Small Generator, will this charge my batteries?

[Tomgky]

We will be camping in Yellow Stone this summer for a week in a campground with no hook ups. I'm looking at a small Storm Cat generator at Harbor Freight that has a 800 watt out put. Can anyone tell me if this will charge my two size 24 batteries. I don't need it to do anything else. I like the size of it and the weight. Thanks in advance for any input you may have.

[kcmusa]

do you know the size of your converter/charger?
800 watts may be OK. My guess is it will take hours to charge your battery's from say 60% to 90%

[Tomgky]

I'm not sure of the converter, charger size. I was just going to plug the trailer into the generator. My trailer is a 2109S Rookwood

[TURBS]

That's only 6 amps
It would take forever to charge to group 24's if they were depleted.

A 55 amp converter will draw that with just lights on.

I 55 amp converter draws between 1-8 amp depending on load.

2008 2500hd Duramax
2015 Columbus 320RS
2016 nights camped "2"
2015 nights camped "34"

[ScottBrownstein]

Originally Posted by Tomgky

We will be camping in Yellow Stone this summer for a week in a campground with no hook ups. I'm looking at a small Storm Cat generator at Harbor Freight that has a 800 watt out put. Can anyone tell me if this will charge my two size 24 batteries. I don't need it to do anything else. I like the size of it and the weight. Thanks in advance for any input you may have.

It might, depending on your converter. If it is 45 amps or less, it will do the trick but remember it will take a few hours if your batteries aren't totally depleted. 800 watts is about 55 amps at 14.5 volts, which is the boost voltage of a converter. I suspect it will be close to adequate. Hopefully you have a 50 amp converter or less, since there is some loss when converting to 12 volts or so.

If you run it every day for a couple of hours are are careful with your batteries I think you might make it.

[Mountndream]

regardless of wattage, this generator is rated at 91 dbs. This will quickly get shut down by the Park Rangers if rest of the campground doesn't lynch and feed you to the bears first

[bitNine]

Depends on your draw, and the wattage at which your camper's converter can recharge the battery. I don't know enough about the converters to know how quickly they are capable of charging. Let's say your converter can charge the battery at 30 amps. 5A * 12V = 360W. This means that tiny guy will do just fine, for the most part.

But let's go beyond that. You have lights in your trailer, and heater. I know the heater in my trailer uses about 100W while running. Incandescent lights will use at least 10 times as much power as LED, so there's a lot to calculate here. The standard bulbs in my trailer used 25W before I swapped them to 1.5W LEDs. More than 16 times as much energy. I'll just go with the 25W value for simplicity.

-Assume you use 4 hours of heater @100W. That's 400Wh.
-Assume you'll use 4 lights for 3 hours. That's 100W * 3H = 300Wh.
===TOTAL: 700 Watt hours

If your converter charges at 360W (30A @ 12V), this means that you'll need 1.95 hour (2 hours) to charge the battery based on what you used (700 / 360=1.944). IMO, you'll be fine.

HOWEVER, when I was at Yellowstone, doing what you were doing, I wasn't at the campground during generator hours (8am-8pm) long enough to charge back what we used. 2 hours is a lot of time to sit there and wait for your battery to charge. This is why I went with a portable 100W solar panel, and swapped for LED lights. It would take 7 hours to recharge your battery with full output from a 100W solar panel. Grant Campground in Yellowstone was well-treed, so not sure how effective solar would be there.

And whatever you do, don't buy solar panels at HF. They are WAY overpriced. It's like $200 for a 45W panel, which is a massive ripoff. I bought my 100W panel for less than $200 on ebay. It is always enough to charge our battery throughout the day, as long as we have a good amount of sun. We also occasionally run the battery.

You might also be better off with a generator that has the ability to charge a battery, rather than running through your trailer's converter.

[Flybob]

As mentioned above, you will probably be asked to shut it off or leave due to the noise level.

[Mountndream]

Cabela's has the Champion 2000i for under 500 right now.

We will be using one of these ourselves while camped at Yellowstone this summer.

