I have a 5300 but need a small suitcase style to run R V minus the air conditioner. What have you got ?

I have the Onan 4500i for my camper and a Honda 2000 for everything else.
I just bought the Onan for $1100. It weighs around 90 pounds. It’s set up for 30 amp. Very quite

Honda 2000. Get 2 if you want to run the air-conditioner and want to light weight carry.

I use a Honda 3000i when I want to run the air conditioner.

Honda.,

Honda 2200 if money is no object.

I got the Generac 2500 last week for half the money. So far it seems to take five pulls to start it.

I ordered two, but one had been flooded in transit. It refused to start. So I am waiting on a replacement from Home Depot.

I bought a Westinghouse 2200W last year and really like it. I've used it several times at the deer camp and it starts most of the time on the first pull. When it got to 14 degrees F., it took two pulls. It doesn't have a lot of extras, but I got it on sale on line from Sam's Club delivered for 315 clams. They go for more than that usually, but I just got lucky. They also have a 2500, but I don't know much about them as far as being dependable. Look on Youtube and you'll see vids about them.

I have a couple of the 2300watt Powerhorse inverter generators from Northern Tool.About 8hrs on a gallon of gas,quiet,much like the Honda. https://www.northerntool.com/

Honda

Last fall I bought a Generac gp3300 at Menard's for 379 not as quiet as a Honda nor will it probably last as long. I put oil in it to the prescribed level and put on the wheels and handle. Poured gas in it and it started first pull.yeah I like it. MB

I have a Honda 2000, but needed a second one to parallel them and run the a/c on the camper. Ended up getting two Firman 2000 watt from Costco. Came with the parallel cords. Decent reviews. 3yr warranty and I think an additional three years when using the Costco credit card. That length of time will more than take care of my RVing needs. Paid $750 for the pair. Still have the Honda for other uses.

You need to know the loads. A 1000 watt gen will run up to a 50 amp 12v converter/charger used on most RV's. I use a Honda 1000 and a Yamaha 3000iSEB.

If you can get away with only 1000 watts, The Sportsman 1000 is a gem. It delivers pure sine wave power, runs eight hours on half a gallon of gas, and weighs 20 pounds. It was just over $200 when I bought mine. There are Youtube vids, of course.
LINK

You can do and effective load study by removing the fuse on the 12vdc side and insert an amp meter 10amp. Do this for each one of the fuses. Log the data and total. Power P= I x E.

If you have a modern fridge you will find that you have a heater strip for condensation running. About 6.8 amps. Disconnect this circuit and you will be able to run low power. The heater strip is join connected at the fridge interior lamp. Just cut the large red wire and insulate. Retest to prove you got the right circuit.

Check out the 2000 watt predator from Harbor Freight . I got one on sale for less than $500 .

If it will do what you need. Its pretty hard to beat a Honda 2000.

Except that Hondas cost about a dollar a watt. Yes, they are the Rolls Royce of generators. But how many of us buy a Rolls when we need just a car?

Have the Honda 2200i. No complaints

I've been looking closely at this one. Dual fuel seems like a nice feature and it weighs 40lbs.

Interesting. Let us know how it works out. I would think it's a tremendous challenge trying to feed a carb with a vapor in a pressurized environment of the suite case generator housing. The cooling fan pressurizes the suite case housing.

The Generac GP 3000i has kind of caught my eye 30 amp capable for not a lot of extra weight. Has anyone had one of these?

I have a Champion 3500/4000 does it's job when the lights go out.

I bought this last year.
Oil, gas, choke...started on the first pull.
Kept us warm during the ERCOT disaster in Feb.
Sips gas. Has the fuel shut off to run gas out of the carb. A lot of them don’t have that feature.
My brother and I each got one for $388.

Were you able to run your gas furnace with it?

Honda 2000. Lots of use. No hiccups or problems. Super reliable me worth the money IMO

Buy once, cry once. Hasbeen

Cabelas was closing out Yamaha generators at a crazy good price. I happened to have a 150 dollar coupon, and points. I think I paid under 700 otd.
It is 2000I, and I can't say enough good about it. I would have bought a Honda, but I have zero complaints with the yamaha. So easy to use and efficient.
Really a good investment.

I doubt there's much difference between the Yamaha and Honda. I've got a Honda 2000 and it's great but I almost never use it. It's there in case I need it though.

