7lazy77
Burns, WY
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Please be easy on me since I am far from being an electrician & my lack of knowledge. I typically charge my 5th wheel camper batteries with a Schumacher battery charger prior to camping. I would like to do a little more dry camping this year & recently purchased a Honda EU2000i generator. My intentions are to provide a little power when necessary as well as charging the camper battery. My question is can I plug the Schumacher battery charger into the generator, or should I purchase the optional Honda battery charging cable??? What is the difference, if any???
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old guy
Oregon (pronounced Or e gun)
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just plug in the trailer to the Honda and the converter will charge the battery and you will have power to the outlets and the rest of the trailer at the same time. the converter will provide more amps than the car battery charger.
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7lazy77
Burns, WY
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Sounds easy enough. Never ran a generator with a camper, so it would be nice to be able to just plug it into the generator & not only be able to recharge the battery (without disconnecting), but to also have the extra power at the outlets, when needed!
Would it be any problem using a 30A to 120v adapter between the camper & the generator?
Any other good information I should be aware of when hooking the camper up to the generator?
* This post was
edited 01/28/12 12:51am by 7lazy77 *
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shenandoahvalley
Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
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My genny (4000 Champion) has a 30A socket...just plug in the 30A cord and let her rip.
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accsys
Green Cove Springs, FL
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7lazy77 wrote:Sounds easy enough. Never ran a generator with a camper, so it would be nice to be able to just plug it into the generator & not only be able to recharge the battery (without disconnecting), but to also have the extra power at the outlets, when needed!
Would it be any problem using a 30A to 120v adapter between the camper & the generator?
Any other good information I should be aware of when hooking the camper up to the generator?
Yes, just use the 15 amp adapter to plug into the 2000. I do it all the time. Just realize your converter will be drawing considerable current until it switches to float mode so you will not have a lot of juice left for other items. Running the TV or other small draws will probably not be a problem, but running the A/C, microwave, hair dryer or other large draws most likely will overload the 2000 until your batteries are almost fully charged. Depending on the A/C, you most likeky will be unable to run it at all with a 2000.
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Tom_M
New Hope, MN
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One thing to keep in mind is that most RV converters do a poor job of charging your batteries. The charge current may start off high and then taper off quickly which means you will have to run your generator for a long time to get a full charge. I use a separate 40 amp charger to charge my batteries.
Tom
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Ron3rd
Upland, CA USA
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old guy wrote:just plug in the trailer to the Honda and the converter will charge the battery and you will have power to the outlets and the rest of the trailer at the same time. the converter will provide more amps than the car battery charger.
That's the easy way to do and exactly what we do. Your trailer will charge the batteries (probably faster too) while it's plugged into the genny.
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Ron3rd
Upland, CA USA
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7lazy77 wrote:Sounds easy enough. Never ran a generator with a camper, so it would be nice to be able to just plug it into the generator & not only be able to recharge the battery (without disconnecting), but to also have the extra power at the outlets, when needed!
Would it be any problem using a 30A to 120v adapter between the camper & the generator?
Any other good information I should be aware of when hooking the camper up to the generator?
No problem running the adapter, in fact it's a necessity on most EU2000 gennys.
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Matt_Colie
Southeast Michigan
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Lazy77,
You have gotten a bunch of answers and most are correct as far as they go, but nobody asked you about the installed converter. If the installed converter is a good three stage "smart" unit (Progresive Dynamics, Iota or ...(crs)), the just using that unit will do as well as you can do. There is no need for other stuff.
Matt
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just me
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And as your doing this be cognoscente of the EXHAUST fumes, entering your rig. Hopefully you'll be ok. It does happen.
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