My new ride

[troutbum70 857]

My wife and I just purchased this new next week a 5th wheel camper. My question to those that may also camp, if you have a generator on your unit what are you using and does it get the job done? I will be running a couple in unit A/C's at times, so our unit requires a 50 amp service.

[JAinVA 4,619]

Sweet!

[briankd 817]

hope you have good luck with that ford diesel . we have 6 of them at my work and they all at the ford dealer more than they are at our shop always check engine lites and derated 

[Racinbob 11,045]

Nice truck!

You'll have to determine what the A/C's require and the size of your generator.  Our motorhome had a selector so, when on generator power, we could only run one at a time.  In other words,  more information needed. 

[troutbum70 857]

The specs on the camper calls for a 50 amp service, my brother feels if we only ran one ac at a time could probably do it on 30 amps. One ac is 15,000 btu and the other is 13,000. I would like to put a cummins onan 5.5k in it but right now thats wayout of the budget. 

55 minutes ago, briankd said:

hope you have good luck with that ford diesel . we have 6 of them at my work and they all at the ford dealer more than they are at our shop always check engine lites and derated 

Time will tell Brainkd, I know a couple guys that have running the ford 450's and power strokes for a few years now delivering campers around the country and they have had any major complaints.

[Pullstart 62,799]

Woo hoo, nice!  That 6.7 Diesel is a beast!  As for wattage of a genny, amps is watts divided by volts.  Most RV systems though can plug into a 240V/50A service only run on 120V.  Determining if this is a 240 or 120 system will tell you how many amps are needed for 50A.

[ZXT 2,401]

Nice looking truck! I'm not much of a Ford guy, but I do like the looks of their new 3/4 and 1 tons. Plus you can't argue with the power of a 6.7.

 

1 hour ago, briankd said:

hope you have good luck with that ford diesel . we have 6 of them at my work and they all at the ford dealer more than they are at our shop always check engine lites and derated 

What engines do they have in them? If they're 6.0 or 6.4's then I can understand them being in the shop all of the time. They are junk without a bunch of work. I haven't heard anything bad about the 6.7.

 

As for your generator, A 50A RV service will be your standard 4 wire 240v range plug. The RV will have 240v to it, but the appliances are (for the most part, not always) 120v and will run off of one leg or the other. Biggest thing is knowing if it is a 120 or 240v air conditioner. Amperage pulled by the AC will be considerably less at 240v as opposed to 120. There are adapters out there to allow you to plug a 50a 240v RV plug into a 30A 120V receptacle. You'll just need to be selective on what appliances you run to keep your amp draw low enough.

[troutbum70 857]

15 minutes ago, ZXT said:

Nice looking truck! I'm not much of a Ford guy, but I do like the looks of their new 3/4 and 1 tons. Plus you can't argue with the power of a 6.7.

 

What engines do they have in them? If they're 6.0 or 6.4's then I can understand them being in the shop all of the time. They are junk without a bunch of work. I haven't heard anything bad about the 6.7.

 

As for your generator, A 50A RV service will be your standard 4 wire 240v range plug. The RV will have 240v to it, but the appliances are (for the most part, not always) 120v and will run off of one leg or the other. Biggest thing is knowing if it is a 120 or 240v air conditioner. Amperage pulled by the AC will be considerably less at 240v as opposed to 120. There are adapters out there to allow you to plug a 50a 240v RV plug into a 30A 120V receptacle. You'll just need to be selective on what appliances you run to keep your amp draw low enough.

Okay tnx I will know more about the camper and its components when I get the hitch in the truck and get the camper home.

[lynnmor 7,302]

RV air conditioners are 120 volt, 240 volt appliances are rare in RVs.  You will need about 3000 watts to run one AC and about 5000 watts to operate both.  I have two 2000 watt Honda generators so I can move them easily, I only need to run both if running my one AC.

[squonk 41,037]

Yes you need a big genny to run both. And if you are marginal on the available wattage you will shorten the life of the AC Compressors. Another note: If you are at a campground and try to run both while plugged in you risk burning up your power cord and the whole trailer. Campgrounds are notorious for crappy electric. I have seen grass fire start from overheated cords.

[Redneckdavis 308]

Just my 2¢ . . One thing about the power is, it is possible and very easy to overload generators. Then like they said ,over heat, fire, shorten life of electrical components blah blah blah. Bad things. I'd go for the 2 good size ones or one really big one. If you had the money for $100k of truck and trailer, don't cheap out on powering it. 

