Generator for Chapparel 360ibl

[bilbong30]

Well I had a pretty exciting week! I am from California and just got back from Indiana picking up my new 5th wheel Coachmen Chapparel 360ibl. We love it! Great for our family and super excited to hit the road with it. My family and I are actually going to travel for a year around the country and be full timers.

What do you suggest for a good generator? I want something that will power the ac unit fine. It is 15k btu.

Any recommendations? Still learning all this stuff

Cheers,

Adam

[jeeplj8]

My first thought is on a new trailer, you should have gotten the generator prep kit and an installed genny. Most 5th Wheel trailers can accommodate an installed genny.

Is that what you want or are you looking for an external unit? In that case, you need to identify the places you will be camping and what rules they may have re: decibel level. Most external generators are quite loud and you cannot use them in some parks.

[wingedone]

This may not be best for you, but for us, we use a Yamaha EF3000ISEB. It runs our 15k plus several other things just fine.

We leave ours in our bed, next to the cab. Run it there with no issues. Strapped and cabled to the truck.

[boernegang]

I have a champion 3500/4000 generator. I have a 2013 coachman 345bhs. It's a 50 amp trailer. I have used this generator for 5 years with no trouble, it will pull your trailer fine, just have to monitor your usage, no microwave ac at same time type of thing. They are not terribly loud, there are others that are very quiet but quiet=$$$$$

[bikendan]

first, you have to decide whether you need a quiet one or not.
if you plan on camping in developed campgrounds, with neighbors, an quality inverter generator is needed.
but if you'll only be using it while boondocking or things like motor races and no one will be close, an open-framed contractor generator will be fine and much cheaper.

you'll need at least 3000w of power for your 15k a/c and maybe more.

or you can get something like an Onan that's designed to fit in the generator area on 5th wheels, if so equipped.

[Ford Idaho]

I have a Briggs & Stratton 5500 watt it fits just fine between the toolbox in the bed and the FW hitch.
AC and lights and TV are no problem, best part is if the power goes out here at the house I can fire it up and proceed as normal as possible.

[chuckw5kav]

Wellllllll

I depends on how much you want to spend, we have a Honda
6500 and it runs everything very well and you can hardly hear
it run. The DW said she didn't want to worry about the lights,
air and running the microwave so we went with the bigger
generator/inverter... Like one of the other people we also can
run the house if needed for power outages which we have
out here in the county every so often....

Even thought our Coachmen Chapparel 277DS is only has 30amp
service I'm sure it would run a 50amp service very well. The only
bad thing is it sticks up above the bed of the truck about a foot
but for us thats not a problem since it's located in the front
of the bed oh ya btw it is sort of heavey....