Genny and Inverter opinions wanted...

[Eric]

I'm going to pick these 2 units up for dirt dirt cheap anyone see any issues for just the starting point for my conversion? The wife and I are going to be moving in no later then sept. And i'd like to have both of these "just for starters" until the budget recovers a bit

Genny http://www.duropower.com/item.asp?PID=137&FID=14&level=1

Inverter http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=96706

Give me some opinions guys I know it's what your good at 

[Jerry32]

I hope you don't expect to pull 5000 watts from thet inverter. The cables alone might cast more than the inverter.at 400 plus amps at 12 volts.Usually at 12 volts half that amount is all you want to handle. The genny looks ok Jerry

[Zeroclearance]

I would recommend looking at ebay and craigslist to give you a idea as to what the midrange to upper end gensets and inverters are costing.

The bargain basement prices end up costing you more money.   Trashing your new plasma TV or ??   

Look at the Honda's  Power-tech, Wrico, and Onan gensets.   There is a Onan 10K diesel for $4500.00

I have two Trace SW4024's,  Magnum,  and Outback are the leading inverters.

[Stormcloud]

You could check donrowe.com for inverters......
There is a 5kw/10kw surge unit capable of hard-wiring.

I havent dealt there before, but it appears he has a good selection.

Good luck!

Mark

[TomC]

Highly recommend you hear the generator run first.  It looks to me to be a 3600rpm unit made in China.  So where do you get parts for this genset when on the road?
The inverter is en El Cheapo that does not have battery charging.  My Trace has a smart charger that charges my batteries when plugged in.
As with any and all items that you buy for your conversion-instead of buying the cheapest piece of equipment, then finding out it doesn't work right, requires lots of repair to keep it running, or just plainly isn't right-wait and buy the best equipment you can as you can afford it.  You'll be much happier in the future.  Good Luck, TomC

[Dreamscape]

Whatever you decide think of this, parts availability, service center location, failure/warranty, bigger is always better. Make sure it's a well known brand for RV use and Good Luck.

Don't empty your wallet too fast!

You can do a search here and find all kinds of answers/opinions. You decide what is best for you and what you can afford. 

Paul

[belfert]

That inverter seems pretty small for the wattage.  My Prosine 3.0 3000 watt inverter is at least a third larger.

I was able to get my refurbished Prosine 3.0 for $825 including shipping and everything back in 2006.  You can get Xantrex Freedom inverter/chargers that are a bit less wattage for about the same as the Harbor Freight item.  You would need some HUGE cables and battery bank to support 5,000 watts at 12 volt anyhow.  I don't know if 4/0 wire would work even if the batteries were next to the inverter.

[luvrbus]

You need to be careful with the inverter some of the cheaper ones require about 1/3 of the power generated for their own operation.Even the Xantrex SW requires 10 % to operate.
I think the generator will work for you maybe a little nosier than the major brands       good luck

[bruceknee]

15kw onan available for $1800 with 3000 hrs and an sw44025with almost no hrs for $1300 from a Guy that changed his mind about doing a conversion. I have no interests in this stuff, just helping find a good home

[Len Silva]

I agree with the consensus here, either one of these items is a total waste of money.  I am pretty cheap and always looking for a deal but sometimes the cheapest is the most expensive.

[Lin]

Just to let you know my bias, I am one of the cheapest people you could meet.   I bought a new, Chinese angle grinder at a flea market.  The first time I used it, it began to spark and smoke.  I now keep it hanging on a peg board in my shop to remind me about how much I am "saving" by buying Chinese crap.  I would say, if you do not intend to really use the equipment, it is okay.  If you want it for dependable use, look elsewhere.

[Jerry32]

The reason the inveter looks small it's not true sine wave. when you use these on microwave ovens they do not run at full power The prosine is trus sinewave so is bigger and costs more for the real thing Jerry

[bruceknee]

I was wrong, the sw4024 the guy wants $1600, again, I have no interest in this

[Kristinsgrandpa]

The power factor at 1.0 is as good as it gets, but the THD (total harmonic distortion) at 18% is unacceptable. 5% would be marginal 3% is good.

