Our Engel Fridge is almost an antique, so it uses more power than our deep cycle battery can provide after being charged only while driving. Especially if we stop driving mid afternoon, the fridge has to run non-stop all afternoon, then all night until we hit the road again the next day.

Because of this, a lot of the time, we were restricted to powered sites in caravan parks To run the fridge all night. A lot of the time this means high-cost camping plus the potential of being crowded and being restricted to a lot of rules.

Our solution was purchasing our little Ryobi RIG1000 Gennie to try get out of caravan parks.

We run the generator for just a couple of hours in the late afternoons. This runs our battery charger that throws about 15 amps an hour onto our deep cycle battery. This gives the battery enough juice to run the fridge all night. It has really set us free now we are not restricted to caravan parks.

The RIG1000 has a 2.7litre fuel tank. This is plenty to last a few days. It’s certainly a whole heap cheaper than paying for powered sites at caravan parks. It’s a perfect size too. I am a big lad, so I can lift the Gennie in and out of the camper with one hand very easily. Even Jazz would be able to do it without too many dramas.

It has an output of 1000 watts, so it packs plenty of punch to run any of the powered devices we carry. I don’t think you could run an air conditioner on it, but we don’t have the space or budget to carry one anyway.

I am a big fan of Ryobi branded tools. I know that everyone loves buying Honda Generators, and they are certainly very good. But they are expensive. My Ryobi cost me under $500 at Bunnings. And because Bunnings is Australia wide, if I ever have a problem with my Ryobi Generator while it is under warranty I can take it back to any store around the country and swap it for a new one. Bunnings are really good with honouring their returns policy.

I hope you enjoyed the video at the top of this article. If you haven’t watched it yet, then maybe you should.

http://www.naivenomads.com.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Naive-Nomads-900x506.jpghttp://www.naivenomads.com.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Naive-Nomads-140x140.jpgMikeyGear and ReviewsOur Engel Fridge is almost an antique, so it uses more power than our deep cycle battery can provide after being charged only while driving. Especially if we stop driving mid afternoon, the fridge has to run non-stop all afternoon, then all night until we hit the road again...Travelling Australia, learning things the hard way