (90dB) is common.
You will see a huge divide on gennies for use on campsites. You've asked about wilding which is completely different as wilders have different views to gennie usage than your common garden MHer who doesn't like to stay anywhere other than a £25 a night campsite.
In short, the best and cheapest way for more power is by have two DEEP DISCHARGE batts, ideally coupled to a 4 (or more) way charger i.e. Sterling Power ones. If your power useage/demand is high, there is no other choice than gennie (I forgot to add that there are petrol, gas, diesel and methanol gennies) but if you have a medium demand, solar is best but expensive.
______________________________________________________________ Satisfied now I´ve gotten rid of my Marquis supplied Autocruise- both were rubbish!
Welcome to the forum MacScotty. I guess from your username you are from Scotland. Maybe you fancy getting away from it all into the wilds of Scotland to enjoy the peace and quiet of the beautiful countryside.
Solar power is free and totally silent and if all you are going to be doing is using the lights in the van, maybe a bit of TV and using the shower a couple of batteries and a 85 or 100 watt solar panel will for 90% of the time keep a couple of batteries charged up ready for use
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