[purplehazedog]

I've been wanting to buy a generator for years. We camp a few times a year and when I'm at the race track a good generator would be helpful. Now that I am picking up my Ford Lightning in a few weeks, I thought it would be a great time to pick one up that I can use for camping/racing and to charge my truck when California turns off the lights.

What do people have or use out there? Any suggestions? Lookouts?

Thanks!

 

[Leaf to Lightning : )]

I use my Lightning AS MY GENERATOR - why would I need to buy another? I camp and don't need a campground - the Lightning is already my 'campground power'... it's all good.

I have the 9.6kw ProPower output, with 240v 30amp at the bed and many 20amp outlets all around. I've found that camping using VERY LITTLE of the massive power the Lightning has.

Trying to use an 'generator' to charge the truck is an exercise in futility - it would take DAYS for your generator to give you even a few miles of range. Most any larger 240v generators would be so big and heavy, it makes little sense to 'carry' them around. Even then, they would take so much fuel to give you so few miles - well, you get the picture.

 

[ChasingCoral]

I've been wanting to buy a generator for years. We camp a few times a year and when I'm at the race track a good generator would be helpful. Now that I am picking up my Ford Lightning in a few weeks, I thought it would be a great time to pick one up that I can use for camping/racing and to charge my truck when California turns off the lights.

What do people have or use out there? Any suggestions? Lookouts?

Thanks!

Why not use the truck for your camping/racing needs?

If you do decide to buy a generator, do the math first. The SR battery has 98 kWh, the ER 131. How big is your generator? Is it 110v or 220v? How fast can it charge the truck 10%, 25?, 50%? Does a generator even make sense for your need? Are you boondocking or can you charge at the campground?

 

[R.I.P.]

All replies to this post accurately indicate that using a genset to charge the vehicle may not be the most efficient way to produce and use power while camping. Here is the math.
The popular Honda 2000i can power a mobile EVSE at the 110v rate, but just barely. It will take everything the little Honda can give, and would have to run continuously for 65 hours (two and a half days) to fill half of a Lightning ER's tank. Of course during that time you cannot use any of that power for anything else, so that defeats the purpose.

If you wanted to charge your Lightning using the 220 cord, it would take a 10kw genset to support that. This is a big, often noisy machine that uses a substantial amount of fuel and it would still take 8 hours to replace half of what the Lightning can hold.

These figures help demonstrate why using a portable genset to charge an EV is usually the last resort. It is much simpler, cheaper and easier to just run into town for a DCFC fill-up when needed, and use the Lighting as the "genset". Where possible of course.

Hope that helps with your camp design process.

 

[KElkhorn]

I have actually considered this also, I'm in Montana where chargers can be a bit difficult to find. Costco has a "Firman" tri-fuel 9500W generator that occasionally goes on sale/rebate for around $750. It weighs around 200 lbs and has an 8 gallon tank, and more importantly has a 14-50 receptacle. I think it said it would run for 8-9 hours at 50% load, so would be less than that if charging at 40 Amps. I haven't pulled the trigger on this yet, but I think something along those lines would make sense for those of us that might be a few hundred miles between usable charging stations. (I'd rather do this at a campsite than park and wait at a level 2 station all day).

 

[tropicalisurf]

I saw this video a few months ago where this person used a battery generator to charge his Tesla. It worked in the video but not sure how practical it would be in the real world.

 

[R.I.P.]

I saw this video a few months ago where this person used a battery generator to charge his Tesla. It worked in the video but not sure how practical it would be in the real world.

LOL. Those units pack less then a mile's worth of power. Considering how difficult it is to run a Tesla that low (they protest wildy) to begin with, it is pretty much a youtube stunt rather than a real world thing.

 

[RST]

I have actually considered this also, I'm in Montana where chargers can be a bit difficult to find. Costco has a "Firman" tri-fuel 9500W generator that occasionally goes on sale/rebate for around $750. It weighs around 200 lbs and has an 8 gallon tank, and more importantly has a 14-50 receptacle. I think it said it would run for 8-9 hours at 50% load, so would be less than that if charging at 40 Amps. I haven't pulled the trigger on this yet, but I think something along those lines would make sense for those of us that might be a few hundred miles between usable charging stations. (I'd rather do this at a campsite than park and wait at a level 2 station all day).

That would be some expensive electricity. 40a at 230v would be maxing out that generator....4.25 hrs of run time using 8 gallons of gas, adding 39 kWh to your batteries. At $4.50 a gallon, that would be about $.93 per kWh.

 

[purplehazedog]

Thanks for all the comments guys. I have a little charge anxiety and I've seen us run low in my wife's Tesla on long road trips. We camp two hours away in the mountains for a week at a time and I thought I could possible charge while the truck sits for days on end.

But the big one is my towing my trailer and race car. My local track is 85 miles away and I'll be pulling 6500 lbs. I thought I could possibly charge at the track for a couple days while I race and then make it back home. Maybe I'll just buy an RV spot at the track and use that plug in for charging.

I'll check out the Costco generators.
Thanks!

 

[JackBeQuick]

I've been wanting to buy a generator for years. We camp a few times a year and when I'm at the race track a good generator would be helpful. Now that I am picking up my Ford Lightning in a few weeks, I thought it would be a great time to pick one up that I can use for camping/racing and to charge my truck when California turns off the lights.

What do people have or use out there? Any suggestions? Lookouts?

Thanks!

We bought a Harbor Freight Predator 3500 to use for camping this past summer before we took delivery of our Lariat ER. It's worked well so far to power rental campers and is nice and quiet. It will also fit in my bed with the tonneau cover closed for transport for a couple trips we have planned next year. I don't plan to charge the Lariat with it. It would take too long, and I'd probably become an internet meme real quick while camping at a couple NASCAR events.

We plan to rent campers that are not too far from our destinations next summer to reduce towing distances. Once we get set up. we'll recharge at some off-site DC chargers. I plan to try running the camper from the truck just to test it out but will probably stick with the generator for the most part. Looking forward to the learning experience.