As for the truck, if it does give you trouble and it's out of warranty. First thing I'd do is remove all the DEF crap. Big brother and the dealership frowns upon it, but there is plenty of professional shops that will do it and make it look like it never happened. All of that emissions junk is like they did in the 70s by taking all the v8s and choking them down to half power and efficiency. 

[troutbum70 857]

I have a 8 year 125,000 bumper to bumper warranty on it so won't worry about failures for a while, hopefully over the eight years we can work out the bugs.

[Achto 27,506]

I would highly suggest an inverter generator, both for your noise comfort and the comfort of those around you. An inverter gen is also better on electronics as the power is cleaner ( less voltage & frequency fluctuation )That being said most inverter gens are only rated to 3500w, this will not allow you to run both of your AC units. Cummins/Onan does offer a 4500w inverter at a price that is less than a 3500w Honda or Generac. There are some larger inverter gens on the market but I don't know much about them. 

 

For 1/2 the price of any of the above mentioned inverter gens & if you don't plan on running both AC units at once, I know plenty of guys that are happy with the Harbor Freight 3500w inverter gen. They can run one AC unit, fridge & microwave with out issue. On these units it is very important to keep the exhaust screen and air filter clean. Clean them about every 100hrs to 150hrs, this is the only issue that I have heard of on the HF inverter gen. 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Achto

[troutbum70 857]

I did not find the cummins onan 4500 will have to search again, I did a little search on the harbor freight 3500. That one can be hooked to a second one in parrell. And yes I would get an gen/inverter, thank you for every ones suggestions. 

[lynnmor 7,302]

Last week while camping my 2011 6.7 Ford had a check engine light for the first time.  The DEF heater is a known problem and a special warranty on that issue took care of it for free.

 

Google Onan 4500i to see just another Chinese clone generator.  Onan stooped to this low level and IMO is no longer a reputable company.

 

Campgrounds have severely abused outlets because of numerous clueless people plugging in and out while under load.  These burnt outlets can have high resistance causing heat and destruction of your plug.

 

Here is what we do:

 

Turn off the breaker.

Plug in and out multiple times to wipe the contacts.

We use a short pigtail as a sacrificial connection.

We always have a voltmeter permanently plugged in.

Turn on the breaker and check voltage, if under 108 then AC cannot be run.

Turn on AC and again check voltage, if now too low, turn it off.

For voltage below 110, we use a Hughes autoformer.

 

Be aware that voltage can vary greatly as other campers increase and decrease their loads.  I have seen 99 volts when the Friday night crew rolled in and fired up the AC, water heater and cooked dinner.  That was the day years ago that I decided to buy an autoformer.

 

 

[Achto 27,506]

2 hours ago, troutbum63 said:

That one can be hooked to a second one in parrell

 

It's too bad that they did not add load sharing capabilities to their parallel capabilities. If they had you could add a 2000w to the 3500w for when you needed a little extra power. But according to what I read you can only parallel two gens of the same size with their system.

Edited August 25, 2020 by Achto

[bottjernat1 2,190]

Perdy Im a dodge guy but ford is my second pick. My dad was a ford guy

[squonk 41,037]

Another thing. Run the fridge on gas. I got a call to a State Park for an Airstream with the reefer not cooling well on a holiday weekend. Campground was full so amps were at a premium. Full oak woodwork throughout and a full size fridge loaded up. Told the guy either cut the AC off or switch to gas. Gas it was. Came back in an hour and not only did I eat well but I got a Franklin for my 10 minutes. 

[tom2p 2,394]

9 hours ago, lynnmor said:

 

 

Google Onan 4500i to see just another Chinese clone generator.  Onan stooped to this low level and IMO is no longer a reputable company.

 

 

smh 

 

that's a shame 

 

 

[troutbum70 857]

Lynnmor I am not famillar with the Hughes Autotransformer I will research it. Acto I am sure their plan is for the consummer to have to buy to 3500's. Sqounk I did plan to run fridge on gas to reduce needed amps. Made a trip to the buckeye and back with the pickup today 500 mile round averaged 23 mpg, less than a thousand miles on the power stroke at this point so not real bad. This one has 4.10 gears with the 10 speed tranny, at 70 mph tach hangs around 1750 with 17 inch tires.