[Tomgky]

Thanks everyone for all the info. I never thought about the noise level. I may look into the Champion 2000i


Sent from my iPhone using Forest River Forums

[hondo]

When we were in Yellowstone I brought a 600 watt generator and a small Schumacher battery charger. I connected the charger to the battery and plugged the charger to the generator. Worked great.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Tomgky

Thanks everyone for all the info. I never thought about the noise level. I may look into the Champion 2000i


Sent from my iPhone using Forest River Forums

Yep at 91db, the Rangers will hear it in the next campground!
I've never heard of any small generator THAT loud.

[Butch Wilson]

Originally Posted by bikendan

Yep at 91db, the Rangers will hear it in the next campground!
I've never heard of any small generator THAT loud.

It is a 2 cycle generator, that could be why it is 91 db .

[TGR]

Recharging a battery takes time but frugal power usage and 2-3 hours of recharge time per day will keep things running. I wasn’t able to find any manufacturer’s data on charge times for the WFCO converters but Progressive Dynamics has a couple of FAQs on this issue. According to PD:

11. How long will it take to re-charge my RV battery?
Battery recharge time is controlled by many factors, such as battery size, converter output rating the number of 12-volt lights and appliances that are “ON” during the re-charge cycle and how far the battery has been discharged. In our testing a 125-AH (Amp Hour) battery was fully discharged to 10.5-volts and then connected to a PD9160 (60-Amp) Converter/Charger set to our standard output voltage of 13.6-volts. The battery reached full charge in 70-hours.

12. I dry camp most of the time and want to recharge my RV batteries using my generator the next day. Is there any way I can get a faster recharge rate?
Yes, all 9100 Series Converter/Chargers are equipped with our TCMS (Total Charge Management System) Connector to allow you to easily install our Charge Wizard. All 9200 Series Converter/Chargers are equipped with the TCMS / Charge Wizard built in. The Charge Wizard senses that your batteries are low and that you want to charge them fast therefore, it automatically increases the output voltage of the Converter/Charger to 14.4-volts and will return a 125-AH battery to 90% of full charge in 2-3 hours. Full charge is achieved in approximately 15 hours.

A small generator powering your converter will overload if the batteries are too depleted. You could pair a small generator with an external battery charger that had a limited charging capacity. However, that will greatly extend your required charge time.

[V-Lite Fun]

Northern Tool has a 2000W Powerhorse generator for under $600. It is quiet like a Honda and weighs just 45 pounds. I have one. To charge your battery with it use a battery charger plugged directly into the generator to the battery. It will charge much faster than going through the trailer.

[OldBob]

Originally Posted by Tomgky

We will be camping in Yellow Stone this summer for a week in a campground with no hook ups. I'm looking at a small Storm Cat generator at Harbor Freight that has a 800 watt out put. Can anyone tell me if this will charge my two size 24 batteries. I don't need it to do anything else. I like the size of it and the weight. Thanks in advance for any input you may have.

Yikes. We used to have one of those. They are very loud, very weak and no support is available. We gave ours away and bought a Yamaha 2000is.

[Jimsue]

" To charge your battery with it use a battery charger plugged directly into the generator to the battery. It will charge much faster than going through the trailer."

Why would that be the case? Just curious...


Sent from my iPhone using Forest River Forums

[Flybob]

The best method of charging the battery with a generator is to connect the TT to the generator and allow the converter to charge the battery.

[boondocking]

Originally Posted by Jim Coolyard

" To charge your battery with it use a battery charger plugged directly into the generator to the battery. It will charge much faster than going through the trailer."

Why would that be the case? Just curious...

Sent from my iPhone using Forest River Forums

That is not totally accurate.

If you have a 3 stage 55 amp converter and a 3 stage 55 amp charger then that statement would maybe be accurate (charger would be a bit faster). The reason being that the converter would have a small 1-2 amp extra draw (CO detector/propane detector etc) beside charging the battery.

If you have a 3 stage 55 amp converter and a 3 stage 15 amp charger then the converter will charge the battery much quicker.

[dcheatwood]

Plug a regular 12v battery charger into the gen and it'll charge it faster. A 15amp will work.