BFL13
Victoria, BC
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Joined: 02/15/2006
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If you can buy the Honda in the States. Here they recently advertised a big deal (ha!) on Hondas where they were about a dollar a watt.--950 for a 1000 , 1,900 for a 2000 etc. Guys have posted on here recently they can get a 1000 for more like 600 IIRC. Check prices in Blaine to confirm.
A Vector 35amp wants 600w so a 40amp Vector should want about 700w--it's written on the box so you can get the right number if you find a place that sells them. London Drugs here (Colwood store) is selling 35amp Vectors for $59 so that is a very, very good deal. If London Drugs doesn't carry them over there, maybe they can get one sent over for you to your local store.
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jauguston
Bellingham, WA
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Joined: 07/03/2005
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Yes it will. I use one all the time. It will make 7.5a AC all day and will make over 8a for 30 minutes or so before the breaker trips. Most converters taper there charge rate fast enough that if the initial draw is around 8a within 20 minutes it will be below 7a. The exception to that is the Xantrex XADC converters. They will maintain a constant output for a long time, usually until the battery voltage gets up to about 13.7v before it starts to taper. The XADC is a fine converter.
Jim
Jim, Sharon and Buddy the Yorkie
1999 Gulfstream Sun Voyager 31' ISB Cummins 210 uprated to 275
275 RV injectors
Trippe-Lite 1800w inverter 4-6v GC batteries
3- Kyocera 130w solar panels
1987 Suzuki Samurai tintop Toad w/VW 1.6 turbo diesel power
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Smegolas
Vancouver, BC
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Joined: 02/07/2006
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to be clear - im talking about getting a portable intelligent battery charger (its 40/30/20/12/2 amps i think) and plugging it into the portable generator. im not using the trailer converter to charge the batts.
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smkettner
Southern California
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Joined: 03/21/2005
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Smegolas wrote:to be clear - im talking about getting a portable intelligent battery charger (its 40/30/20/12/2 amps i think) and plugging it into the portable generator. im not using the trailer converter to charge the batts.
With those settings available the Honda 1000 will run the charger no trouble.
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wa8yxm
Wherever I happen to park
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Joined: 07/04/2006
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I have not used a honda 1000, But I have used a Genrac (Traditional generator) 1000 to power a Progressive Dynamics 9180 with wizard.. That's an 80 amp converter.
Now... I have reason to believe my Genrac was a bit "hot" (That is it could do more than 1,000 watts) but not that "hot". So I'd believe the Honda 1000 would indeed do a 40 amp no sweat
Wish I had one to test though
Nothin adds excitment like something that is none of your business
John is Near Kenwood TS-2000 housed in a 2005 Damon Intruder 377
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pnichols
Santa Cruz Mountains
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Joined: 04/26/2005
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I power my Class C's 45 amp Parallax converter with a Honda EX650 generator to charge my 200 amp hour AGM coach battery bank. So far this has worked. The EX650 is an outstanding (but no longer available, new) Honda suitcase generator that is almost as quiet at full load (54dB) as the new 1000/2000 watt Hondas are at idle (53dB). Mine is 20 years old, but starts right up. I've just started using it again after having it in storage for 4-5 years. It'll run at least 7-8 hours on it's 0.53 gallon tank. I've seen them used in the $300 range.
Phil, 2005 E450 Itasca 324V Spirit
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bill h
el segundo
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Most chargers do not deliver their rated current unless the battery is REALLY low. My 75 amp charger puts around 30 amps into my two golf cart batts when they are down to around 50%. My little Honda EX650 does it fine.
Bill and Susan
84 Barth 30 tag powered by ht502/Thorley, Gear Vendors OD
Siamese Calvin and Airedale Hobbes
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BFL13
Victoria, BC
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Most chargers do not deliver their rated current unless the battery is REALLY low. My 75 amp charger puts around 30 amps into my two golf cart batts when they are down to around 50%....
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IMO the word "chargers" above should read "converters" Also the time taken in the initial constant amps bulk stage depends on the voltage the charger is set to bring the batteries to before tapering the amps, as well as the SOC at the beginning.
A higher battery voltage will give a higher "battery acceptance rate" of amps for charging during the absorption stage, so if max voltage is to be in the 13s instead of 14s, the the amps the battery will take at 50% SOC could be fewer and the constant current bulk stage never happens and you are into tapering absorption right away at 50% at lower amps. In that case you would need to have the battery bank below 50% SOC somewhere to find where it will take constant amps in bulk before it reaches the chosen max voltage in the 13s.
Using portable chargers (that go to 14s) on batteries that have no draw on them while being charged, I get consistent results where either the 2-6v bank (232ah) or the 2-27s bank(240ah) when down to about 50% will take approx a half hour at constant 55amps (max current for the chargers -one at 35 and the other at 20) bringing the batteries to 14v, then another approx half hour tapering from 55 to 35 , bringing the batteries to about 14.3v and another approx half hour tapering from 35 down to 10amps bring the batteries to about 14.5v (when I shut the gen off) --if I let the chargers run till "full" the batteries get to about 14.6v tops.
(so the absorption stage is not really "constant voltage" as voltage does rise somewhat so it is say, "controlled" instead of "constant")
The Xantrex converters have the same charging behaviour as the Vector portables, but I seriously wonder if a 60amp Xantrex converter would charge as well as my 55amps of Vector because the converter is using some of its amps for other jobs than charging. I just don't know- it would be interesting to get some data on that.
Charging with a converter does not give you the option of plugging the shore power into the gen to run the converter while disconnecting the battery bank for no draw, and running the portable chargers off the gen at the same time, so you get two benefits:
-the charger is not sharing its amps with other 12v systems so reducing charging amps
-there is no draw on the batteries while being charged making for a lower net charge current
Edit--the second benefit may be counting things twice where the converter is on , doing the 12v stuff so there is no draw on the battery
---did not mention other benefit that there is no issue of line loss converter- to- battery with portables, where the converter can be handicapped in charging amps compared with its rating.
* This post was
edited 07/04/08 08:26am by BFL13 *
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