Got one of these A-iPower SUA2000I Inverter Generators

ac_

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This is for the TJ campers here.

I have a Honda 3100i for my big trailer and it is awesome, so I was looking for a Honda 2000 for my RTT trailer, but it was a 1000 bucks, and I really just don't need that nice of gen, but I wanted something that would work and last. Based on the reviews I thought this was worth a try.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/aip-sua2000i

So here is my findings:
This thing is worth the money. The reviews are good. There is minor setup, really easy. It doesn't come shipped with oil, but it takes standard 30w. I used Valvoline in mine. It comes with a funnel for the oil, and some tools. It comes with a battery charging harness. It also comes with the kit that if you buy two, you can run them in parallel.

The last time I went camping my buddy brought his RV and his batteries were completely dead, so we put a strip on my gen, and it charged my battery and ran my electric cooler, while charging his batteries and running his onboard fridge all on low speed.

Low speed is quiet like a Honda, but high speed is louder, but not louder than a regular gen, but louder than a Honda inverter gen on high. Still not horrible especially for the price.

When I first started it brand new it started on the second pull. And since has started on the second pull every time.

The only drawback is that it won't let you run it out of gas, so if you are going to store it you have to drain the carb. That sucks, but rather than draining the carb I run mine every month or so to warm it up and keep the gas flowing.

I wanted to share this with people that are looking or a quality cheap Gen. I am super happy with mine.

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What do you need to run with the generator when camping with your RTT?
I use it to charge my battery because I have an electric cooler. I also make a makeshift swamp cooler out of a house fan and a bucket of water. I run the fan almost all day and all night. My cooler will kill the battery overnight. I need to charge it during the day. Plus I have plugs everywhere to charge laptops, phones and ipads. I know I know but camping means ride quads all day and watch movies/tv at night.

I have enough power to run pretty much anything I want or need to. But mostly I use it to keep the battery topped off.
 
This might be hijacking your thread, but since you were talking about your generator, I just got one yesterday to run the house and our well. Since we have been getting alot of fires around here and everyone is trying to sue P.G. &E. for the fires, they want to shut power off now when ever the wind blows. We had our power shut off in July when we had the fires here. Unable to get water out of our well to defend our home.
So yesterday we had a transfer switch installed in our home, so when we loose power, we throw a switch in the electrical box, switching over to our generator which will run everything in our home plus our well. Self sufficient.
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Might be a obvious dumb question, but "it won't let you run it out of gas." Most of the motors I have do not keep going if I do not put gas in them. Ha Ha

I am presuming it will not burn all the fuel out of the float bowl, right? Something like Sta-Bil should help your fuel stay ok for 6 mo or so I would think if you can get real gas to start out with.

Thanks for sharing the info. Been thinking about one of these myself.
 
This is an answer to the above question.

First, I have no hands on experience with the unit that @ac linked above so I’m going to assume it uses the same set up as my Honda 2000.

On these units there is not a separate fuel shut off. The fuel pump is shut off at the same time as the ignition. One switch covers both functions.

You can easily drain the carburetor float bowl on the Honda but I take things a step further.

I clamp these pliers on the carburetor fuel line while my generator is running and let the carburetor run out of fuel and stall the engine.
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This method has worked very well when I want to put the generator in storage between uses.
 
Use stabil and 91 octane ethanol free gasoline.

Agreed, as long as ethanol free fuel is available. I use stabil in what I have stored at home but running the carb dry is simple peace of mind for me.
 
What we did for a generator is purchase a military surplus MEP-802A 5 kw genset. Runs on diesel, 100% duty cycle, designed to run 24/7. One of the best decisions that ever made.

If you're interested, check out a MEP-802, or MEP-803 10 kw, or a really nifty MEP-831a 3kw.
 
How's this inverter holding up? I'm in the market for one and have my eye on the Generac one.

It is still holding up well. Fires up 2nd pull.

To all of you others, that are helping me figure out the gas issue. I start it up and let it run till hot at least once a month and just let the gas sit in the bowl. It hasn't been a problem yet. I do like the plier Idea, but I don't think I can get them in there, although I haven't looked really. I have had such good luck with it that I haven't worried too much about it.

I did just for fun tried to see if it would run my 13500 AC unit on my trailer and it wouldn't but a honda 2000 wouldn't either, but it does run my fridge and all of my other accessories (TV, Stereo, and raspberry pie and internal lights) with no issues.

Last time I used it camping my friends batterys were dead on his motorhome and it ran his fridge and mine on the low setting. I am pretty happy with it. I mean it is not as good as the Honda 2000 by any means but it is half the price and works great for what I have needed it for. I have a honda 3000 for my ac on my trailer. But I mostly use this for my tent trailer when I go tenting.
 
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I used to use Stabil until I needed a snow blower carb rebuilt due to the gas going bad. The guy that did the work told me to forget Stabil, and use Fuel Injector cleaner instead. I've used FI cleaner ever since in my extra gas cans, lawn mower, generator, and snow blower. The machines all start without an issue, and I never drain the gas tanks to store them. I rotate the extra gas cans, and also run the generator every couple of months and refresh the gas. Maybe I've been lucky? YMMV, and invariably will...
 
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