Picking the perfect generator?

[HoLeChit]

So, I have the need for a generator, for two reasons:

1: these last few winters, losing power and just with the general idea of being prepared for everything. I would like to be able to power a few lights, maybe the blower motor for the heater and intermittently run the fridge enough to keep things from going bad.

2: soon I’m building a small teardrop trailer. Going to be primarily boondocking. Would like to have a generator to be completely off grid indefinitely if I chose to go on an extended trip. Would be running an ac unit occasionally, run my cpap if I can ever get the back to send me through a sleep study, charge some electronics occasionally, who knows what else. The majority of things would be run off 12v.

taking those things into consideration, I’m gonna need a quiet generator, I don’t want to listen to it run all night or disturb others in the great outdoors. I would also like something portable/reasonably compact.

How important is it that I match fuel sources? For example, I want to get a diesel truck next. Is it going to be a perk to keep the fuels the same between the tow vehicle and the generator? Will I be seeing benefits from having a diesel generator over gas in terms of reliability, fuel economy, and maintenance?

How should I go about picking the output for the generator? Should I pick a really nice one that will work for the lesser, but more frequent use on the trailer, while leaving myself underpowered when needing to power the house? Or buy the higher output generator for the “maybe” use of powering the house, and have way more generator than I need on the trailer?
suggestions on brands? What would you guys do/go with? Am I missing anything?

 

[swampratt]

I have not heard any quiet generators yet .. Not any that will run a capacitor start appliance.

But I do have an inverter that carries on when I need electricity.
My son ran his house for 2 weeks in Moore after the last tornado and all he did was use 1 battery of mine that the inverter was hooked to and
run jumper cables to a Ford Festiva.
When the thing kicked off from low battery he would go start the car and it idled and charged it all back up.

It is 2000 watt continuous and 4000 peak.. he only ran 1 leg and it ran the fridge and fish tank and his gas furnace blower
and ran the TV and his video gaming system and living room and kitchen lights.

I had a friend that was cutting 2x4 boards with a 1000 watt honda generator and a circular saw.
That saw started out well and 1/4 way into the 2x4 it bogged down and the Honda revved up but it was still bogged down barely cutting.

I had that inverter in the back of my van hooked up.
I ran over 150 feet of extension cord to his saw and said plug this into the saw.
He did and it cut like it was plugged into a house.

Him and all his friends stopped and looked at me and followed that cord to the van and said it's not running!!!
Nope it is battery powered.

He went out and got one of those as did a couple of his buddies.
was $189 at harbor freight .

I have had mine since 2000 and it still works just fine.
I ran a window unit with it in my van and I have ran a 1/2" drill with a 3 foot drill bit drilling through rail road ties at
the same time using a chop saw to cut bundles of rebar.

2 high load tools going at the same time and not even a whimper from it.

Now i have thought I need to convert one of my push mower engines over to charge duty by attaching a pulley where the blade goes
and run it to power a GM alternator that will charge a battery.

I seen a guy at lock 16 near Gore running a setup like that and powered his halogen lights and other stuff.

He fished there often and always had that setup going.

You can put a really big muffler on a push mower and make it pretty quiet.

 

[BillPenn]

The Predator 3500 watt from Harbor Freight has some really good reviews. Supposedly quieter than the Honda. Just big enough to run an RV A/C unit.

 

[turkeyrun]

I have not heard any quiet generators yet .. Not any that will run a capacitor start appliance.

But I do have an inverter that carries on when I need electricity.
My son ran his house for 2 weeks in Moore after the last tornado and all he did was use 1 battery of mine that the inverter was hooked to and
run jumper cables to a Ford Festiva.
When the thing kicked off from low battery he would go start the car and it idled and charged it all back up.

It is 2000 watt continuous and 4000 peak.. he only ran 1 leg and it ran the fridge and fish tank and his gas furnace blower
and ran the TV and his video gaming system and living room and kitchen lights.

I had a friend that was cutting 2x4 boards with a 1000 watt honda generator and a circular saw.
That saw started out well and 1/4 way into the 2x4 it bogged down and the Honda revved up but it was still bogged down barely cutting.

I had that inverter in the back of my van hooked up.
I ran over 150 feet of extension cord to his saw and said plug this into the saw.
He did and it cut like it was plugged into a house.

Him and all his friends stopped and looked at me and followed that cord to the van and said it's not running!!!
Nope it is battery powered.

He went out and got one of those as did a couple of his buddies.
was $189 at harbor freight .

I have had mine since 2000 and it still works just fine.
I ran a window unit with it in my van and I have ran a 1/2" drill with a 3 foot drill bit drilling through rail road ties at
the same time using a chop saw to cut bundles of rebar.

