Generator opinions

[unsui]

I plan to spend much of the winter traveling south in a Flying Cloud 30 with dual air conditioners and 50 amp service. I expect to spend a week at Burning Man. The question is do I buy a 6.5 KW Honda or Yamaha for Burning man with remote starting and a small one or two KW generator for general traveling or two 3KW units to operate in parallel, using just one for general travel. I want to run both ac's and an ice maker at Burning Man, don't expect to often need the ac the rest of the year and do not have a microwave oven. Towing with a Toyota Tundra.

Any opinions appreciated

Thanks

[Cstar]

While I can not really respond as to which generator to purchase I can lend some insight to generator use at the Burn. ( I didn't even know there was an option for two AC's!)

One AC running during the time we were recharging the batteries daily got us by comfortably. At night it is more likely you will be running the furnace than AC. The real question you might ponder, especially if you are running two AC's, is what type of external gas supply you will be running. I had two Honda 2K's and two six gallon external tanks which comfortably lasted the week running about four hours a day. YMMV

Corky

[87MH]

Originally Posted by unsui

I plan to spend much of the winter traveling south in a Flying Cloud 30 with dual air conditioners and 50 amp service. ...Towing with a Toyota Tundra....Any opinions appreciated

My question would be is how are you going to haul it?????

The maximum payload for a Toyota Tundra is 1555 lbs (as per Edmunds).

The tongue weight on the 30' Flying Cloud (with a decent hitch and 60 lbs of fuel) is probably approaching 1200 lbs - extrapolating from the 28' specs and not adding any additional variable weight.

That leaves 355 lbs in the Toyota for fuel, passengers, generators, or other gear.

Tow vehicle total loading does not appear to be within manufacturers specification envelope at all - a trip to the scales would be in order.

[unsui]

Here is the info from a prior trip to scales


The weights seem to be reasonable, truck with two people full fuel and shell over bed, 100# in the back

Front axle 2650
Rear axle 2250
Total 5050

Add trailer, empty water, full propane, equipped galley and household.

Front 2600
Rear 2900
Total truck 5950

Trailer 5500

Max weights truck

Front axle 4000
Rear axle 4150
GVWR 7200
Max Towing 10100
Max combined 16000

Max weight trailer

Max gross 8800
Max cargo 2048

I am pleased, tows well and comfortable space to be in. already starting to plan modifications.

[Jammer]

Do what works for you but if it were me I'd run two smaller inverter generators with the pairing cable and wire up a load management system so that only one A/C would run at a time.

I have the dual air on my traylah and while it's great for distributing the cold air to both ends it isn't necessary to run both units at once to get sufficient cooling unless I'm cooking inside on a hot day.

I haven't been to burning man but I understand the playa is dry so the a/c doesn't have to work all that hard.

[unsui]

I have been to the Burn but only in a tent and have not used the ac on the Airstream yet. I can run the ac units independently. After reading these replies I am thinking two smaller generators may be the way to go.

[Streamside]

I have a eu6500is that I use as a Home backup power supply and a "travel" generator. It is overkill for our camping purposes. We have it in our pickup bed under a cap and have it's exaust plumbed to the outside. We open a couple of windows open for cooling.

IMO running two ac's would notbe an issue as long as they are wired on separate legs of the 220. Very quiet and reliable..... But very heavy and kind of expensive. I needed 220 for backup and it was the smallest and quietest I could get at the time. Two eu3000's might be a better way to go. Easier to load but just don't have experience with parallel kits.