I am planning to camp with my partner, I have camped many times before however she is new to it, we want electric however I am a race marshal and hook up isn't always possible so I am looking for a setup that would allow me to have a leisure battery during the day and use a generator in the afternoon to early evening to power tv etc and recharge the leisure battery can anyone recommend a setup
The only genny’s that seem worth buying are the Honda EU10i etc, as for leisure battery I would have a look at the Maxoak Bluetti EB150 or if the budget will stretch the Goal Zero Yeti 3000.
A decent suitcase type of solar panel is the way to go.
The generator users are the most hated people on any campsite.
Look around and see the faces of campers nearby when a generator starts up. 👎
I would go for the Honda ...enough to run a tv...but nit for hairdryers or heaters etc...Good for battery charging ...and they are relatively quiet.
Downside is they are quite expensive and there are a lot of fake Honda Gennys on Facebook marketplace and eBay so watch out ...
Great for Marshalling or in places where genny sare accepted
Not great for ''proper'' campsites as people get annoyed by the ''noise''
We had a guy on our site last year who insisted on using a genny rather than pay £2 extra per night for mains hook up....He would not turn it off so I parked my car up ...and left the engine running for half an hour early ( very early ) one morning...When he moaned I said I was charging my battery and wouldn't be long !!!! ( That was his response each evening ) and he left the next day :)
I believe Hyundai have a good reputation, nearing that of Honda, for reliability and quietness, but at a much cheaper price. A while since I looked, so perhaps check out current reviews.
Most of the generic (same unit appearing under multiple brands, both well know and obscure) are often annoyingly noisy despite very good dB sound level claims. I have a fairly old SIP950 2 stroke open frame genny which is considerably quieter than many more modern supposedly 'quiet' suitcase gennies! I also have a 4 stroke 1.2kw inverter open frame genny that I got from Lidl, that is also quieter than most suitcase gennies I've encountered.
You may not be too bothered about noise in your marshalling camp, but two stroke exhaust can be pretty annoying to your own camp and neighbours! Four stroke exhaust fumes are far less intrusive.
If you are connecting anything 'electronic', including leisure battery chargers, and probably even low energy mains light bulbs with their inbuilt electronic controllers, and your TV to a non-inverter type genny, both the voltage output, and the frequency can be way off normal mains supply, as well as fluctuate wildly, this can adversely affect the connected equipment! Inverter gennies are far better for stable more mains like quality output.
One thing people tend to overlook when buying a genny is fuel consumption! Fuel tank sizes vary, but 4-5 hours max run time is typical on small gennies. Then you have to have sufficient fuel with you, or the ability to go get more to refill. As a marshal you may find yourself isolated on your post for the duration of a race day and need to stock sufficient fuel for a tank and a refill per day.
As others have said, on a normal campsite you will not win many friends by running a genny even if you are allowed to by the site.
Gennies are a far higher fire risk than you may realise, the exhaust is often near the ground and can dry out leaf litter and grass to the point that it catches fire! We've learnt the hard way that you need to stand them on something fire resistant!
As a long time race marshal who camps, please do not bring a generator! They are awful, noisy, smelly and antisocial. At most race meetings you are only there for a couple of days and with modern solar panels you should be able to keep your leisure battery charged up just fine during the day while you're at the circuit. We managed a week at the BGP with solar panels.
There's nothing worse than kicking back after a long day to have to listen to one of those things clattering away and gassing the place out.
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Topic: Leisure batteries and generators
via mobile 02/2/2020 at 6:25pm
