The answer depends on your portable charger and your trailer's converter. I will list some examples,, This all assumes you have an 100 amp hour battery, Scale the numbers I'll give up or down to match your batteries.
COnverter: Progressive Dynamics PD 9240 (Max out 40 amps, actually 30 is proper but they don't make a 9230) USE IT, don't even bother with other chargers
Xantrex XDAC set to 30 amp max (properly set to your battery) Likewise
Magnatek 10 amp.. How big is your portable.. and is the portable a "Smart Charger" or a basic.. If bigger and/or smarter use the portable
The 12 volt out on the honda.. Forget it. don't use it, it's a joke
Nothin adds excitment like something that is none of your business
Kenwood TS-2000 housed in a 2005 Damon Intruder 377
Go w/ your 3 stage converter charger. If you don't have at least a 40 amp charger, or conv/charger, get one. And if you have to get one, make it a 60 amp,....if you have 2 batteries.
* This post was
edited 07/07/08 07:30am by an administrator/moderator *
Rich
'98 Flair, 454, Onan Microlite 4k, Intel PD 9155 w/ wizard, Sta-power 1500 watt Inv, 2 6v batts, ammeters, KingDome/sat, Oly Catalytic Heat, hauling 2 Bent Bikes and sometimes towing a Tracker F&S boat.
To really get some power out of the generator you really need to have more than one battery. Without knowing the converter, the fastest way is to use all three together simultaneously.
2001 F150 SuperCrew 5.4 Lariat Offroad 4x4 Tow Package 4.10 Truetrac
2006 Keystone Springdale 249FWBHLS
12K SuperGlide, KGE3000Ti 2.3kw rated 2.6kw max
Frank's voltage booster, Prosine 1800 powered by 4 GC2 batteries
1 or 3...the DC from the Honda will not charge the battery efficiently.
Tim & Sue
Gerry (GSD) & Jammer (Sheltie)
2005 F150 4x4 Lariat 5.4L 3.73 Please buy a Hybrid...I need your gas for my 37 gallon tank!
2000 Nash 19B...comfortably pimped with a real Queen Size Bed Red Wine anyone?
I dry camp 2 months every winter. I bought a 3 state charger that goes to 20 amp (Black and Decker). Cost was about $45. Does not hurt the battery and runs great on the honda 2000. A cheaper solution than an expensive Progressive Dynamics unit in the coach. Your choice and money. Rudy
05 Dodge 2500 CTD 48RE 4x4 LWB, Air Lift, Level-Air, Rotochok, 09 Bristol Bay 3450TS, Dual Honda Eu2000i, 1 wife, 1 dog, 6-daughters (all moved out). Col USAF Ret.Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez!
The closest thing to it currently available from Black and Decker is a 25 A unit that sells for about $80.00. That narrows the difference in price to about a tank of fuel in the TV.
A 20 Amp charger takes more than twice as long to charge a pair of batteries as a PD9260. (and twice as much generator fuel) On top of that, the PD9260 does a much better job of maintaining batteries than that B&D.. Not to mention having to tote and fool around with another piece of equipment.
It is your choice and money..
* This post was
edited 07/07/08 07:34am by an administrator/moderator *
I wouldn't be impressed if I was running even a small Honda on a 20 amp charger,....that is probably charging about 12 amps most of the time. It would take all day to charge 2 batteries even 80%. That is ineffeciency at its finest
You can still buy a PD 9100...45-60 amp series converter, incl the charge wizard for little over $100, (ebay) and you will never be sorry !
Ivan Survivor wrote: I dry camp 2 months every winter. I bought a 3 state charger that goes to 20 amp (Black and Decker). Cost was about $45. Does not hurt the battery and runs great on the honda 2000. A cheaper solution than an expensive Progressive Dynamics unit in the coach. Your choice and money. Rudy
If you want fast and the most efficient recharging, then that takes PWM charge regulation, or what most of the folks here are recomending in one way or another.
A good plan A or B, would be a 64w PV with a PWM CC, about $350 delivered. No fuel, No noise! Just peace and quite with no fuel cost. If you can't curb your battery usage to a normal level, then you'll need a total 130w PV, about $744 delivered.
If your really power hungry, then keep adding 130w PV's and battery's until you can keep up with demand.
The math: assuming 365 day run time per year. No battery cost included
A genset running 2hrs per day= $160/mth for 24mths, or $38,400 for 20yrs if fuel doesn't increase more than $4gal(ya, right).
A 130w PV system= $31/mth for 24mths, or $744 for 20yrs
T_Bone
02 F350, 4x6, Crew, DRW, PSD, 6spd, 3:73, LWB
32ft RKSS Serria
Please do not trust everything you read on the internet. Use only valid engineering information from well established Companys.
Buy UNION Work UNION
It pays off in the long run
T_Bone wrote: If you want fast and the most efficient recharging, then that takes PWM charge regulation, or what most of the folks here are recomending in one way or another.
A good plan A or B, would be a 64w PV with a PWM CC, about $350 delivered. No fuel, No noise! Just peace and quite with no fuel cost. If you can't curb your battery usage to a normal level, then you'll need a total 130w PV, about $744 delivered.
If your really power hungry, then keep adding 130w PV's and battery's until you can keep up with demand.
The math: assuming 365 day run time per year. No battery cost included
A genset running 2hrs per day= $160/mth for 24mths, or $38,400 for 20yrs if fuel doesn't increase more than $4gal(ya, right).
A 130w PV system= $31/mth for 24mths, or $744 for 20yrs
Not sure what PWM and PV means, but I think it must be solar. Correct? For long term drycamping I agree Solar is the key.
However your fuel nembers look like they are for a Champion and not a Honda 2000I. Using your numbers,($4.00 per gal) you are assuming a fuel consumption of 40 gal per month or (at 31 days per) is 1.29 gal per day or .65 gal per hour. This is way off. At 1/4 throttle, which is what a Honda will run when charging batteries, consumption is less than 1/10 gal per hour. So assuming an occasional microwave use lets call it an even 1/10 gal per hour, or 2/10 gal per day times 31 days =
6.20 gal per month times $4.00 per gal = $24.80 per month.
Solar is great, but you have to use it quite a bit to justify the cost. The Honda is readily available for $860 free shipping and no tax.
Here is a wild and dangerous possibility -- my "deep cycle" charger (which usually puts out 10 amps) also has a 55 amp "jump start" switch for dead car batteries. I assume that this is NOT something I could safely use for (let's say) a one-hour fast charge, using the generator to power the charger?
Offline
Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez!
Online
