motor home generator or not? or any experience.

[custard1966]

For the first time we have booked a motor home and we are looking for advice on renting a generator or not. Or any advice or people's experience. Thanks in advance

[bexj]

Gennys aren't allowed in the CV fields

[carlosj]

What are you wanting to do, that you think you'd need a generator? The van should have enough juice in a leisure battery, and you'd most likely have a live connection to charge phones overnight. Check with the rental firm on how long the charge will last, such as for the fridge, unless that's on gas?

[loosechange]

You'll be most likely to find the biggest draw on your leisure battery over the six days will be your water pump, so as long as you're not all expecting to have a shower every day then it should be fine. Or take a couple of solar showers...

If you have a motorhome with a built-in generator then they're OK with that, they're also seemingly fine with you running your vehicle engine to recharge your leisure battery if you need to - as long as you're being considerate to your neighbours.

[5co77ie]

they might be seemingly fine, your neighbours less so

[loosechange]

For sure, what I meant was if you happen to pop back to the CV fields during the middle of the day for any reason, say to fetch a change of clothes or maybe take on some water while it's quiet, or whatever - and your neighbours aren't trying to sleep or sat near your exhaust - then it's likely the best time to run your engine for a bit rather than first thing in the morning or late at night.

What I don't really get is why running one's engine or a fixed generator is fine from a T&Cs perspective, with the noise and the fumes, but auxiliary generators are banned - is it solely down to fire risk?

Edited October 22, 2014 by loosechange

[Stave_1974]

You'll be most likely to find the biggest draw on your leisure battery over the six days will be your water pump, so as long as you're not all expecting to have a shower every day then it should be fine. Or take a couple of solar showers...

If you have a motorhome with a built-in generator then they're OK with that, they're also seemingly fine with you running your vehicle engine to recharge your leisure battery if you need to - as long as you're being considerate to your neighbours.

This is a common misconception......"running your vehicle engine to recharge your leisure battery "

You would need to run your engine at decent revs, for an extended period (a good hour or two) to put any charge into to the leisure battery/batteries.

Your neighbours wouldn't be too impressed...!

The best way I've found when no hook-up is available (and the "green" way) is to have Solar Panels topping up you battery bank.

[Lockstock]

I too am going down the solar panel route.

[grumpyhack]

I've got a big (ish) solar panel permanently on the roof of my caravan. Apart from anything else the leisure battery needs to have enough juice to power the motor mover to get it out of its parking slot at the caravan storage site.

If you're hiring a motor home it may not have a solar panel so you may be stuck with the leisure battery.

If you're really uncertain, take a spare 12 volt battery with you. Ordinary car 12 volt batteries aren't as good as leisure batteries (they retain and recharge differently) but leisure batteries are not cheap. You could get a cheapo car 12 volt for not a lot.

[eFestivals]

you can buy decent solar panels which easily hook up to your battery from the likes of Maplin for less than £50 - which is what I've done, and I get by without a leisure battery on my campervan because of it.