honda 3000is generator

Guy that parks where I park my truck has the Honda 3000. He has it mounted on top of his headache rack with a slot for the 5 gal can next to it. Uses one of those oil filled radiators for heat and has an 8000 btu window A/C that he stores on his top bunk when not in use.. than at sleepy time it goes in the window just like at home. He has a Columbia like I have.

I was leaning toward a diesel generator too.. fed from one of my fuel tanks. He had his old kubota diesel generator in the back of his van. He fired up the Honda and then fired up the Kubota.

Hands down.. the Honda was so quite and smooth. That diesel was almost obnoxiously loud and vibrated enough to turn me away from what I thought was a good idea.

He has a 4 way outlet inside the sleeper wired directly to the Honda. There was also a significant price difference according to him... said he paid $7000 for the Kubota. I'm thinking to myself.. by the time you pay for the heater and the A/C.. I could have an APU installed.

I dont mind lugging a 5 gal gas can. He says the Honda will run for 2 nights before ot needs to be filled again.

As redneck as the idea of putting a window A/C in my door window is.. you guys can just call me Bubba Hurst. I'm gonna try it for this summer.

Hurst

 

If you go to the Honda Power website and look at their portable generators, you can select what you intend to run and they will recommend which generator to use. You may be able to get by with an EU2000i.

 

I have a Xantrex inverter / charger in my truck. I can either plug in shore power or the generator to the Xantrex and it charges the batteries. It monitors how much they need charged and the rate to charge them, up to 55 watts. Not like the little 8 watt battery charging cable stuff that Yamaha gives with the generator. Nights like tonight, the Yamaha is keeping batteries up and powering the oil pan heater on the engine as well. It regularly will do this for an entire 10 hr break on 1 gallon of gas. The generator doing this is the very same as if I plugged the Xantrex into a 110 outlet, which I do when I am at home on the weekend. Batteries stay nice and fresh with minimal cycling.

I always recommend to someone they get past the inverter only stuff and get a combo inverter / charger. They aren't that much more expensive. When an AC power source is hooked up to one, it passes thru the AC current so that it is like all your stuff you are using in the truck is plugged into a normal AC outlet, and at the same time it takes that AC power and converts it to DC and charges the batteries. When not on AC current, it acts just like any other inverter and gives you AC from the batteries. Since I started using setups like this several years ago, I would never go back to a inverter only setup.

 

You will have to click on his name, and view his previous posts. I think its in "A/C for the tractor" or "Generator for the tractor".

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...enerator-tractor-post3383707.html#post3383707

Here is the whole thread!
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...-owner-operator/211635-generator-tractor.html

 

interesting..... thanks !

 

For those of you who operate a window A/C, would you post some pictures of how you rig your unit on the window and how you seal the gap between window frame and A/C. I am considering adding a window unit this spring and am looking for some ideas.

 

I was thinking about using a generator for my block heater. Has anyone checked out the new generator imverter from harbor freight? It looks like the Honda and is supposed to he super quite. Its only $500 and its 2500 watts.

 

Well, . . It's Harbor Freight. Don't get me wrong I have purchased tools from them and been happy, but I do it knowing it is all China's best and could fail in the next second or so. The old rule applies, you get what you pay for, but it ain't no Honda or Yamaha. BUT - it may be worth a gamble if it's cheap enough.

*I have to comment on the drivers that say getting gas for you generator will be a pain. You are parked at a truck stop for goodness sake! The gas pumps are only a few extra steps away. Good grief, some of you look like you need to walk a few extra steps, and yes, I said that out loud.

I went with a rooftop AC unit off a wrecked RV. Your local RV place may have some options if the window unit isn't appealing. It took half a day to fit it on the roof of a WesternStar 4900EX.

 

Yes I know its China stuff, I wasn't asking where its made. Was wondering if someone actually had experience with that particular Genny.

 

I was once interested in the Harbor Freight gen. myself but after reading all the negative reviews I decided against, also was about to leave the store with a honda gen. but because I was uncertain on how I would secure it to my truck I went with a Briggs and Stratton gen. instead that I picked up from Lowes, secured it to the catwalk where it fit perfectly, got a nice cover for it so it wouldn't look so ghetto back there. I think it is a 2000 watt gen. called the Boss, ran an industrial size extension cord from it to the sleeper via a small hole under the sleeper floor. Then bought a small portable ac, also from Lowes and put it on the floor next to the bed and ran the exhaust hose out of a small window I have in the sleeper, the exhaust hose was too short so I got a home dryer exhaust hose and taped it to the ac hose with some silver aluminum tape, it was now long enough to reach the window, then I got a very thin piece of wood and cut it to the shape of the window and put a hole in the middle of the wood so the exhaust hose would fit in it, then I put some Velcro on the window sill and the wood panel so it could be removed in the day, also put some weather stripping around the wood panel to give it a good seal. The set-up worked perfectly except the ac unit I got was barely able to get the sleeper cool but later found out its best to let the truck ac cool it down first then turn the portable one on, worked fine after that. Since i have a divider between my sleeper and the cab the small ac unit worked for me, I agree with the earlier thread stating to go with a bigger ac because these trucks dont cool very easily. The heater for wintertime is very simple, would recommend a small digital auto thermostat heater, most small heaters have 2 settings, 1500 watts max and a lower wattage setting, for me the lower setting worked fine set at 68°. like previously stated you can get about 2 nights use on a tank of fuel, the noise of the gas gen. was to me, very tolerable, if you can sleep with a diesel truck running then the noise from a gas gen. shouldnt be a problem, but then again I sleep with a noise machine so I prefer a noise, and besides some of these APU 's you hear in the truck stops are just as loud, sounds like the pistons tapping without any oil in them..anyway my cheap setup was around $800, and worked for me for one year, lately I haven't had to sleep in my truck so I have taken everything out and put it to the side for later use if needed.