Item # 8 says --3 pole single phase 120 VAC--- 3 pole breakers are for 3 phase suystems.
Item # 8 also says 1 pole 120 V/240 V AC--- thats impossible, it takes a 2 pole breaker for 240 V AC.

I would dismiss anyone who doesn't know what he has or doesn't know enough about the English language to tell what he has.

I know a man in Aurora Il. that runs a generator repair/build shop (he builds them and ships them all over the world) who refuses to work on Chinese made gensets because of the frequency of repair on them, and availability of parts.

He told me he got one in that would leak oil through the pourous block. He degreased it and painted it with Imron paint before it would hold oil.

Just remember a lot of people over there still use slave labor.

Ed

[Sean]

Item # 8 says --3 pole single phase 120 VAC--- 3 pole breakers are for 3 phase suystems.
Item # 8 also says 1 pole 120 V/240 V AC--- thats impossible, it takes a 2 pole breaker for 240 V AC.

I would dismiss anyone who doesn't know what he has or doesn't know enough about the English language to tell what he has.

[Long and speculative discourse on generator windings deleted, based on further "research" into Duropower]

OK, on further investigation, Duropower's Chinese-to-English dictionary apparently says "pole" next to the Chinese word for "receptacle."  Every generator in the catalog shows the number of "poles" to be the number of receptacles on the front panel.  Sheesh.  So if you read my earlier attempt at explaining this here (or got it in email), you can discard it, because it was clearly based on an incorrect assumption.

To speak to the OP's question, this generator is not designed or rated for installation in an RV.  If your intent is to carry it in a bay, then pull it out into the open to run it, it will work.  However,

• It's going to make a heck of a racket.  This is a single-cylinder, air cooled motor running at 3600 RPM. The spec is for 66dB on the A scale, but nowhere does it say how far away that was measured -- it might well have been at 100 feet.
• Air-cooled singles are not well suited to long run periods.  I would not expect this generator to last very much longer than the 500 hours on the warranty.  By contrast, a liquid-cooled twin or triple such as the common RV diesels on the market should last several thousand hours before overhaul -- I've put over 1,200 hours on my 20-year-old second-hand Kubota, and it probably had a couple thousand on it when I got it (who knows -- the hour meter was busted).
• As has already been noted, parts and service availability might be problematic.
• Again, it's not designed or listed for fixed installation, so you will forever be stuck using it outside, where it will not endear you to your neighbors.
• I consider the weird receptacle arrangement to be a downside.  In the 120-volt mode, you can not simply wire it to a main panel at full rated output of 48 amps, because each receptacle has been wired separately.  So you are stuck with the 30/20/20 arrangement.  To use this productively to power an RV, you'd need to use the L14-30 output, and now you'll have to make yourself a 14-50R to L14-30P adapter (figure ~$100 in parts), and then you are basically connecting a 50-amp shore cord to a 30-amp service, complicating your load management.

As for the inverter, all the previous comments should be considered carefully.  In order to get 5KW out of this unit, you will need to have DC cables and fusing for 450 amps.  Moreover, I can't imagine what you would need that kind of power for unless you are planning to run motors, such as air conditioners, washing machines, and the like, in which case, an MSW unit is a poor choice -- motors want true sine wave power (much has been written on this topic, which you can find in the board archives, so I will not go into detail here).

However, a bigger concern for me is the lack of hard wired output.  As this unit sits, there is just no safe and legal way to wire it into a coach electrical system.  The best you could do would be to put it in, say, the kitchen (which means locating your batteries close to there, too) so you could plug your coffee maker and whatever else directly into it.  I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want a massive inverter in the middle of my kitchen.

This is also a 12-volt inverter, yet you have a 24-volt coach with a 24-volt alternator.  If you really need that much inverter capacity, you will be much better served to get a 24-volt model -- finding 400 amps of 12-volt power on your coach is going to be a real challenge.

As others have already written, buying either of these items to use in a coach is likely a false economy.  I think you would be better off buying used or refurbished units of a higher quality that are designed and built for use in an RV, and that operate on the proper voltage for your application.

FWIW, and HTH.

-Sean
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com