Monday, Mar 16, 2009 at 18:37
Hi Dennis Liz
Depends where you go (remoteness) and what you use for power - do you have solar? Also how much time you spend camping away from a powered source, and what electrical appliances you need.
When we got a small caravan (before present one) we purchased an 80 w solar panel, battery and controller, and risked leaving the old Yamaha at
home. The system worked
well, but we had good weather.
The Honda 2 kva is about as light as they come at around 23 kg (OK 10 kva is even lighter). There is also the weight of the fuel and oil. Storage of fuel may be more of an issue for you than storage of the genny.
As we are set up with solar, we purchased ours to run the caravan air con when holidaying one hot January. We only used it a few times, but really welcomed it on those very hot afternoons as i cannot cope in the heat.
We have since carried it with the caravan and it gets used occasionally for emergency power tools (for others as often as ourselves). Once in Tasmania when the release pin on our fixed jack on the caravan broke (we have a fixed jack not a jockey wheel), we would have been stuck in the bush for a mighty long time if not for a few minutes with the genny and an angle grinder.
If we go camping without the caravan, we don't take the genny but rely on our trusty old solar panel which is now on the tow vehicle.
When in the
Kimberley last year, our solar system let us down (due to faulty panels - since replaced under warranty), we needed to run the genny for a while each evening to charge the batteries. This was entirely unexpected, and we would have been in strife without it.
Motherhen
AnswerID:
354369