Small Honda Generator

I'm currently looking for a small Honda Generator low noise 2000.  I would like to have one with me up in the staging lanes to run a battery charger.

How big (Watt)  generator is adequate to run 50 amp battery charger?

You don't have a 50amp charger, you have a 10 amp charge with a 50amp boost. The 2000 Honda will be perfect.

Why the need for charging in the lanes? The little Honda would be perfect.

Well last fall I went to the ford race at MIR.  I entered top and mod, and the way the classes were called to the
lanes there was not much time to charge the battery.  I lost third round in top and made it to 4th round in
mod, which was round robin.  As I cooled down in the lanes, I guess I used all the reserve capacity of the battery
and it would not crank, battery was dead.  I tried the jump box, but it did not have enough.  

I missed fourth round due to the battery death.  I was pissed.  I put it on the charger for 5 mins after I missed the round and it fired right up.    I looked at all my time runs and between both classes I made 12 runs on the car.  If I had a little generator and a charger I would have been fine on that day.

Maybe I have to look for a different type battery, however,  The generator and charger during round robin
would be good insurance.

I have a Honda EU2000i
Weighs just under 50# powers my battery charger as well as trailer lights.

t-bird racer wrote:Well last fall I went to the ford race at MIR.  I entered top and mod, and the way the classes were called to the
lanes there was not much time to charge the battery.  I lost third round in top and made it to 4th round in
mod, which was round robin.  As I cooled down in the lanes, I guess I used all the reserve capacity of the battery
and it would not crank, battery was dead.  I tried the jump box, but it did not have enough.  

I missed fourth round due to the battery death.  I was pissed.  I put it on the charger for 5 mins after I missed the round and it fired right up.    I looked at all my time runs and between both classes I made 12 runs on the car.  If I had a little generator and a charger I would have been fine on that day.

Maybe I have to look for a different type battery, however,  The generator and charger during round robin
would be good insurance.

you may think about an alternator also.

I don't run an alternator....just 2 deep cycle yellow tops wired parallel.  This thing will hot lap with no charger at all, but I use one between rounds just because I can.  I have NEVER had a no-start issue with this setup.

7AL3, electric water pump, fan, trans cooler fan, proStar 500 fuel pump, 2 taillights at night...

Btw, it's connected to a Battery Tender when it sits in the garage, batteries are 7 years old and going strong.

cool40 wrote:.............you may think about an alternator also.

^^^^This. On a bracket car and/or a car that gets hot-lapped any extra battery help is worth the minor weight penalty an alternator adds, it's good insurance.

I have an extra battery, but it's not in the car. It stays charged in the event that we need it. Only takes a couple of minutes to change it and less if you're in a hurry. It's cheaper than a separate battery charger and generator for the lanes.

I have used one of the litte hondas for yrs. I mainly use it to to keep my big gen. Off in day time. It will run a batt charger a shop fan with no prob. I t has the built in 12 volt charger but I am on 16 volts. At night i sometimes back feed it into the trailer to run lights and battery charger It will run all day on a tank of fuel. My big gen. Will go thru about 7 to 8 gallons in the same amount of time. I bought mine used at a pawn shop 10 yrs ago and it is still going strong. I would highly reccomend one. Biggest prob. I have with mine is keeping my buddies away from it. They know I two gen.

I don't know if a cell went bad in the battery, I do have a small alternator on the car, I have never had a problem with a battery in the last ten years, but, so something is a miss somewhere. I even thought of having a spare battery in the car and just switch the positive cable over in a pinch.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Unfortinatually, the details of AC battery charging mean that many "simple/inexpensive/heavy duty" battery chargers have very poor "Power Factor" which can reduce the apparent generator capacity to 60% or even 50% of name plate rating (the AC Voltage Wave form is a "sine wave"... For many/most AC battery chargers, the current wave form is a a series of current spikes at the peak of the voltage wave form--This causes I2R heating (2x current causes 4x heating losses) of wiring and transformers (and circulating current in transformers--more heating/losses). "Good Power Factor" is around 0.95 to 1.00 or 95% to 100% of rated generator capacity (there are other losses too).

For example, a 1,600 watt Honda eu2000i, the different available battery chargers can output a maximum of:
•1,600 watt * 0.6 PF * 0.80 Efficient charger * 1/14.5 volts = 53 amps maximum @ 12 volts
•1,600 watt * 1.0 PF * 0.80 Efficient charger * 1/14.5 volts = 88 amps maximum @ 12 volts
•1,600 watt * 1.0 PF * 0.90 Efficient charger * 1/14.5 volts = 99 amps maximum @ 12 volts

Still a EU2000 will do what you want and you have it for all those other times you need a but of power and not allot of noise, weight or fuel consumption

D. Sea wrote:I have a Honda EU2000i
Weighs just under 50#  powers my battery charger as well as trailer lights.  

Same here.

It has plenty of power to run my roof top air conditioner on my camper all night.
Just gotta re-fuel every 4 hrs. and 55 minutes.
Because at 5 hours and zero minutes, the little one gallon tank runs out

The only drawback to the small red Honda generator (other than the small one gallon gas tank) is that thieves love them. If you use a chain or cable to lock it to your trailer, they just hack thru the handle easily and take off with it.

A couple of years ago I made a dual purpose handle guard and exhaust pipe adapter ( to route the fumes thru a stack when parked close to other racers in the pits)

 

Although it's on the pricey side, it is another option to secure your generator. Plus they have models to work on a couple different generators. http://lowprolockdown.com