I was at Home Depot the other day, and was pretty impressed by this Coleman Powermate 1850 Watt generator. I'm NOT an electrical engineer, and need to research (or someone chime in, please!) if 1850 Watts is enough juice to charge 3 or 4 boat batteries.... The $399 price tag is what amazed me. I've had my eye on the Honda generators for a while, and they are $1250-1700 all day long. This guy is portable, and light enough to move and carry by yourself, but still a pretty good sized piece of equipment. If you're like me, you want to have electricity at your disposal, so you can charge your boat ANYWHERE...so you never get burned if you can't get a camp spot or a hotel room or whatever.
Anyway, wondering if anyone knows anything about these little bad boys, and if anyone knows if 1850 Watts produces the juice you need to charge a modern bass boat with 24 and 36 volt systems and all the gadgets.
#3365, "RE: Portable Generator--Coleman Powermate" In response to Reply # 0
Hey Matt if you use the plug and run a cord(a SHORT #12 wire extension cord)to your boat for charging(not the 12 volt)... the 15amps the generator puts out is just like a circuit breaker in your standard home panel.
#3369, "RE: Portable Generator--Coleman Powermate" In response to Reply # 2
Using ohms law, Amps = watts divided by volts. 1850 watts/115 VAC = 16 AMPS.
115V; 16 AMPS is more than enough to run your battery charger, your lights, and anything else in your campsite...except maybe an electric heater or microwave on top of it all!
#3370, "RE: Portable Generator--Coleman Powermate" In response to Reply # 3
The electric heater might be pushing it unless its a small one. Those heaters draw a lot of current considering they use resistors to create heat. It will have more than enough to charge the batteries.