After many years of trying to live with my Kranky Kohler I've decided to switch over to solar in our Breakaway. I've installed 3-110w panels, a 40 watt controller, 6-6v golf cart batteries and wired everything with heavy gauge wiring and fusing. Now, where I need some help is with the inverter. Plan on going with a 3000w xantrex as my heaviest draw is micro/conv oven at 1410w. We have never used air conditioning on the genset in 7 years, only when plugged in. I'd like to install inverter in the left rear electrical cord storage bin. Its a short run to batteries from there and I can easily vent the compartment. For simplicity, I'm hoping to just plug coach electrical feed cord directly to inverter when not using campground 110v. My main question is about transfer switch. Should I just bypass it altogether with this set up? Kohler will be removed from MH as I want to lighten front axle weight as I plan on carrying a small dirt bike on a receiver hitch in front. In its place I'll carry something like a 1000w honda portable genset in case batteries need charging when boondocking on sunless days. Maybe I should keep transfer switch and then I can plug portable gen set into Kohler wiring when I use it? Lots of words for a simple question. Let me know your thoughts.

quote:

Originally posted by beeoh:
After many years of trying to live with my Kranky Kohler I've decided to switch over to solar in our Breakaway. I've installed 3-110w panels, a 40 watt controller, 6-6v golf cart batteries and wired everything with heavy gauge wiring and fusing. Now, where I need some help is with the inverter. Plan on going with a 3000w xantrex as my heaviest draw is micro/conv oven at 1410w. We have never used air conditioning on the genset in 7 years, only when plugged in. I'd like to install inverter in the left rear electrical cord storage bin. Its a short run to batteries from there and I can easily vent the compartment. For simplicity, I'm hoping to just plug coach electrical feed cord directly to inverter when not using campground 110v. My main question is about transfer switch. Should I just bypass it altogether with this set up? Kohler will be removed from MH as I want to lighten front axle weight as I plan on carrying a small dirt bike on a receiver hitch in front. In its place I'll carry something like a 1000w honda portable genset in case batteries need charging when boondocking on sunless days. Maybe I should keep transfer switch and then I can plug portable gen set into Kohler wiring when I use it? Lots of words for a simple question. Let me know your thoughts.

Buying a large inverter to run the microwave is good if you must have silent microwaving.

What else will you be running off the inverter?

Since you are also mentioning a Honda 1000, perhaps you could save some money on the inverter and spend just a little more on a Honda 1000? It will run a microwave or hair dryer, and will power a bigger charger for those six GC batts, which will result in a shorter charge time.

This will allow you to have a much smaller inverter. We just spent a month in the forest, which shaded the solar, and the Honda 2000 did a great job charging and microwaving and hair drying.

Are you set on Xantrex?

There are some really low cost chinese 2000/4000 watt pure sine wave inverters on ebay.

I am thinking about making some of the electrical run 100% on the inverter. Leaving the high draw items (water heater, refrig, AC, charger) on the outside power (genset or power pole).

Most of this idea is still be fromulated, so we will see what I end up with.

I went thru this last year, although I didn't remove the generator and will not (we spent a lot of time in the RV with outside temperatures of 100+, have to use the roof A/C when dry camping)I have a system that you might be interested in. I left the transfer relay in as it works well to switch from internal AC (generator) to shore power, from there the power goes to the Roof A/C and Xantrex 3000W inverter (RS3000). So everything in the coach is run thru the inverter and internally in the inverter is its own transfer switch so that if shore power (or in my case generator) power is available, the inverter will on standby and be in battery maintenance mode. If shore power is interrupted the inverter will immediately switch on and provide AC power, it is so fast that computers will not ecven re-boot! It works well both ways, if on inverter mode and shore power is plugged in, it immediately switches off line and the coach will be on shore power

The roof A/C units are on the AC power line before the inverter so there is no danger of the inverter trying to power the roof AC units.

I don't like the Xantrex unit!!

Customer service is non-existent!

The inverter can not be switched off or taken off line without complete loss of power to the coach, no way to bypass the inverter.

The unit is very noisy! I have it inside and even thou the fans are somewhat variable, once they go to high speed, they will not reduce speed when cooling needs are finished, they just keep running fast. Noise wouldn't be an issue if mounted outside in a storage bin BUT, I refuse to give up badly needed storage space.

