Trailer Generators How Big?

I picked up the new trailer yesterday and now we are looking at generators. The trailer doesn't have AC but it is wired for it. How big of a generator are you running with AC, 6 flourescent lights, and a battery charger on the car. I'm thinking 3000 watts would do the job but wanted some opinions. Sam's Club has a decent deal on a Black Max with a Honda motor.

I'm thinking the AC will up the requirements alot. Takes more power to start them than keep them running. I would think a minimum of 4K watts with the AC. The rest of it will be fine with with a 3K. The AC will take prob 2K watts by itself.

I have a Honda 6.5 hp powered 3K/3.5K surge for my trailer. Does fine with all the normal stuff but my air compressor will strain it if it tries to kick on with a tank full of air and the motor is trying to start it against 80 psi air pressure.

Have to always plan a little for tomorrow. Your trailer demand isnt the only thing you should look at. Couple of 5000 wat standing work lamps make pit areas nice and bright Couple more low mount, and don't have to work in shadows under a car. Couple of fans for pit area, beverage fridge... it all starts to accumulate after a couple years.

Might as well seriously start with a good 5kw generator, and consider looking into 8 and 10kw units for the long long long haul.

I have a 4kw Onan in mine, and it will pull the A/C, fridge, and lights. I have a 12v air compressor, and aux 12v lights in the trailer. Just make sure you klook at how that power is split up on the outlets on the gen set. If you do a little diggimg around, you can find some nice used Onan gen sets on the cheap. They are reliable and sturdy, and can be hooked up either 120v or 240v, and are all on a single circuit. Guys wreck out older motorhomes all the time, and there are plenty of them out there. Most are 12v start too.

If your trailer has a "generator room", those dimensions may have some effect on the physical size. IMO, the 5000W to 6000W units would be a good starting point. A bit of over kill is a positive when suppling electrical circuits. The pricing probably won't be much different for the "bigger" units as they seem to be the most popular.

Dave.

I have a 8K diesel to run mine. It's so quiet you can't hardly hear it.

Just remember, that if you buy one of those loud a$$ generators, keep it on your door side and not bother the neighbors. You'd be a lot happier buying a real Honda once you get past the sticker shock.

A Honda motor does not make it a Honda generator.

I have a 4k. Quiet and runs everything just fine.

schmitty wrote:I have a 4kw Onan in mine, and it will pull the A/C, fridge, and lights. I have a 12v air compressor, and aux 12v lights in the trailer. Just make sure you klook at how that power is split up on the outlets on the gen set. If you do a little diggimg around, you can find some nice used Onan gen sets on the cheap. They are reliable and sturdy, and can be hooked up either 120v or 240v, and are all on a single circuit. Guys wreck out older motorhomes all the time, and there are plenty of them out there. Most are 12v start too.

Rob the Onan some may be 220v and some may be 120v in the same size but not hard to make the 120v to 220v with a up grade box some may charge the battery and some don't need to check and make sure it has the charger on it. I am speaking about the RV style that is not movable unit. Some charge from the rv 12vt converter.

If you going with a A/C unit I know the Duro therm 15,000 btu will draw 16.5 amps on start up and run 8.7 amp when running I would at least go with no smaller 5500 unit 7000 would run what you have with ease if you are right against the max out put of the gen it will not last as long one that has to run 2/3 of its out put.

I have a Honda 3000 EU inverter and I had problems with my A/C. When the compressor kicks in it can pull 20+amps and it will kick the breaker on the generator. After it runs for awhile the pressure inside builds up and when it starts cycling in and out that is when is draws the big current. I put a hard start capacitor on my A/C unit and that has helped a bunch but it can still give me some grief sometimes. From reading the RV forums this seems to depend on brand of A/C unit as well. Some are better than others. I have read that the inverters are more sensitive to this issue than generators but the inverters are the quiet ones. The 6500 inverters are really big money but can be worth it if you use your trailer a lot. The 6500 can be remote start where as all the smaller ones have manual chokes so they need to be started at the unit. The small Honda's can be put in tandem so you can run 2-2000's or 2-3000's. The benefit here is fuel consumption. My 3000 will run all night on 2-3 gallons of gas under normal usage. The 2000's can do it on 1-2 gallons. Those big ol screaming demons you see at Lowes hold 5 or 6 gallons and they last about 6-7 hours.

I went through lots of effort to take a "noisey" generator and make it quiet. I finally bit the bullet and installed an Onan Commercial Mobile (CMM) 5500 unit.
It is more than adequate to run 2 AC units and normal race equipment. It is very quiet. Last weekend I asked 3 other racers to plug in to mine, just to give it more load and prevent carbon buildup.
I know that the Honda portable units are very quiet, but I have no experience with them.
My emphasis on quiet is very important if you run multi day events and stay overnight.
I think mine is model CMM 5500 HGJAE.
Just some input.
Keith

I found a 7.5 Onan last year with 30 hours for $1500. I can run two of the biggest a/c's and the air compressor and the electric grills with no problem. All while my lights and computer are running


Ace