Generator and air conditioner PLEASE HELP

[snowrider500]

Just finished building my trailer a couple of weeks ago and Friday took it up north for its first camping trip. No shore power so I brought my generator. I have a rooftop air conditioner, Dometic Duo therm model 57915, 13500 btu a/c unit with heater. The week before after work every night I would stress test it with my 2000 watt Honda inverter generator for at least 2 hours. Without my fridge running the generator would make a little noise when the compressor would kick in but nothing out of the ordinary and would come back down to about half throttle shortly. With the a/c and fridge running it sounded like the generator was running at about 3/4 throttle. The first night fired up generator and was running a/c on medium blower with thermostat on coldest setting. Forgot to open the vent on the generator so it killed after about 5-10 minutes. opened the vent started back up and then 15 minutes later tripped the breaker on the generator. Restarted on low a/c lasted for 5 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes restarted this time with a/c low and thermostat 1/2 way between cold and coldest, that ran for half hour went in and bumped up thermostat every 5 minutes until the thermostat was almost all the way to the coldest setting then it tripped immediately. Tried it again in the morning and it ran on low blower coldest thermostat setting and tripped the generator after 30 minutes. Restarted and tripped in less than 5 minutes. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE i need help with this I am going back to the camper for my big trip of the summer Tuesday morning for 7 days. This is the trip that I built this trailer for, thank you in advance for any help.

Few more details
-Honda companion 2000 watt inverter generator 2 months old with little use
-Switched to buddies brand new Champion 3100 inverter generator and tripped his generator within 5-10 minutes
-Does not trip breaker in power center, breaker is a month old and tried switching with another 20 amp breaker with same results
-12-2 wiring with 20 amp breaker and off power center 30 amp plug 30 feet long
-Nothing else is running while I have the problem
-Ran dozens of times on high with thermostat on coldest setting with Honda generator
-I believe the a/c unit is from 2013, not sure don't know how to tell for sure but the inside plastic cover had a inspection tag on it that said 11/2013
-Running generator with eco throttle on or off makes no difference in results of tripping generator

Any help is appreciated Ive put a ton of work into this trailer for this trip and its a real downer not being able to use it to its full potential.

[mustangcats]

I looked up the specs on your a/c and after doing the math your compressor and blower motor is drawing about 1700 watts. Even though the Honda is a 2000 watt generator, that is the maximum for a short period of time. I checked the specs on the generator and it is rated at 1600 watts continuous power. You will need a bigger generator for your set up.

[snowrider500]

It tripped a 3100 watt champion also. With the Honda in the beginning of the week and other times it would run it for hours. Is there anything that would have happened in transit cause issues? Or is it just my set up? Is there any truth to those hard start kits that you can install on the a/c units? I'm looking to at least try and get me through this trip and i am short on time.

[Shadow Catcher]

Look for a hard start capacitor "Your air conditioner uses anywhere from 5 to 10 times more power on start-up than it does while running. With this burst of power comes a surge of heat that accompanies the electrical current." http://www.supco.com/images/pdfs/AC%20Hardstarts%20Booklet.pdf

[snowrider500]

Do most RV stores/dealerships have those in stock? I have to work Monday and there is one right up the road from my shop and also tuesday when I head back up north there is one or two right off the highway.

[razorback]

For an air conditioner rated at 13,500 btu the only way it will work is with a honda 3000.
My brother uses a Honda 3000 with his 13500 btu roof air. How big is your trailer?
A 6000 btu wall banger should cool it nicely. That is what I have and my Honda eu2000 runs it just fine. Only thing is
it takes a lot of gas.

[Shadow Catcher]

The AC pulls 1400 to 1500 watts while running so theoretically with a hard start cap this might work.

[snowrider500]

A place on my way up north has a hard start kit in stock that I will pick up and cross my fingers. Before I left my house I had ran my a/c with the Honda for hours, I know that the generator can do it, dont know why all the sudden it is causing me such grief.

[mustangcats]

I read that generators lose capacity at higher elevations. Is the campground at a higher elevation than your house?

[Gladtobehere]

Maybe you could try some forced cooling of the Honda with the AC on a lower setting. Maybe a fan to move more air. Idealy a solar powered fan during daylight hours. I am guessing you are at the limlt for the Honda electrically, but you are exceding the cooloing capacity of the generator and tripping the breakers.

[snowrider500]

I do not know the difference in elevation. Thank you all for the help im leaving in a couple hours grabbing that hard start kit and be putting it in around 5-6 tonight, if I can get some signal I will update you otherwise next week I will let you know how it worked.

[H.A.]

......

[wtcreaux]

I had the same problem.......several options was buying a 3000 watt generator or another 2000 watt generator with the buddy cord. Since I don't need 240v, I went with another 2000 watt generator. Each weighs about 47 pounds so are easily moved around. When NOT camping, I've got 2 different generators to use at home. The buddy cord allows me a temporary 4000 watt load with 3200 watt normal run. YMMV

[snowrider500]

Well picked up the new capacitor and went up, installed it and tried it out.......tripped out the generator within 30 minutes and didn't even cool down the trailer enough. Tried running off a 3100 watt generator and did the same thing. Really don't know what to do at this point. Before taking on trip ran off my 2000 watt generator so I don't see why it wouldn't now much less a 3100.

[MtnDon]

It's no surprise to me that the hard start capacitor did not help. It has been stated that the A/C can start on the Honda but it trips after a half hour or so. Or had the A/C compressor cycled off and then tried to restart the A/C compressor.

My real surprise is that the EU2000i was able to start and run that 13500 A/C at all. My bet is that at home on the driveway is at a lower elevation than where you drove to and camped. I've run into that very thing. In fact we deal with that all the time; home is at 5500 feet, our cabin is 8800 and two weeks ago we were camping at 8000 to 10000 for a week.

Is there any chance that some other load in the trailer system came on and caused the overload?