Generator Power Feedback

If your only using once or twice a year try to hire one if not i saw in bunnings 4kva for $1400 or a 8kva for$2200 and they both had a robin engine. You wont kill those motors i use one on a machine at work it go,s all day in the heat great little engine Cheers Tony PS ..... i own a 2kva honda for the van its a great unit the the wife can even start it but there not cheap

I will be buying a 2kva Honda....from what I have seen it do, it will be quite ample. And fits in far more places than the 3kva model !!

Excellent guys thanks for the help, it's amazing what these people in the shops will try to sell you. I have seen a 3kva at Supercheap Auto for about $379 on special, a bloke at Bathurst had one and he said it did the trick so maybe I look at that as well. I will google the others.

Hi WA Camper,
Just had a thought FWIW.

Rather than having to buy a Genset for the Winnebago unit that you hire, can you hire a Winnebago that has a Genset included in the hire package. This would solve your problems.

Of course if you are using the Bathurst trip as an 'excuse/reason' to buy a Genset anyway, just ignore my comments and take note of the other posters here in regard to your best options.

Disco.

Hi there. As well as power rating, noise and price, the experts say you must consider the 'quality' of the power output: see the article flagged in this post, plus many of the threards on this site. A cheap gennie can have power fluctuating widely, and stuff up your equipment with the greatest of ease. That's why lots of people pay the huge extra cost of a Honda or Yamaha (I paid around $1200 for a Yamaha EF1000iS earlier this year) compared to a cheapie at around $100 for the same nominal rating. A standard electric jug is rated at 2200W - 2400W, so this alone suggests a 3kW gennie. Heating is the killer (overhead heater, toaster, kettle, hair dryer). That's why lots of modern motorhomes have diesel powered heaters built in. A kettle on the gas stove is often used for the same reason.
They seem to say you should not expect any gennie to run for long at 100% of its nominal rating - better at say 75% or less. Hope this helps.
Chris

Have you asked the Winnebago supplier for their recommendation ?

Why not hire the first one to make sure you get the correct capacity ??

Mainey . . .

Than for all the replys guys. Firstly we did try to hire a generator woth the motorhome but the bob we went through doesn't do that. Also we actually travel the coast for a week or so going to Bathurst and the parks there have mains power. We still have to pay for the generator for the whole time we are away instead of just the 4 days of Bathurst and for the cost we may as well but one.

I was looking at the Honda 30is and and suggested by one of you I may as well just buy one like that, hell if the power goes out here again which it does on occasions at least we can run the fridge and freezer.

BTW
I just watched a Winnebago advert on TV where they are giving away a Cummins generator with so many new Winnie purchases.
Cummins now have 1700I 3200iS and 4300iS Inverter generators and they are all rebadged Subaru and the add showed the 1700I Inverter generator.
Regards
Ian

I have one of those cheapo Bunnings GMC jobs. Had it for about 3/4 years now. Don't use it a lot but have never had a problem with it. I changed the spark plug for a decent one and took advice from guys on here not to leave fuel in it between trips and it has been great for our needs. Then again, we have over 220 watts of solar and some good batteries. If I was dependent on a gennie I'd go with the Honda 2.0 kv. One thing I would take issue with, is that the GMC is noisy. Having made a poiint of snooping around camps doing "gennie noise research" (yeah, I know ;-) I'm a saddo) it isn't any noisier than other gennies that I've been around.

Excellent guys, thanks again, Iwill go and have a look at the Bunnings ones and the Cummings.