Don’t have a gas furnace.
Ran a space heater, coffee pot, microwave at different times.
We stayed in one bedroom.
Bought it in December. Yeah it’s made in China but most of them are, including some Honda 2200s.

I have a Honda 3500 I got from Sam's Club and a Generac 2200. I've run AC and gas furnace with the honda but I use the Generac for everything else. You can pair 2 of them together as well. Much handier to use than wheeling the Honda around.

My niece brought one of the Harbor Freight Predator Inverter 3500 generators up for my parents to use during Hurricane Zeta last year. Super quiet and doesn't use a lot of fuel. They're about $850 but I've seen them on sale for around 700.

Honda.

Thanks for all the input Gentlemen

+1

DF

I purchased a Ryobi 2200w serge 1800 cont. Inverter because I did not want to pay double for the Honda.
I would have purchased the Predator from Harbor Freight but the closest store was 3+ hours each way.

The Ryobi does not do what they say it will do.
I would not recommend it over the Predator or Honda.
I have run a lot of Generators over the years and have (2) Predators 5000w & 8750w
I just picked up a 12000w Duel fuel Pulsar I could not not get it for the price I paid for it.
all of my large generators are loud and heavy so they probably would not be good for your use.

Good Luck with what you decide to pick up.

My 5KW Honda usually starts with one pull of the rope. I turn the gas off when I’m done, run it dry. I keep ethanol free gas in the tank with stabilizer.

When I need it, I turn the gas on, choke it and pull the rope. This unit is 25 yrs old. Works as good as it ever did. Never been worked on. Not many can follow a Honda with that scenario. They cost more, but they are worth it.

DF

Sounds great but I’m looking for something small and portable. I just ordered the Generac GP3000 i

I have a Honda 2000i and the Honda 2000i Companion with the 30 amp RV plug to parallel to it when running the AC on my fifth wheel camper.
Easy to load, quiet, easy on gas, versatile, clean power and trouble free.
Happy I went with them, highly recommend.

Had a Generac, it was a POS.

champion has a framed generator that is 4000 watt,electric start,and remote start. around 650.00. remote start would sure be nice on a cold november morning when hunting. its a inverter.

I bought a Honda 2200 this year and am super impressed with it. Quiet, efficient. But expensive.

I have both a Honda and Yamaha. The engineering on the Honda is space shuttle level. Honda calibrates the overload performance better than any company that I have seen. I would be very interested in seeing what they did with the 2200i. The Honda 3000i is the gold standard for performance and low sound level.

My Yamaha 3000iSEB has a battery boost feature that outperforms the Honda. The Yamaha is an old traditional motor/gen design that is very well implemented. I like the Yamaha but, if given the choice I would buy the Honda again.

My Honda is the 1000. It is over 10 years old and used for camping battery charging every season. The oil has never even darkened in it. I typically run the weekend with it and dump the oil. It only holds about a cup of oil. The first failure will be deterioration of the internal wire insulation. It is turning yellow now.

If you want dependability, get a Honda 2200 inverter and if you want to run your AC, pair 2 of them together. They weigh less than 50 pounds and are very reliable.

Good vid here...

I bought the 900 W from Harbor Freight. About $120. I have used it for about ten years now during hunting season.Runs Heater fan, lights, Water pump, Phone Chargers,etc in my camper. Where we hunt there is no water So I use it to pump water out of a 55 gal barrel into a smaller stock tank with a small 120V pump. It is two cycle and starts every time.Great fro putting in the tractor bucket and working away from the shop. It looks like this one.

https://www.harborfreight.com/900-w...OJWlwhKeTLPHSRA38fXtlT5T1JRoC8vgQAvD_BwE

A 2000w will run most RV a/c's except for the startup. A while back we had a thread on Softstarts but I couldn't find it. It's a device that spreads out the startup power requirements and allows the a/c to start with a much lower power input. I don't know how they work but they're supposed to reduce the stress on the motors and make them last longer. An a/c requires more than double the running watts to start. A 15k btu will run on 1500 watts but takes over 3000 to start. The Softstart is supposed to get it started with only the running watts.

I read that there are 2 main brands: Softstart and Easystart. They both cost about the same, around $300, but the Easystart is considerably harder to install and program.