HardAleeAdventures

Hi All! We are on our way to the International Balloon Fiesta and and will be staying Monday-Thursday in the VIP West (Harvest Host) area. Anyone else heading that way and/or interested in an impromptu meet-up? We are currently Airstreamers, but ordered our Ollie last week, so expectant family members. We’re full-timers and heading to Alaska next summer. We’d love to meet up with other travelers. Cheers, Jason (The Captain), Kelly (The Admiral) & Stormy (The Ensign)

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I apologize for the new-guy oops of posting a commercial link in my first post. To Steve’s point, it sounds like you currently have a Honda 2000, which can not support the momentary surge of the Truma AC compressor and adding the OTT installed EasyStart is not an option. Even installing one on your own, which is fairly simple, it appears it would possibly void the Truma warranty (this seems to be the case with many RV AC manufacturers). A possible solution, specifically to bbrault’s concern of not wanting to upgrade to a new generator, is the aforementioned external soft start. Without the link this time 😉, it is called a SoftStartUp. You can see my previous description. I have no affiliation of any kind with the company, just trying to help someone out based on personal experience with the product and a similar solution based on a similar need. The cost isn’t cheap, but would allow continued use of the Honda 2000, which is what we currently use as well.

One option may be to use this external soft start. [Link Deleted] It acts much like the wired EasyStart you may be familiar with, but it plugs directly inline with your trailer’s 30-amp power cord. It has a capacitor to compensate for the start-up surge of the compressor, but also operates as an external surge protector and smart shunt that allows smartphone monitoring of incoming power (voltage and current). We currently use one with our Dometic Penguin IIs on our Airstream 30 and plan to use it on our Oliver, once we take delivery in April. Currently we have two of the old Honda 2000s we can run in parallel with the SoftStartUp if both ACs are needed, or just one if we just need to take out a bit of heat/humidity. Since these generators take up ample bed space in our TV, we are hoping to get our hands on the new Honda 3200i, which is plenty to run the OTT off grid when needed and will free up a bit more room to help us downsize (right size) from our Airstream.