Towing to date

Very nice!
Do you bring a Generator for boondocking A/C?

 

I know that was not directed for me, but I bring mine when its necessary. It was a hot summer this year, so the generator tagged along on some of our trips.

However, even a quiet camping genset that's capable of driving a roof AC still cranks out 58-60 dB. And if you don't have a good hill to hide that sound behind, it will carry. I could still hear mine a good 1/4 mile off. Its never loud - we can hold a normal speaking conversation less than 10 feet away from the thing - but its definitely audible for a surprising distance. I hate using it.

For any trip where the temperature drops to barely tolerable for enough hours to sleep, it gets left at home and the solar briefcase comes out.

 

Terrain.

I have about 10k miles towing a ~2700lb travel trailer (w/the 3rd gen taco 3.5) and can get ~18 mpg in the flat lands of eastern NC and averaged ~13 in Utah.

You have to wind these engines up to get power. The engines are happy to do it but it majorly impacts the mpg.

Many people are going to bitch when/if the 4th gen has a turbo 4cylinder with lower top end hp specs BUT I'd bet it's going to perform much better with day-to-day driving and towing.

Edit: Now that I think about it.. probably more like 15k miles with the trailer.

 

One of the benefits of CA is when the weather turns hot we can escape to either the high elevation lakes of the Sierra Nevada or to the Pacific Coast where temps are generally both comfortable. We have only run the A/C one time to see that it worked. We went to Joshua Tree and Alabama Hills in March to avoid the heat. Half moon bay last month was planned far in advance in anticipation of wildfire season and it was both smoke free and cool while the Mosquito Fire was burning. The basecamp has 180W of solar on the roof, and we have an external 160W suitcase panel to keep the batteries full. Major electrical draws are the DC fridge, vent fans, heater fan, water pump, and the portable 50L Massimo fridge we picked up at Costco that we use for drinks. I have seen as high as 1KW of solar input on the Victron controller in a day. We also have the Ecoflow River Pro power station that we can take in the truck while we are out on adventures and charge while we drive.

 

Yeah, I recently picked up a Honda. Now I'm working on making a sound deadening mush box for it. My neighbor had a smaller one he used for his CPAP machine and it was barely audible. I was dismayed that my 2200 is audible from distance. I need power, but I don't want to be "That Guy".

 

Must be nice! We don't have that option here in WI.

 

cheers, thanks for this!

 

I switch between a Tacoma and my F350 SD 7.3 Crew cab Long bed 4x4, Now that is a tank. Can damn near put the tacomas weight in the bed of that thing

 

Never taken a generator camping, but congrats on the Honda. They are painful to buy but a pleasure to use. I have a 5kW non-inverter model that you can hold a conversation next to while it's loaded down. They really make excellent stuff. One of the few companies not cutting corners at every turn any more.

 

Problem with ev's currently, they have a very limited range before requiring recharging if towing anything fairly heavy. I'd likely think twice before that. Those ram 1500 eco diesel's are a pretty nice rig for towing.