Additional gen for Seneca

[McGintys924]

We are most-timing in our Seneca and exclusively boondock on a piece of land with no water or power. While we love the Seneca's 8000 watt diesel gen and its ability to run everything in the camper, I just looked at the hour meter and read 193hrs since we purchased new July 1 of this year. At this rate, I would be using about 1200 hours/year of gen time. I am guessing that the components should be good for roughly 5000/6000 hours. I have been very conservative with its use as well. While solar is in the plans for next year, it just cannot be done at this time.

The cost of the 8Kw Cummins Onan is about $8,000 (plus installation), not to mention the expense of oil changes with the filter. While I appreciate all this is simply the cost of the convenience of such a good system, I wanted to get your opinion on offsetting this use. I have found a nice Ryobi 2200 watt (with Bluetooth shut down from a smartphone) inverter gen for $600 at the Orange Box store. It also comes with a 3 year warranty and only needs one quart of oil for a change and no filter.

Does anyone see any problem with, or concur with any possible advantages to using this portable gen to power the Seneca?

I do realize that this is not going to power much, but I still have the diesel if I need the A/C. I am only looking to use this as an inexpensive way to provide power for coach batteries, fridge (may decrease propane usage too!), and a coffee maker (Keurig). I also do not need to worry about storage as I can leave this gen on the property we utilize when we take the Seneca on a trip.

Ryobi Bluetooth 2,300-Watt Super Quiet Gasoline Powered Digital Inverter Generator-RYI2300BTA - The Home Depot

[Bassdogs]

Originally Posted by McGintys924

We are most-timing in our Seneca and exclusively boondock on a piece of land with no water or power. While we love the Seneca's 8000 watt diesel gen and its ability to run everything in the camper, I just looked at the hour meter and read 193hrs since we purchased new July 1 of this year. At this rate, I would be using about 1200 hours/year of gen time. I am guessing that the components should be good for roughly 5000/6000 hours. I have been very conservative with its use as well. While solar is in the plans for next year, it just cannot be done at this time.

The cost of the 8Kw Cummins Onan is about $8,000 (plus installation), not to mention the expense of oil changes with the filter. While I appreciate all this is simply the cost of the convenience of such a good system, I wanted to get your opinion on offsetting this use. I have found a nice Ryobi 2200 watt (with Bluetooth shut down from a smartphone) inverter gen for $600 at the Orange Box store. It also comes with a 3 year warranty and only needs one quart of oil for a change and no filter.

Does anyone see any problem with, or concur with any possible advantages to using this portable gen to power the Seneca?

I do realize that this is not going to power much, but I still have the diesel if I need the A/C. I am only looking to use this as an inexpensive way to provide power for coach batteries, fridge (may decrease propane usage too!), and a coffee maker (Keurig). I also do not need to worry about storage as I can leave this gen on the property we utilize when we take the Seneca on a trip.

Ryobi Bluetooth 2,300-Watt Super Quiet Gasoline Powered Digital Inverter Generator-RYI2300BTA - The Home Depot

Here on Dale Hollow lake, the most houseboats have large onboard generators but most of them are using a Honda 2000 [or equivilet] most of the time. The 2000 will power fridge, tv systems, and most everything except the A/C just like in an RV. The 2000 can run 24/7 for less than a gallon per day while the big gennys suck a fuel like ice cream on a 90 degree day.

There have been dozens of generator threads and I think there are a couple active at this time. Make your own choice but you will pay for it pretty quick with lower fuel and at the same time cut hours on the big genny by 3/4.

[Mountain Cajun]

We used a Honda 2000 when we were at the Daytona race in February. Seems like it ran my Seneca about 10-12 hours just fine w/o the ac of course. Only problem was when there DW forgot and tripped it turning on the microwave!


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[rgolding]

Interesting thread! Our 2014/2015 37FS has about 700 hours on the Onan 8000 generator. We had to have warranty work done at 500 hours. We boondock at rodeos and live on the generator quite a bit. Camped next to a guy, that sells the Onan units and he felt that 500 hrs and a repair was not unexpected, if we were running both ac's and the microwave. We had no clue, this would be a problem.

Our new philosophy is to only run one of the units at a time, instead of all together. A little shocked that the Onan unit installed was not enough to handle the full load of the Seneca.

[Goflight2]

We have a Honda 2000 that we used while boondocking in our previous RV. We had a 4kw Onan in that unit that was obnoxiously loud and drank fuel.
I was thinking I wouldn't need to bring with us any longer with our "new" 2007 Seneca, but now that I think about keeping the hours off of our on board generator, I might re-think that.

[mikew968]

just ran a Honda 2000 watt for the basic stuff like the refrig and ran the diesel when i needed the power Ran like 36 hours for 2-3 gal fuel vs 12-18 gal of diesel