Yamaha or Honda gennie?

hi red back reading your post on genies.ive gone solar,could you give me an idea. what your set up is, and what youve in mind what it will run,and any future upgrades your thinking on can you repy on hotmail to me if pos regards mick

Red back
I'm against generators too. You go to secluded holiday spots to get AWAY from noise! That's why I've gone completely solar - but not without teething problems.
I'm curious also as to what panels you have, what type of battery you use and what you are running off the system, in short a decription of the whole system.
I've got 3 x 40 watt panels that put out 4.5 amps max on a cloudless sunny day. Any clouds about and they all but shut down.
Then I've got a 120amp Trojan deep cycle marine battery coupled to a Solarex 8 amp regulator. I run 2 x 2ft fluros, a water pump to the sink and an Engel Combi that _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx 4 amps/hour on a %50 duty cycle. Each day (even on totally sunny days) the system uses a little more than the panels put in, so after about 5 days the battery is flat.
Fortunately I can swap to the auxilliary battery in the Cruiser but I would prefer a more carefree set-up.
Do you have any troubles with your set up?
Derek

Go The honda, I have it and it works fantastic. I would like to see solar run what i have to run when we are in one spot for 3 - 4 weeks. As for the noise, I can quite easily sleep beside my Honda EU. Great for charging batteries and also running 240v. 4L of petrol will allow it to run for about 14 peaceful hours.

Not sure how well the solar runs when it rains for a week straight, might be a bit of trouble...

hahaha sorry baz.

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Heyyyy
Don't ya know. This is sunny Queensland! We don't get a week of straight rain. Well except when there's a cyclone, but they don't seem to happen any more.
:) Derek

Hey Derek

I am a qld'er too, come up to fraser each year still and have for the last 20 year, 2 years ago, it rain, i mean poured 8 days straight............ hahahaha

OK, i have a 75AH deepcycle battery in the camper with an Arrid smartcharger linked to the car via an Anderson plug and 6mm cable, and run when camped i run 3 12v Nelson lights $29 at Bunnings (only use 1AH each) and a Laptop through an inverter for videos, but only when alone, with company we watch bush TV with a beer and talk.

A shuflow pump for water for the kitchen, the 12v fridge is run off the dual batteries in the car.

Most of our stuff, cameras, Laptop, etc is charge while going for drives.

Have a 3 way in the camper, and for in the middle of the night walks we have 3 garden solar lights to find your way.

Not alot i know compared to some but does us, this is charged by 1, 10 watt panel, and to date have only had to charge the battery in the camper once while out camping, and all i did then was take it out of the camper and put it in the car and charge it by going for a drive.

Thats us you may laugh at our basic setup but we have been doing this for 18mths now and still on our original battery, and this weekend we are going away again for the 25th time this year and that incuded 3 weeks in July to Birdsville and across the Simpson.

So there ya go, the KISS system, works for us, 3 adults 2 dogs.

My apologies to those who were expecting something really flash.

Baz.

Your making me laugh baz. I have less than that and run it all off a 720cca 190amps hours battery and carry a big jump pack just incase, I have travelled across the deserts and many weekends with our set up. As there is only me and kir we have the waeco and a esky/bbq and run everything on 12v as well with a 1000w inverter just in case, but never used it. Wasn't giving you bleep about your set up, just the question was about genies hahahahaha

As i said, i only take the genie when we go to 1 spot for an extended time and take the fridge and freeze.

You having a good day mate...lol laughing with you mate

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No worries mate, i got one of them jump packs too, found it in the back of the Landy when we picked it up from the dealer, lol, think they were trying to tell me something, lol.

Used it once before i had the dual battery controller in to look after the batteries in the car, worth there weight in gold.

Baz.

R & M, have read the part where it's said you are only concidering your purchase between two different brands of generators...
Question; have you ever used a generator previously ???
Have you ever used a decent solar system previously ???

Are you aware you are restricted in where you can camp with a generator?

Admitadely I'm biased to Solar power...
BUT
I have previously used a generator

that's the reason I'm biased :-)

must have missed the bit where it says he wanted it for camping....

Crazie, that's ok, it could be easy to miss :-)
as this is the “4WDing” forum that Rus has instigated the thread on, I can only assume he would want the genny because as he has previously clearly posted he does go camping.

Rus did post; “I don't want to get a cheapo genny as I feel that buying cheap, pay twice motto needs to be considered when you're OUT A LONG WAY FROM a Bunning’s that may or may not have a replacement” and also, “I was camping for 5 days and both batteries were getting down, my mate used his charger and Honda to top both up in a couple of hours”

Crazie you posted; “I would like to see solar run what i have to run when we are in one spot for 3 - 4 weeks. As for the noise, I can quite easily sleep beside my Honda EU. Great for charging batteries and also running 240v. 4L of petrol will allow it to run for about 14 peaceful hours.” In one simple word I think that could be referred to as ‘camping’ and I believe you take your genny with you because as you say “you use it when you stay in the one spot for 3 – 4 weeks and you can sleep beside your EU Honda”
I think your reply to Russ is about you ‘camping’ with your genny, if the post is not about selecting a genny to use when camping, then I admit I really don’t know what it’s about ???

I can honestly say I actually do sleep under my solar panel and it dosn't smell, blow smoke, fumes or make any noise... and it cost far less than an EU Honda.

Mainey

hahaha yes i gave an example of when i have used a genie that he asked about.

