Demountable camper group

Today I saw this one go off like a fire ball and burned for 10 minutes. Time to check your if you use one ?

I don't think i've heard anyone with a De-Mountable mention that they use one, i don't, anyone?

We do.

Sorry, i should have guessed that you might with your Forum name. Do you find it worth the effort of carting it about, extra fuel,etc against actual useage? I have never owned one so don't know what benefit, if any, i'd gain?

I'll add that to the other reasons why I don't have one.

Every couple of years I get tempted by the idea, but then I remember why I never bothered:

Few campsites (or the people you are camping next to) would want you running one and if staying in a campsite I can pay extra for hookup.
It is another thing to get stolen, especially if you leave it running outside your camper.
They need maintenance.
They are heavy and consume space.
You have to carry Petrol which is a fire risk and smelly.
You get tempted in by the £150 ones, then realise they will be very noisy as they have to run at full RPM to maintain 50hz. The cheap electronic ones are not pure sine wave, and their electrically noisy output could damage things you run off them. You realise that if you are buying one you probably want to buy a 2kw one so you can at least run power tools off it. The cheaper Chinese versions of the inverter pure-sinewave generators are still the wrong side of £500 and get mixed reviews - seems people are happy with them initially, then they have problems starting them and getting parts. So then you start looking at Honda and they cost 10 x the price of the ones that got you tempted in the first place.

So on balance I spent the money on Solar instead.

Steve.

I have one as a backup for the house. Used to have a diesel but it was incredibly noisy so when a 2kw Honda came up when a neighbour was moving, I bought it. Quite quiet, and runs at tickover when not under load. Have never taken it on the boat in many years of travelling. The boat already has an engine to charge the batteries with, so have just run that for a while if I ever needed to. You can get a gas conversion if you're worried about carrying petrol, but it's still a lot of weight and space taken up.

As we live in the back of beyond in darkest Wales we have always had a generator in case of prolonged power failure and to take away from the house to run a power tool.

Our old 2Kva petrol genny died last year and we sold it on Ebay for £50.

A friend of ours runs a generator business and offered us an ex-demo 1Kva set at a really good price – not Chinese – SDMO - Honda engine, made in France. Weighs 14kgs empty (having removed the truck tailgate we have plenty of capacity) and is not very noisy. Starts easily.
At home it runs my drill easily and will, if necessary, run our freezers, fridge, lights, etc. (but not all at the same time).
Maintenance is simple and my mate will sort it if there's a major problem.
Don't all rush at once – even though I may be on a commission!

We avoid camp sites on the whole but when we do visit one we hook up – we wouldn't annoy the neighbours by running the genny.

We store the genny (together with spare fuel) in the truck bed – fits like a glove, no smell. We don't have an issue with storage space or weight – I keep wondering what we've forgotten to pack.

We don't run a TV and can run a computer/DVD player off the 12 volt system.

The genny will charge the battery when we frequently get lost in the wilds (or, rarely, spend more than one day without running the Amarok), charge the batteries for the portable drill (for jacking up and down) and, most importantly, run her ladyship's hair drier (keeps the peace!).

We're planning some long trips – the genny will definitely be coming with us.

If anyone were to nick it where we go their need must be greater than ours.

Without wishing to tempt fate I've never had a problem with petrol – I treat it with the respect it deserves – ran a petrol genny on my boat without any issues. I had solar panels on the boat to keep the batteries charged during long absences with no hook up available. Worked well. Yet to be convinced that we need them for the Tischer.

Chris and Carol

We have a small half kilowatt Honda that we take as an emergency backup for festivals.
They are anti social things, but this is quiet. It cost £40 so if it gets stolen it's not the end of the world.
I did once use it to charge my battery when interior night on truck was left on.

rubberrat wrote:We have a small half kilowatt Honda that we take as an emergency backup for festivals.
They are anti social things, but this is quiet. It cost £40 so if it gets stolen it's not the end of the world.
I did once use it to charge my battery when interior night on truck was left on.

Now you're talking my sort of money

Steve.

It's ancient but from an era when things were very well made. Bought it via an ad in a supermarket in Hunstanton, Had it for many trouble free years. Have even used it to get cars started via battery charger when you can't get jump leads onto modern cluttered terminals.

BTW Lidl had a 1200w 4 stroke sinewave genny in last week for £120. I've bought various bits of Parkside kit over the years and its quality exceeds its price.

The best choices in my opinion for demountables would be any of the smaller suitcase type Kipor sinewave generators though. A lot of gennys with a reasonable output are huge.