Scott Chen wrote:

> I have already decided to purchase a Toyotomi Air Conditioning unit for
> my non-a/c equipped '84 Westy.  For those of you who don't know,
> they're small stand-alone units powered by 110VAC, 4000BTU using 400
> watts of power.  Anyway, I am debating how to power the unit. There is
> the option of powering it with a small gas powered generator mounted
> outside the van a la Bob Bellanca.  These are the small Honda type
> generators that look like a suitcase.  But another option, mentioned by
> a fellow listmember, would be to power it using an inverter.  I asked
> my mechanic if this would abuse my alternator.  He suggested that if I
> was to use an inverter, the best bet would be to install a second
> battery of the deep cycle variety.

Scott, et. al.,I am struggling with this exact same issue presently, I am
purchasing the Toyotomi 4K A/C for my 82 Diesel Westy. I believe I will use
the generator instead of the inverter for two main reasons:
1) The 4 amps the A/C unit pulls on 110VAC converts to around 50 amps on
the 12VDC side, I think the stock generator on my rig is 65 amps, not much
room to move.
2) My Diesel is underpowered! That 50 amps being constantly pulled from any
generator can be converted to HP by some smart mechanical engineer, and
I'll bet it's around say 3 or more HP (I've been looking everywhere for
that formula, but no joy). There is around a 10% inefficiency in the
inverter alone, wasting power.
Additionally, in my "slant" configured diesel engined westy, I can envision
that the generator will fit -inside- my engine compartment where the
battery presently fits.
The major advantage of the inverter is you can purchase a large enough
capacity unit to handle a large wattage surge that the (small) generator
won't.
I am diligently remanufacturing a 13' Diesel Pusher w/gen and Roof Air (not
mounted on roof however).
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Shalom
Mark B. Magee
82 Diesel Westy
87GL
96 Suzuki 4WD Sport
Kemah TX USA
John 14:6