Generators

Hi there George, was the one you got a 4 stroke or 2 stroke ??? Regards Steve

Hi Steve,
It was a 2 stroke, not as quiet as a 4 stroke but a lot cheaper.
A long lead, 50 metres, and down wind you cannot hear it
Cheers

Sorry George, but I beg to differ, you will find if you check the dba figures, unbelievably the 2 stroke is in fact quieter!

Hi there Brew 69(sa) excuse me for my ignorance on genertors but when you say inverter type is that like the gmc, etc ones or do I need to ask for the inverter type of another brand. Sorry but I know 3 parts of fu@@ all about generators Thanks Steve M Ps I worked out the rig pic shi@@y pic will need to get another one

Sorry Stephen i have re read your post and see u are after a cheap one too. The inverter 4 strokes are about $1400 lol. I have a GMC 2 stoke from bunnings which should do the job in my opinion.

Hi There brew 69, would I better to spend a few more $$$$ and get the 4 stroke dont want to be smeeling 2 stroke fumes and are the 4 strike any quiter??? Thankyou

Hi there Maurice, yes I will be intending to run an engel off it, are these things not regulated to run a permanent 240 volt, amps whatever, you will have to excuse me as I know stuff all about any of these generators, I know you get what you pay for but I cant see the point in spending $1000.00 plus on something that I wont use that much. My other half would kill me if I spend that sort of money on some thing that we will only use a handful of times, but yes I dont want to blow up a $1500.00 engel in the process. Confused which way to go.

When away, I leave my engle connected to the 2nd battery and use the cheepie generator to charge the battery via a battery charger which is plugged into the generator
Cheers

Hi there Shaker, are these the way to go ?, I presume that the (pure sine wave) genni is a special form of some sort or is it latest technology. Is this the type that will not be producing more watts/ volts etc so that it wont damage any electrical components EG engel fridge from blowing up. As I said before, you will have to excuse my ignorance on this subject as I know stuff all about them. But all help and comments appreciated. Thankyou. I still havn't chaged my work computer so this will come up as Vitara instead of Steve M. Take Care Steve m

Hi guys,

I too am going through the nightmare of power self sufficiency while camping. I bought a CTC45 Waeco fridge that came with a fridgepower deep cycle battery a cranker (500 watts) for 199$ from Waeco's seconds shop, the fridgeshop.

I was going to get a 4 wheel drive and just use that to recharge as I'd be using it daily but my plans have now changed, and I now realise why it was so cheap, this battery will only run it for about 6 hours as it the fridge is 48 watts and the battery is only 24 A/H (if I have understood my research correctly, a=w/v = 4 amps, so 6 hrs on a 24 a/h battery).

So I need a battery with a greater a/h capacity, I think the fullriver agm 220 a/h will be the go as it means I wont discharge more than 50 percent if I recharge every 24 hours, so this I believe will enhance the battery's life.

I have looked at solar but the cost bad weather factor, and security as I have a paramount camper trailer has ruled that out. So I need a genny, but only want to use it for about 2 hours per day, around dinner time, to heat water for a shower and recharge my battey.

I have had a good look and the 850 watt GMC gennys run at about 60 db so are quiet, have a DC socket that runs at 14 volts to recharge the fullriver battery (the fridgepower will be in car as a cranker/spare/fridge power while driving via lighter socket if I need it), but my problem is I don't know how long I will need to run the genny to fully charge the fullriver battery.

I can get the genny for about 200 bucks on ebay, the battery will be just over 50% depleated (4*24=96 220 less 96=124). I have done the calculation that 850 watts at 14 volts gives approx 60 amps, but does this mean that it will recharge at 60 A/hrs, ie to get 60 amps into the battery it needs to run one hour?

How can you work out how many hours it will take to top up the charge on a battery from a GMC 850 Watt generator I spose is the real question?

Lunar, I dunno where you are but the GMC 850 gennie costs $98.00 at Bunnings. If you don't live within coooweee of a Bunnings, maybe next time someone does go into town they could get one for you.

Also, I would recommend getting a battery charger to charge your AGM from the gennie. I know the gennie has a 12v charger, but as others on here have suggested (and rightly so) that it may not be regulated properly and may cook your battey.

Also, the only way to find out how long it will take for recharging is to do a test at home !! Run your waeco at home with beer or something in it, running off the AGM battery for a few days, and charge it once a day as you said. After a couple of days you will know how long you will need to run the gennie for, and your holiday will be stress free.

As Muzzgit says avoid the "Chargers" on the cheap generators - they're hazardous to batteries.

This 12 Amp Charger is the best value around and is very small and efficient being switchmode.
www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MB3612

Hi guys, have done a bit more research and learnt more about the "staging" for recharging so I think I understand that answer now. Fact is I'm not going to get my battery fully charged in 2 hours no matter what I do due to t staging 3 stage chargers shouldn't be used while drawing a load, the switchmode can.

I think the answer will be Solar + generator, I'll grab an 80 Watt Solar panel and reg, hook it up to the 120 AGM (soz that was a typo of 220) run the fridge off that, buy the genny and charger u guys have suggested and that will do the trick. Still run the genny for a coupla hours to initially get the power up and run from the solar panel to furthur top her up during the day.

It also means I can use the panels at home to keep the batteries charged (help maintain them?) and run some lights for the shed and some 12v water pumps for the garden.

Should cost just over a grand but it will mean full self sufficiency for prolonged periods, and I'm not just using them a few times a year.

So once again thanks alot for the advice, and o'course, if I'm doing something REALLY stupid, please YELL, I can handle being told I'm an idiot more than spending a grand on something useless. :)

cheers

hmm hate ya can't edit on this forum :)

that last sentence in the first paragraph should read,

Fact is I'm not going to get my battery fully charged in 2 hours no matter what I do due and the multi-stage chargers shouldn't be used while drawing a load, the switchmode can.