2 high load tools going at the same time and not even a whimper from it.

Now i have thought I need to convert one of my push mower engines over to charge duty by attaching a pulley where the blade goes
and run it to power a GM alternator that will charge a battery.

I seen a guy at lock 16 near Gore running a setup like that and powered his halogen lights and other stuff.

He fished there often and always had that setup going.

You can put a really big muffler on a push mower and make it pretty quiet.

When I fished the beach, in took a lawn edger and mounted and alternator in place of the blade. Charged battery to run a pair of headlights.


The HF generators work good. Best deal is to get the extended warranty. No questions asked, free replacement.

I had a 4000W, during a hurricane had freezer, refrigerator, TV, lights and a window unit. Power to spare.
Son has the 8000W. I will move up to the 8000, when I need a replacement. Can run the whole house on it.

 

[golddigger14s]

I have a 6500 watt gen that runs on gas or propane. Propane is not as efficient, but you don't have to worry about the fuel going bad. (DO NOT USE STABIL type products) I also have one of these that are awesome from Goal Zero plus a solar panel.
https://www.goalzero.com/shop/portable-power/goal-zero-yeti-500x-portable-power-station/
https://www.goalzero.com/shop/kits/goal-zero-yeti-500x-portable-power-station-boulder-50-solar-kit/

 

[joegrizzy]

I've got a china brand from sam's, small inverter generator for when i need something on the go.

i've got a champion 4500 inverter that has a 240v out, seems really rare to find a 240v inverter style generator. so far it works really well, and you can the champion brand at lots of places now.

 

[jrusling]

I have a Yamaha 4000 watt continuous inverter style generator that for its size is very quiet. It is in a small building and you can still talk when it is running. I also have a 650 watt sine wave inverter in my shop that will run a 5000 BTU window air conditioner. It does have a scroll compressor which requires a lot less startup watts than the cheaper ones. This last winter I was running 3 freezers, fridge, gas furnace, a couple of TV's, satellite receiver, a few lights, computer, 2 routers, NAS unit, VHF/UHF radio. I also ran an extension cord to a neighbor so that they could run a freezer or gas furnace. I ran all of that for 100 hours straight except when it was turned off to refuel. I do use 100 % gas that is treated with PRI-G gas treatment. I have used gas that was over 2 years old without any problems, but I try to rotate it once a year.

 

[Hodrod]

So, I have the need for a generator, for two reasons:

1: these last few winters, losing power and just with the general idea of being prepared for everything. I would like to be able to power a few lights, maybe the blower motor for the heater and intermittently run the fridge enough to keep things from going bad.

2: soon I’m building a small teardrop trailer. Going to be primarily boondocking. Would like to have a generator to be completely off grid indefinitely if I chose to go on an extended trip. Would be running an ac unit occasionally, run my cpap if I can ever get the back to send me through a sleep study, charge some electronics occasionally, who knows what else. The majority of things would be run off 12v.

taking those things into consideration, I’m gonna need a quiet generator, I don’t want to listen to it run all night or disturb others in the great outdoors. I would also like something portable/reasonably compact.

How important is it that I match fuel sources? For example, I want to get a diesel truck next. Is it going to be a perk to keep the fuels the same between the tow vehicle and the generator? Will I be seeing benefits from having a diesel generator over gas in terms of reliability, fuel economy, and maintenance?

How should I go about picking the output for the generator? Should I pick a really nice one that will work for the lesser, but more frequent use on the trailer, while leaving myself underpowered when needing to power the house? Or buy the higher output generator for the “maybe” use of powering the house, and have way more generator than I need on the trailer?
suggestions on brands? What would you guys do/go with? Am I missing anything?

I have several power solutions at my home. The one I have that might work for your needs that is silent is an invertor with battery backup. You can run it off of the battery in your vehicle or setup a battery bank that will be large enough to use camping or for your home. I will post pictures of my invertor setup at my home that is larger than you need but can be purchased in a smaller size. I use an invertor that is 5000 running watts with a 10,000 watt surge that has 8-200 amp deep cell batteries. This will power my 2700 sq ft home for around 12 hours running tv's, lights, cooking and other small appliances as well as a refrigerator and a freezer. It has enough power with one battery to run a small a/c unit in a camping vehicle overnight. I also have a 8500 watt gas generator (which is loud) and a natural gas Generac 22Kw gen that runs off natural gas that will run the entire home with two central a/c units at the same time (this is my main backup). But as has been said two is one and one is none. I also have a 2500 watt solar system that I can deploy to charge the batteries when needed.....I like backups.....here are the pic's

 

[dennishoddy]

So, I have the need for a generator, for two reasons:

1: these last few winters, losing power and just with the general idea of being prepared for everything. I would like to be able to power a few lights, maybe the blower motor for the heater and intermittently run the fridge enough to keep things from going bad.

