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.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100002124

MP

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.

good luck

Tim E

Matt-

Does it have am amp rating? Amps are more important than watts. This will tell you more of what the generator can provide.

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!

Hope this helps.

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.

You guys are hot.

That is good information. Mr. Peepers might just have to invest in one of those bad boys. Me likes the flexibility a portable generator provides.

MP

have one

they run loud at 3600 rpm, the 1850 is an optimistic max non sustained wattage rating, 1200-1400 is more realistic

its been a solid unit thats run for about 9 years for us in a remote cabin setting without issue.