Portable diesel heater from Total Composites
- Thread starter delica1994
- Start date
Outside somewhere
Overland certified public figure brand ambassador
Got a heads up from a friend who runs a HD locally about this back in nov. Wanted to try it knowing I could return it should it fail or under perform no questions asked. I ran a 62" suhd curved tv, high def cable box, router/cable modem on one splitter. A second splitter had 3 cellphones and a tablet all charging. It high idled immediately, went down for 10 min then back up for the rest of the time I tried it. I tried my fridge alone (24 cubic ft samsung smart fridge) and started but bogged down then went off. No breaker trip, just wouldn't run it. As far as gas usage - cut the mfg specs in half and that's real world at an ambient temp of 65* I tried big and small tanks, no difference. The hr rating is significantly off. Overall impression - it's worth $250, maybe 300 but no more. It is quiet, didn't do a db test but it's for sure more quiet under load than my honda. Biggest thing to me was the case is super thin, I mean it's great to make it light but they should have at least made the side panels way thicker. One decent impact and I see the sides cracking especially if it were cold out. I won't compare it to my honda 2200 but for someone that wanted a gen that could do minimal work for a day or three during a power outage it would probably be fine. I returned it and told him to pull one for me if they hit $225-250. I'll stick with my honda.
dreadlocks
Well-known member
that looks more like a LP powered battery charger than a full blown genny.. its does not have enough umph to run my coffee maker... It would be ideal for teardrops, and RTT trailer rigs, etc that dont have any AC appliances at all and just need a reliable charge source for when solar isint cutting it... and the price is right for that use, I'd of loved one of these when I was tenting it out of a lil cargo trailer.
dwh
Tail-End Charlie
I only use a genny for battery charging in the boonies. Don't have, or need, a microwave, TV, or coffee maker in either the camper van or the RV.
I had a 1200w/1500w Champion till I wore it out at 1200 hours. $200 and bigger than needed. Went through two of the 800w/900w Harbor Freight two-strokes. $100 and still bigger than needed. This year got a 1500w/1800w Champion. According to Champion, same engine as the 1200w/1500w I had before, but with a beefier alternator. $200, but only sold at Tractor Supply.
Though they were all bigger than needed, more than 12-14 hours run-time while battery charging would have been nice, but never needed for the 100ah aux battery in the camper.
The difference these days is that the camper now has a 300w solar panel and 400ah battery bank, which will eventually get swapped over to the RV.
So I don't really need a genny at all anymore, except that I like shade in summer - in the mountains...at the beach or in the desert, not an option unless I deploy the parachute to have an awning that covers the entire vehicle and provides shade on all four sides.
Which I haven't done since I got the solar, but I might. In which case the solar would be covered and I'd need a gen for battery charging. The camper has a 5g horizontal propane tank, the RV 15g. I swapped out the 3-way propane fridge in the camper for a 12v compressor fridge and will probably do the same in the RV eventually.
So having a 900w gen that could run from propane, that would be big enough for battery charging and also have a longer run-time for the bigger battery bank - AND throttle down over time as the batteries absorb - would be perfect...for the rare occasions when it would actually be needed. And no worries about gummy carbs, carbon build-up, or altitude compensation.
Like I said...I want that. Wanted it for years.
Of course the published run-time numbers are a bit misleading as they are at 25% load. No worries though...Honda does the same thing with their run-time numbers.
I had a 1200w/1500w Champion till I wore it out at 1200 hours. $200 and bigger than needed. Went through two of the 800w/900w Harbor Freight two-strokes. $100 and still bigger than needed. This year got a 1500w/1800w Champion. According to Champion, same engine as the 1200w/1500w I had before, but with a beefier alternator. $200, but only sold at Tractor Supply.
Though they were all bigger than needed, more than 12-14 hours run-time while battery charging would have been nice, but never needed for the 100ah aux battery in the camper.
The difference these days is that the camper now has a 300w solar panel and 400ah battery bank, which will eventually get swapped over to the RV.
So I don't really need a genny at all anymore, except that I like shade in summer - in the mountains...at the beach or in the desert, not an option unless I deploy the parachute to have an awning that covers the entire vehicle and provides shade on all four sides.
Which I haven't done since I got the solar, but I might. In which case the solar would be covered and I'd need a gen for battery charging. The camper has a 5g horizontal propane tank, the RV 15g. I swapped out the 3-way propane fridge in the camper for a 12v compressor fridge and will probably do the same in the RV eventually.
So having a 900w gen that could run from propane, that would be big enough for battery charging and also have a longer run-time for the bigger battery bank - AND throttle down over time as the batteries absorb - would be perfect...for the rare occasions when it would actually be needed. And no worries about gummy carbs, carbon build-up, or altitude compensation.
Like I said...I want that. Wanted it for years.
Of course the published run-time numbers are a bit misleading as they are at 25% load. No worries though...Honda does the same thing with their run-time numbers.
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