Solar and Generators

[w9det]

Honda 1000 is a bit underpowered when your batteries are low and expecially in cold weather.
The Honda when using the choke will work. If you take the choke off to fast the red warning light comes on. You have 4 seconds to put more choke or you loose power and have to restart the generator.
I start the Honda, waite 20 seconds. 2 minutes below freezing and plug the trailer into the Honda. The red light comes on, play with the choke to keep it going watching the red light. Untill it stabalizes. Usually in 30 seconds, sometimes 3-4 minutes. Running with the choke makes your oil dirty so I try to minimize it.
When the generator warm up it is fine.
I met a guy in Cottonwood Arizona with a 34 ft. Excella trailer who came running over when he seen me charging with the honda 1000. He explained how he bought one and his wife was complaining about the expense of his toys in that the thing did not work she was giving him a hard time. He ran back to his trailer, started it up, played with the choke and you should of seen him smile. I have an electrolux home vacum, prabably 12 amps. If I play with the choke while the wife vacums I can keep it vacuming and get the carpets clean.
But you can not beat the quiet of the 1000.

[Pick]

I got the Trojan 30XHS installed a couple of days ago fits like a glove. The 30XHS has a rating of 130 AH. I only have one battery compartment.

On a side note, I tried to run my refer, which is a small 120vac unit on my 400W/800W peak Vector invertor. It would not start it. The refer draws 1.9 amps running. My brother in law pointed out to me that the "LRA" rating on the compressor is 9 amps, or almost 1100 watts. "LRA" means Locked Rotor Amps, which is how much current the unit would draw if the rotor was stuck. This also equates to the starting current. So, I guess I need a bigger invertor if I want to do this, but with a 95 AH battery hooked to the invertor, I would only get a couple of hours at best out of it.

[Les Gilliam]

I also wanted more battery capacity and installed two 30XHS batteries in my 28 ft excella. My battery boxes were not quite long enough, so I had to mofify the battery cases by removing one of the rope handle supports, filing off a little of the rubber padding at the bottom of the apposite end, and taking a hack saw to the wing nut threads (my connection is with automotive posts). It fits like a surgical glove, but I am very pleased with the result.

I have also installed two solar panels with a total of 195 watts and the combination really works well; at least in the Arizona sun.

[Silvertwinkie]

Right now I have dual batteries and the tow vehicle has a 140amp alt. Puts out 60-70a at idle.

Still, I have been looking at the solar question for a few years due to my boat. See the problem as I see it is that in full direct sunlight, it does do a fair job charing batteries, however, more times than not, I'm not in a wide open space or the sunlight continues to move, etc making the panel(s) fair at best for my needs. Others needs will surely vary.

I have been reading about the Honda 1000 and I have to say, that looks like the right answer. No wiring, a bit of gas and a hell of a lot of bang for the buck IMHO. Now if I wanted to run my A/C, I'd need a 3000 or 2 2000 teamed up. But the A/C is the least of my worries.

Eric