[C320-list] Honda 200 generator - battery charger?

[Jeffrey Hare]

1) A simple shore power to extension cord adapter should work fine.  It has
a standard 3-prong plug on one end and the 30A shore power adapter on the
other end.

2) Output of the 2000 watt charger is more than enough to run the shore
power charger, and a bunch of other things as well.

3) At best, you're going to have 30a charging current available. The charger
has 3 circuits @ 10a each, for charging 3 batteries simultaneously.  If you
only have 2 batteries, you may not get the full 30A out of the charger, but
that depends on the wiring and the charger.  On average we use somewhere
between 15-30 amp hours a day running lights fridge and lots of junk, and
estimate that with 2 4Ds in parallel, we have ~180-200amp hours of usable
power.  I'd guess that running the generator for a couple hours a day would
do it, but you should run it occasionally until the charger switches into
the Float stage to ensure that you're getting out of the final absorption
stage of the charger (meaning that the batteries have taken all they really
can). 

Cheers!
-JeffH

-----Original Message-----
From: c320-list-bounces at catalina320.com
[mailto:c320-list-bounces at catalina320.com] On Behalf Of Martin Raphael
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 8:29 PM
To: C320-List
Subject: [C320-list] Honda 200 generator - battery charger?

Having read previous posts on the wonders of the Honda 2000 charger, I am 
considering getting one.  I have some naive questions though:
1.  How do you hook it up...is it as simple as plugging the shore cable in 
(with suitable plug adaptor)?
2.  Will the output of the 2000 watt model be sufficient to run my 30 amp 
battery charger?
3.  If so, how long would I likely need to run the genrator to recharge a 
typical day's power consumption (running fridge, some lights at night, 
portable DVD player, radio?
Thanks,
Martin Raphael
Rhapsody #108