burton9010 Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Just bought a 1985 toyota dolphin this weekend and I need to have this thing ready in about a month for a 30 day around the country trip. The generator is missing out of the compartment. Does anyone know what generator came with these ones or should I put anyone in there? I have one positive wire, a fuel line, and a wire with three wires on it that someone cut all inside the compartment. Do I only need to hook it up to 110 power and that will run the a/c or do I need to get a 220 one? Also how many watts is needed to run the a/c unit? Has anyone ever tried running a very large inverter like a 4000 watt or 5000 watt size? Would these run the a/c unit at night? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek up North Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 The size needed depends on which A/C you've got. 13.5K Btuh seems to need about 2800W, 7000-9000 Btuh apparently are happy with ~2000W. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dayoff53 Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Just bought a 1985 toyota dolphin this weekend and I need to have this thing ready in about a month for a 30 day around the country trip. The generator is missing out of the compartment. Does anyone know what generator came with these ones or should I put anyone in there? I have one positive wire, a fuel line, and a wire with three wires on it that someone cut all inside the compartment. Do I only need to hook it up to 110 power and that will run the a/c or do I need to get a 220 one? Also how many watts is needed to run the a/c unit? Has anyone ever tried running a very large inverter like a 4000 watt or 5000 watt size? Would these run the a/c unit at night? It probably came with a Kohler 2500 watt generator, but that hasn't been made for years and you wouldn't want it if it was available - it's incredibly noisy. I would recommend that you look into the Onan Microlite (2800 watt gas or 2500 watt propane). It should fit in the compartment, is a current model and is MUCH quieter. 110 volts is what you need - same as your shore power. Just guessing, but your a/c is probably around 1800 watts. I know folks running a 1500 watt pure sine wave inverter, but haven't heard of anybody running 4k or 5k watts - seems like that would require several good 6-volt batteries to last very long running the a/c off of the batteries. My brother ('90 SeaBreeze) is adding 2 6-volt batteries and an 1800 watt pure sine wave inverter to run his TV, blu-ray, micronuker and 110 receptacles and maybe a second 12-volt to run lights, etc., but he is not going to try running the a/c off the batteries. Good luck! Sounds like you have quite a project to get ready for a major trip in a month! Search the forums here for any project before you start - you will find a lot of useful information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burton9010 Posted May 30, 2011 Author Share Posted May 30, 2011 Thanks for the info guys. I think I am just going to stick to the easy generator idea for now. Maybe later I will try to put 4-5 batteries in the generator compartment and run a 3000w inverter for the a/c but for now I will just stick with the easy project. So the cord that has three wires on it that someone cut do I just wire a 110 vold plug onto the end and if so how do I know which wires go where because their all three grey? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dayoff53 Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 So the cord that has three wires on it that someone cut do I just wire a 110 volt plug onto the end and if so how do I know which wires go where because their all three grey? I'm not sure what "cord" you're talking about. My '92 Winnebago has a three-wire 30 amp 110 volt shore power cord that plugs into a 30-amp socket at an RV park or at home. The generator also has a 30-amp socket, so I just plug the same cord into the generator to get my power from it. Here is a picture of a 30-amp plug: and here is a picture of a 30-Amp Socket, showing the hot, ground and neutral: Here is a brief explanation of putting on a new 30 Amp plug, but it assumes you have a black (hot), white (neutral) and green (ground) wire. If all of your wires are gray, you have to trace them to figure out which is which. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burton9010 Posted May 30, 2011 Author Share Posted May 30, 2011 I will have to take a pic of the wire I am talking about. Can I get an adapter for that 35 amp plug so that can plug it into my house 110 outlet so I can make sure everything works right now or if I plug this into a regualar outlet will it mess something up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dayoff53 Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Can I get an adapter for that 30 amp plug so that can plug it into my house 110 outlet so I can make sure everything works right now or if I plug this into a regular outlet will it mess something up? Adapters are available - and cheap - at any RV parts store. Here's the cheapest kind and you can spend more if you want. There will be no problems other than the limitation on your household electric circuit (15 or 20 amp), which should not be a problem for anything except possibly the A/C if you are on a 15 amp circuit - in which case you may pop the circuit breaker in your house. When I have had a place to park an RV at home, I have always put in a dedicated 30 amp circuit with the appropriate 30 amp outlet for my RV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.