2: soon I’m building a small teardrop trailer. Going to be primarily boondocking. Would like to have a generator to be completely off grid indefinitely if I chose to go on an extended trip. Would be running an ac unit occasionally, run my cpap if I can ever get the back to send me through a sleep study, charge some electronics occasionally, who knows what else. The majority of things would be run off 12v.

taking those things into consideration, I’m gonna need a quiet generator, I don’t want to listen to it run all night or disturb others in the great outdoors. I would also like something portable/reasonably compact.

How important is it that I match fuel sources? For example, I want to get a diesel truck next. Is it going to be a perk to keep the fuels the same between the tow vehicle and the generator? Will I be seeing benefits from having a diesel generator over gas in terms of reliability, fuel economy, and maintenance?

How should I go about picking the output for the generator? Should I pick a really nice one that will work for the lesser, but more frequent use on the trailer, while leaving myself underpowered when needing to power the house? Or buy the higher output generator for the “maybe” use of powering the house, and have way more generator than I need on the trailer?
suggestions on brands? What would you guys do/go with? Am I missing anything?

Ok, lets drill down to the tear drop trailer you're going to be building. Primarily boondocking but the occasional RV park? If that is the case, you will need to be rv park compliant in your electrical needs. Most likely 110v or 230v with proper connectors.
Loads like refrigerators and AC that have a high input start load unless equipped with a soft start will stall and stop a smaller generator. In a tear drop rv, you will likely be equipped with an apartment sized fridge that has a very low startup load so you don't need a mega generator.
We have two of the 2300 watt peak, 1800 watt rated Powerhorse generators in our RV. They have an adaptor that allows them to parallel for a higher rating with an RV acceptable receptacle. We ran lights, and the fridge during the big freeze in Tx this last January with a single unit in our big RV. Your teardrop would have zero issues running this unit and it's quiet.
We bought two because in parallel, we can start and run the AC if we get a power outage in a hot zone.

Quiet 52dB noise level
Less than 1.5% total harmonic distortion safely runs sensitive electronics with no interruptions or disturbances
80cc OHV engine
100% copper-wound heads allow operation at full load continuously for weeks without overheating
Variable engine speed and Engine Smart Control system help reduce fuel consumption and noise by using only required engine power

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200788692_200788692

 

[HoLeChit]

Ok, lets drill down to the tear drop trailer you're going to be building. Primarily boondocking but the occasional RV park? If that is the case, you will need to be rv park compliant in your electrical needs. Most likely 110v or 230v with proper connectors.
Loads like refrigerators and AC that have a high input start load unless equipped with a soft start will stall and stop a smaller generator. In a tear drop rv, you will likely be equipped with an apartment sized fridge that has a very low startup load so you don't need a mega generator.
We have two of the 2300 watt peak, 1800 watt rated Powerhorse generators in our RV. They have an adaptor that allows them to parallel for a higher rating with an RV acceptable receptacle. We ran lights, and the fridge during the big freeze in Tx this last January with a single unit in our big RV. Your teardrop would have zero issues running this unit and it's quiet.
We bought two because in parallel, we can start and run the AC if we get a power outage in a hot zone.

Quiet 52dB noise level
Less than 1.5% total harmonic distortion safely runs sensitive electronics with no interruptions or disturbances
80cc OHV engine
100% copper-wound heads allow operation at full load continuously for weeks without overheating
Variable engine speed and Engine Smart Control system help reduce fuel consumption and noise by using only required engine power

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200788692_200788692

I intend on building a 5x10 teardrop. I dont intend on having a fridge, my cooler plus dry ice is a more cost effective and works just as well, if not better. I do want to have an AC unit, capability to charge the random electronics, ability to run the likely future Cpap, maybe an RV water heater? All lights and other general 12v stuff will be run off 12v batteries. I imagine that I’ll be able to boondock on 12v power 95% of the time, with hot summer nights spent running the generator and AC. I’m considering a cheap 5k btu window unit, but if I can swing the cost I wouldn’t mind an RV ceiling unit.

I figure I would just run the generator power to the trailer via the typical shore power plug ins you find at an RV park.

what do you think of these? I figured it would be a bit overkill for the trailer, but would be great for the house. Or, maybe I should buy a cheaper little 2kw unit dedicated to the trailer, and a cheaper 5-8k generator dedicated to the house?

WEN 56380i Super Quiet 3800-Watt Portable Inverter Generator with Fuel Shut-Off and Electric Start Amazon.com