After many months of reading everything here about generators and reading everything posted in the Yahoo group for eu2000i's I finally made a selection. I'm not saying that it's the best for anyone else, but I'd like to share my reasoning for my selection.
I love to boondock. But I live in Louisiana and Texas, and travel in the summer in the southwest in Arizona and other western states so I have! to have AC to stay in the AS in the hot summer with humidity in the high ninties. I recently upgraded my AC to a 15000 high capacity and so I needed enough power to run the AC for long periods of time in the summer. However, in the winter I don't need that much capacity.
I almost bought the new, quiet and pricey Honda eu6500is. It's very quiet and will support TWO ac's if necessary. It would be all the power I would ever need. It has the advantage of electric start and for a price one can get a remote start/stop that can be operated from inside the AS. Then I took a closer look. Gasoline consumption, as best anyone can figure, under a full AC load would be about the same as with the dual 2000's, but in the times and places where AC is not needed it is WAY overkill. Also, there is the matter of weight. Not only is the 6500 hard on the old man, it's a lot of weight on the TV.
The 3000 will not quite produce enough juice for the AC to start nor handle the other current needs so that was out.
One 2000 would adequately handle everything except AC and microwave, and the parallel system will handle it all. So I opted to buy the the two 2000's with the parallel kit. In the AC season I will use them both, and in the rest of the year I will use only one, at a considerable savings of fuel. With the small tanks the 2000's will not run the AC all night w/o refill so there is an optional auxilliary tank that can be used with both generators (summer) or one single (rest of the time). There are people who have made their own, but I decided to buy the one that was made for it. I also bought the optional
12 volt cables, and covers for them. Covers come in a light weight vinyl (useless in my opinion) and a blue or camo Sunbrella fabric. The generator that has the parallel kit attached is too large for the 2000 cover to fit, but the 3000 cover fits perfectly. I would have preferred blue, but that size is only available in camo, so that is what I got.
I looked and looked on the internet to find the best prices and narrowed it down to Hayes Equipment in Oklahoma or Wise Equipment in Illinois. Prices were very close. Wise had a better price for the "package" which included the two generators and the parallel kit (be SURE to ask for the RV parallel so you will get the RV plug and not the "home" kit that has the round twist type 30 amp plug), but Hayes had the better prices for the extras that I wanted. On price therefore, six of one and half a dozen of the other. However, Wise patiently answered all of my questions and was very! nice to me. It is a family owned business and it was a pleasure to deal with them. Hayes was not friendly. I do like to spend my money where people are nice to me, don't you?
MAKE NO MISTAKE: you can buy cheaper generators. You can buy cheaper Honda generators. But these are ideal for RVing. Very much quieter than the traditional generators (don't YOU hate to park near a loud generator?) When I boondock, I want my AS luxuries, but I don't want to ruin the peace where I am, nor make enemies of my neighbors.
Prices at Wise in case you're interested: (delivered via FedEx)
TWO generators w/ parallel kit: 1939.99
Dual feed gas can and connectors 129.99
Two covers Sunbrella 55.00
(two sizes)
DC cables 16.00
One of the considerations was that it had to be bought out of state to save the 8% sales tax, and Wise pays the shipping except for an optional $10 shipping insurance.
BTW, spec for the new Carrier 15000 high capacity:
3500 watts to start (2-5 seconds)
1632 watts to run on high
Well, undoubtedly if you are interested in a generator system you may have appreciated this, and if you not I lost you Long! ago. grin. The Honda engines have a really good reputation. I hope they deserve it!
Waynon