The unit is very BIG and Heavy, it also draws way to much power even when there is no AC being used! It is the nature of their design.

The remote control and display is totally useless! I gives voltage and current reading for both AC and DC (to and from the battery) but is WAY out of calibration and I have not found a way to bring the unit into calibration! Customer service (did I mention the crappy customer service?) has been of no help with software issues! When nothing is on in the coach, the panel says I am using 4 amps of AC, this is over 400 watts, yet when I measure the battery power to the unit, it shows 4 amps of DC, (48+/- watts) nothing adds up!

Had I known about all these Xantrex issues I would have looked around for a much better unit, I am sure they are out there, but---mine is in and I am trying to live with it. It does work well but I have to pay attention and manage power more then I would like to. AND I would like to be able to take the unit off line and still have AC shore power running the coach!

End of rant!

If you would like, I could draw a rough schematic of my system if that would help!

I agree with Bill H, the Honda 1000 is WAY to small and would take forever to recharge 6 golf cart batteries, the Honda 2000 is a much better choice.

Great feedback on my question. Good idea about a 2000w versus 1000w portable genset which I will follow. I'm not set on a Xantrex (heard they were the best is all) and will look at other choices. I definitely would like it to have a remote shut off switch that works and noise and weight is always an issue inside or out. Mwrench, I would like a schematic of your system if you want to PM me thanks.

Another option would be 2x1000 Hondas with the Parallel adaptor. Run 1 unless more power is needed. Very, very quiet!

I have a Onan 4kw propane generator that i want to replace with 2 2000 Honda generators with the parallel kit. The Onan weighs 256 lbs and is bolted in next to the engine in my bus and blocks access to that side of it. With the Hondas i can use one or both and they only weigh 48 lbs each, so i can pull them out of the way in just a couple of minutes.

I've been giving some thought to 2 Hondas also. You can run one and save fuel in low demand situations and have redundancy as well. What are the odds of 2 generators going out?

I would like to replace my propane Onan also. If one were to go the Honda route, how would the installation work? Would you operate the unit outside the MV or could you permanently mount it in the vehicle?

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Originally posted by Reado:
If one were to go the Honda route, how would the installation work? Would you operate the unit outside the MV or could you permanently mount it in the vehicle?

I have always run a little Honda outside, just for charging. I have always thought that it would be slick to mount a couple of 2000s on slides in the genset compartment. One could be slid out and run for charging, microwave, toaster or hair dryer. The other could be slid out to run one Air conditioner.

I believe a 2000 could be mounted permanently inside a compartment as long as the exhaust end was aimed outward through the open door. Both cooling air and engine exhaust are expelled from the same end, so it should be OK, but I would most definitely watch my CO monitor. A small fan inside the compartment blowing outward would help a lot. An adverse wind could compromise this system a bit, allowing a little heated exhaust air to re-enter the compartment. This might compromise cooling, but Barth builds a pretty tight genset compartment, so gassing the occupants is less likely.

I have discussed this with Honda reps at shows, and they say no, nay, nyet. Of course, I did not inquire as to whether they were engineers or sales reps, and, of course, they will always lean toward the safe side in their public utterances.

Another consideration is how the vibration would affect the life of the slides.

Having the gen well-bolted to slides would make theft a little complicated, but putting it back inside a locked bin would be best.

Another way would be to securely mount it on a 2 inch square tubing and mount it in the trailer hitch receiver with a lock bolt. Properly done, this would require a powered cutting wheel to steal it.

quote:

Originally posted by Bones:
What are the odds of 2 generators going out?

Hondas are notoriously reliable. I bought a used EX650 15 or 20 years ago, and it has never missed a beat. My more recent used 2000 is still going well, so, who knows? The odds of two of them failing at the same time are very slim.

I will add here that our 2000 will run either of our Colman roof airs at sea level. It will start either of them on both Eco and non-eco. It labors mightily an an eco startup, so I don't do it. It does fine on non-eco, but we don't do it much.

Another tack could be to use one of those portable air conditioners that have an exhaust hose on them. We have one, and it works quite well on the Honda, using very little power. We set it on the doghouse cover and it cools the living room quite well, and stays out of the way.