The Kipors have come right down in price too. Seen a couple sell on ebay for around the $600 mark probably due to the competition that is starting to pop up.

The Kipors have identical specs to the Honda range including both being digital invertors.

I have a Honda that is a dream but would have bought the Kipor new if I wasn't offered the Honda secondhand as a swap for something.

Regards David

Just a word of warning on the kipor's,

Be careful who the importer is. There's several different importers into the country and they each carry differing warranty. One of these importers/sellers has just got a single shop and that is the only place you can get any warranty work done. If imported by Powerlite or Primus they have a full warranty with service agents all around australia and they are all tested before they leave the warehouse.

Each Gennie is serial numbered and they check these serial numbers to make sure it's one of their own before they do any work.

Cheers, ToNy!

Mate you would have been quite campared to the morons camped near us at Bungleboori on the weekend, LOL.

Russel & Mary,
Like you Christine & I looked at Honda & Yamaha, we purchased the Honda some two years ago Honda because we felt it to be the quieter of the two.

Our Honda is used reguarly and has been a fantastic backup on two occasions when we have experienced blackouts to the domestic home supply, has never missed a beat.

DON'T be put off by those that crap on about noisy generators, they may in the past have been disturbed by old style noisy machines, but have probably never heard a Honda/Yammie in use.

I know that in my years of travelling/camping I'm yet to be disturbed by a generator, drunken carousing, noisy singing & yelling yes. Excessivly loud country music, radio broadcast horse racing, rugby league yes. But todate never from a generator.Ian W

On re-reading my response, I realise that the solar-panel protagonists will counter my story about the leccy drill by stating (quite correctly of course) that you could use a inverter to run the drill and the solar panel/s to re-charge the battery that operates the inverter etc.

I know all that, but still maintain that a solar panel is (for my personal purposes and individual arrangements etc) more difficult to store away when travelling than a gennie. Latter fits neatly into one corner of the boot of the Ultimate and I can carry a steel 10 litre gerry can of petrol on the back step of said camper.

So,,,,,,no bulls hit from you lot, okay????? hehehehe

Now we'll have to add the Honda v Yamaha argument to the others;

Engel v Waeco;
Landcruiser v Patrol;
Petrol v Diesel;
Fitch v Hi-clone v using fosil fuels (cos fitch means you run your truck on thin air, of course);
Uniden v GME;
Coopers v BFG v MT/R;
Air Lockers v Lokka v Detroit;
OME suspension v Konis etc

Wow Roachie!

If you deleted all the posts on here relating to those **** v **** arguments then life would be pretty boring!

Cheers
Muddy

Hi Brett.
I've had a 2kw.Honda powered Genny for 14yrs. Mainly on yacht. and rest on caravan. Also have panels on both.
Reringed. and rebuilt carby. a coupla yrs ago.
Best idea is both. Covers both end of spectrum.and you never run out of power..
Sprayed complete genny with fish oil when new. and degrease/respray every year..Takes 1/2 an hr. Slill nice and shiny. no rust visible. Yet.
I've known a lot of solar only people come unstuck during certain parts of the year.. Greenies or not.. They're all grateful for an hr or two running of my genny...
When mine bleep s itself. I'll be getting a 3.5 kva. set. for my Aircon and Tig welder... And if the happy campers don't like it. If I'm there b4 them.
Try the other end of the paddock. it's a free world..(Providing it's not a genny free area, of course...
I've seen an awful lot of those cheap bunnings type genny's on the floor behind the counter though.... Repairs. Think I'll stick with the named brands.
Regards
MAcka...

thanx Geoff. I typed a search for "kipor" this morning and got a site in Qld that has a kipor 1kva for $875 inc gst but no freight, so that sounds pretty good. BUT, I live in S.A. and I want someone local to deal thru, as yet I haven't looked. We have a yamaha dealer in town, so that's enticing.
As for using your workshop charger, good idea. I was camping for 5 days and both batteries were getting down, my mate used his charger and honda to top both up in a couple of hours. Rus.

Rus,
No problems on the answer.
This is really the best part about these sort of forums, we all learn from each others experiences.

I entered www.kipor.com.au and come up with this site,
Kipor Gennies

Geoff.

Hiya,

We were on a trip at Christmas last year and used this idea. Ran one generator during the day for a few hours when the kids are all yelling and noise is not an issue. It was Roachies Blue Whisper Yammie 1Kva. We had 4 vehicles there and had leads running to each with the fridges running direct off genny and a battery charger each topping up the respective vehicle batteries. The genny was not even running flat out so was very quiet.

I just use my litle 6 amp 240v batt charger to top up my dual battery and it more than kept ahead of what my fridge and lights would use overnight.

When I finally get my CT I will invest in probably the Kipor 1kva genny for this sort of work when I am sitting in one spot for more than 2 days. Stick it in a corner of the CT and just pull it out as required and chain it to the drawbar.

Usually our group are camping at a place and doing reasonable day trips that keep batteries topped up but in the case of the Xmas trip we were pretty much parked up for the duration so it was easy to just hook up the genny and chargers to keep everyting stress free.

I can understand people getting the crappers about gennie noise when they are run in very quiet locations or for excessive amounts of time (ie Overnight) but the latest 1Kva silenced ones are soooo quiet you almost have to trip over them to hear them running, especially at lower loads. We had one running beside an Oztent and the person sleeping in the tent was unaware that it had been running. There was more noise from the wind and the river running past.

Anyway - just my experiences and opinions!

Cheers
Muddy