a generator question

As a suggestion ..... based upon your budgetary constraints, why not get a cheap 'n nasty genset from Bunnings et al. Couple this with a budget 240V battery charger and you're in business. The charger should sort out the possibly dodgy AC supply from the genny. But I think you'd be stretching the friendship to expect a 6 hour charge time.

Yes you can do it but it’s not cheap – the battery is the secrete.
Get yourself a low resistance AGM such as a Lifeline or an Optima.
You can charge these from deadflat to about 95% in two hours.
For a 60 or 70 ah - buy a cheap 40 amp battery charger and a 1 kva genset and you are in business.

I have a 150 ah Lifeline that I charge to about 95% in two hours with 3 cheap 40 amp chargers connected in parallel run from a 2.4 kva genset.

I use our Honda eu10i (1000w max) geni to supply a 15A ctek charger and when using Eco mode the geni will run at the minimum rpm while supplying the ctek. (In other words the 15A charger is only using 200-300w iirc at 230v).

IMO the built in 12V charger is junk, to get the 7-8A out of it the geni needs to be run at full speed (noisy) and it is unregulated so you need to monitor the battery while charging it and have a good idea when it's had enough. So I certainly recommend using the geni to power a dedicated 12V smart charger.

Travis.

http://www.australiandirect.com.au/shop/caravan-camping/generators/1309

Had one of these for about 4 years and had no problems.

The best thing to do is buy a chri.ty generator puts out a full 55 amps from a bosch automotive alternator, run by a ho.da 4 stroke small engine.
The price between $800 _ $1000.
All it does is charge a 12 volt battery.

Col.