Hello all, We're considering getting away from the usual camp sites a few this year, and kitting ourselves out with an inverter and genny to do so.
Would apprediate any information on where to find lists of sites like farms and open fields off the beaten track in the Devon, Cornwall, Dorset areas, preferably close to the coast. Is there anything published on this.
Also any experiences with invertors and Genny's. I asked one of the staff at my local dealer today who advised that genny's can cause problems with a caravans electrics, so to research first. The only thing I think I will be running off it will be lights and the tv for short periods of time, how long does the battery normally last for?? Can you just purchase one off the shelf, and fit it onto a standard caravan battery? And is there much to gain in spending a little more money on a decent one?
If you use a pure sine wave Generator such as a
Honda Eu 1000 or 2000 watt model they are perfectly safe with caravan electrics because the voltage is always stable.
I have the Honda Eu 2000 watt model and use it with my laptop there not cheap at £1000 but there guaranteed not to damage sensitive electrical equipment .
Your local hire centre will have them but make sure it one of the EU range you hire and not the older EX range
we used a genny and the whole of our leccy blew (actually blew the fridge circuit board completely) beware that id anything goes wrong your dealer may well turn round and say you shouldnt have used a genny (as ours did) to which we pointed out that it says that you can in the manual
Personally if that is all you are running i would recomend a good solar panel
Quote: Originally posted by bobsbabes on 30/5/2011we used a genny and the whole of our leccy blew (actually blew the fridge circuit board completely) beware that id anything goes wrong your dealer may well turn round and say you shouldnt have used a genny (as ours did) to which we pointed out that it says that you can in the manual
Personally if that is all you are running i would recomend a good solar panel
As I remember you used a cheap clark generator which was probably why you had problems if you use a quality Honda EU generator pure sine wave the voltage is as stable as your house electrics .
I have used my Honda on my 2007 , 2009 Baileys and 2010 Lunar with no issues at all and perfectly stable voltage which the reason I bought it .
Honda are by far the best and are guaranteed not to damage sensitive electrical items .
These cheapo generators are useless and only good for running building site equipment where voltage fluctuation
does not matter
Quote: Originally posted by bobsbabes on 30/5/2011
Quote: Originally posted by neil and lena on 30/5/2011
Quote: Originally posted by bobsbabes on 30/5/2011we used a genny and the whole of our leccy blew (actually blew the fridge circuit board completely) beware that id anything goes wrong your dealer may well turn round and say you shouldnt have used a genny (as ours did) to which we pointed out that it says that you can in the manual Personally if that is all you are running i would recomend a good solar panel
As I remember you used a cheap clark generator which was probably why you had problems if you use a quality Honda EU generator pure sine wave the voltage is as stable as your house electrics .I have used my Honda on my 2007 , 2009 Baileys and 2010 Lunar with no issues at all and perfectly stable voltage which the reason I bought it .
Honda are by far the best and are guaranteed not to damage sensitive electrical items .
These cheapo generators are useless and only good for running building site equipment where voltage fluctuation
does not matter
to me a genny is a genny it was run for a few minutes before use on the caravan which is what it advises in the caravan manual it does not say what type of generator to use
also the dealer did not ask what make of genny i used before saying that a genny should not be used .
also who can say if it was the make of genny that caused the issue i am just passing on the knowledge that i have about what gennys can do esp esp as the dealer had already mentioned to research the use of gennys to op
Cheap generators are designed primarily for short term use with more forgiving appliances. For recharging a battery with a separate charger they are ok but if you put a voltmeter across the outlet you will see the problem. They can fluctuate between 180 and 300 volts
As has been mentioned, the Honda is the dogs doodas but the Kippor is identical.
Inverters are very inefficient. Better to get 12v appliances where possible. Replace halogen bulbs with LEDs and make sure to fully charge the battery before leaving. Personally I carry 2 batteries.
Thanks all, for comments. Not really done this before, so I wasn't looking so much to running the van from the Genny, as to re charging the battery. Might be worth just using the car for this given the cost of a decent Genny. I've been told that there are recharging services on some of the sites, and a second battery might well fit the bill.
We want the kids to learn there is more to caravaning than hard standings and swimming pools, but are newbee's in this area.
We've only ever used electric hook up pitches before, so are on a mission to find out as much as we can.
Any other info on likely sites would be appreciated.
Hartland Caravan & Camping Park. North Devon. They do have a few EHUs but you can also use field 3 which is just a field. They have all the luxuries you'll need - toilet, shower, washing-up area and little fishing pond. No shop. Yipee! It is all rough-and-ready but a great spot in the village of Hartland, close to the coast.
we only used the genny to charge the battery infact it blew everything in a couple of minutes
there were other people that managed to run there tv for 10 days just with the use of a good solar panel
Quote: Originally posted by LegsDownKettleOn on 31/5/2011
Try going on a rally with one of the clubs. There will be plenty of people to advise you and if you do run into problems lend a hand.
ha ha thats where we were (cc club rally) when we ended up with no power and borrowing a genny and the electrics went poof !!!!! (flaming worked fine on the owners van !!!!)
Thanks all, for comments. Not really done this before, so I wasn't looking so much to running the van from the Genny, as to re charging the battery. Might be worth just using the car for this given the cost of a decent Genny. I've been told that there are recharging services on some of the sites, and a second battery might well fit the bill.
We want the kids to learn there is more to caravaning than hard standings and swimming pools, but are newbee's in this area.
We've only ever used electric hook up pitches before, so are on a mission to find out as much as we can.
Any other info on likely sites would be appreciated.
Tony B
Why not try some CLs or CSs with hook-up and basic toilet first?
Try out using the 12v without hooking up, see how it goes. Plug in if you run out.
Often people who use sites without power do so to "get away from it all", so may not appreciate others running a genny.
We often use CLs without facilities, but always go for hook-up as our van is pretty power-hungry. We can manage on only 6 amps though and still run hot water and/or heating, and there is always gas to fall back on.
Hi, I bought a wee genny £70 from Aldi a number of years ago, not used it on van,have tried it to re charge a battery,seemed to be ok, though after reading this and other posts on genny's, i think i will ask brother to make me up a new circuit board with smoothing choke(if it can take one)and try out before use on van.
------------- If everything runs smoothly then I must have done something wrong
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thats where we were (cc club rally) when we ended up with no power and borrowing a genny and the electrics went poof !!!!! (flaming worked fine on the owners van !!!!)
