The generator question
We boondock four nights out of ten. Solar is not enough, lithium is not magic, and the generator question is louder than we expected.
Three years in and the loudest conversation we still have isn't about routes or weather. It's about the generator: should we sell it?
It weighs forty pounds. It needs gasoline. It runs hot. And the etiquette around generators in boondocking spots is fraught — quiet hours, distance from neighbours, time-of-day rules that nobody agrees on.
We have two 200Ah lithium batteries and 400 watts of solar. On paper, that's enough. In practice, four cloudy days in a row at a campground under trees and you're rationing the fridge.
Last winter the generator ran our heat pump for three hours during a cold snap that solar would not have touched. The dog slept on a warm floor instead of a freezing one.
We keep it. The fight stays open. Maybe next year we add another panel and revisit.
From the campfire.
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where do you recommend we buy one of these?