Tuesday, August 3, 2010

New Generator and a Close Call

We finally decided (and had the money) to buy a generator so we can boondock as needed and not have to worry about elec. After alot of research we decided on the Honda 3000 Handi. I know there are less expense generators out there, but we decided to attempt to do it right the first time and buy the best. These little beauties are supposed to run "Most" 13.500 BTU RV A/C units. Well we found out, our A/C unit is not considered "Most", yup plugged her in hit the A/C switch and the poor ole Honda just sputters and dies a slow horrorable death. Darn, Darn, Darn (ok, maybe alittle more colorful, but you get the idea) Wow I think to myself, a $1900.00 paperweight!!! Of course it'll run everything else just fine. Bad part is (well more than one bad part) we had went back and forth on buying two 2000 watt gens or the one 3000 watt, but decided on the one for simplicity, figuring it would do what we needed. Second bad part is, we bought it off a internet site, so very doubful we can return it after it has been ran (can't mail a engine with oil and gas fumes anyway) so were kinda stuck with it.
Now for the close call part, when I decided to test out the generator and see how it would do running the RV, I went out and unplugged from the power post and this it what I saw!!! Not good, not good at all I thought. So instead of sticking that in the new generator, I thought I put it back into the outlet until I could get a new cord. Yea, that didn't work at all, all the post did was sizzle and pop!!! Ok, no power, this isn't good (oh and it's all ready 95 degrees) Ok, just run down to the RV shop, oh wait, it's Sunday everyone is closed!!! Think, Think, Think, ahhhh Camping World is open, it's over and hour drive, but you gotta do what you gotta do, so off we went.

We get to Camping World prepared to buy a whole new cord, but all they have are 30 amp extension cords. I wanted one with a plug and open wires on the other end.....hmmm now what to do. I looked up and saw just a new plug I could replace my old one with............wow save 30 bucks also......sold!!! Of course you can't come away from Camping world with just one item......ok, thats another post in itself....lol Get home, rewire, plug the nice new plug into the post and Snap, Sizzle, Pop!!! pull the plug right away and the metal tabs are already burnt, not bad, just wiped them off, and goonew. Troubleshooting overwith, figure it's a bad 30 amp socket. Well I'll just call and have it fixed.........oops, it's Sunday on a military base, nothing is open......hmmmm made a few calls and was able to get an emergency work order to fix the plug. About 2 hours later the Electrician showed up to fix the post. They were great, even if they were called in from home, they did a bang up job and got the post fixed for us......woooo hoooo we have power again!!! While they were fixing the post they noticed the 30 amp plug was completly shot and the power wire to it were burning up, so it was a close call that we didn't end up with a fire in the post or our RV.
Ahh, back to the gernerator ordeal, we thought about it and decided to keep the 3000 and if needed later, just buy another 3000 and run them in parallel, better to have too much power than not enough.
Well, that crisis was everted, thank goodness. Never a dull moment in this Fulltiming thing, were still loving it and can't wait to actually get out there on the road. Speaking of loving it, since I we haven't said it a while.....Keep Lovin your Life as we do Ours!!! See ya next time.

8 comments:

Happytrails said...

Man, you all did have a close call with that power plug. Glad you got everything fixed up and you have power. Too hot to not have power.

Sorry about the gen not pulling the AC. I agree with you though....later getting another to piggyback would do the trick.

Take care!
Mike & Gerri (happytrails)

Paul and Marti Dahl said...

Wow! What a close call indeed! Good thing you caught it when you did.

Any idea what caused it? Might be something all of us can look out for.

Enjoying your blog, tell me those pension checks come on time. Hope to retire soon and collect mine.

Paul and Marti Dahl said...

Thanks for the feedback. I guess the post sockets can get a lot of wear and tear from the constant hooking/unhooking. I use a surge protector, but I think I'll swing by Camping World and pick up a spare plug, just in case.

Take care!

Anonymous said...

Hard to believe a Honda 3000 did not carried the load of your air-cond. I did an experiment a while back that if I turn off all the things that use electricity including the fridge(set to gas). Also, disconnect the 12 volt power from the battery (so battery charger would not drawn any more juice from the gen). I could get the Honda2000 ran my RV air-cond.(My RV was newer and it did not work now).

I believe if you set your fridge to propane.(compressor drawn a lot of juice if on). I would bet your gen would not overload.

Tom

jkcruzin said...

Sounds like you need to change your AC capacitor to a "hard start capacitor". For more imformation go to the RV.Net forum at; http://www.rvnetforum , look under "Yamaha EF2000is Portable Generator Query".

Anonymous said...

great info from, anonymous and jkcruzin. I have the honda 3000 and run one ac unit and 3 fans in a horse trailer and it works just fine. turn off the eco throttle then turn on the ac. I do this then turn on each fan individually and no problems since 2004. Good luck.

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