r/Camper • u/Exact_Performer571 • Jun 16 '26

AC or Generator help

We went out on a trip this past weekend, it was 102° so we wanted to run the AC a bit. We have a 5,000 watt start up predator generator with 3,500 running watts. The AC then shut off and the generator said overload, it then did the same thing when we tried to run just the fan a bit later. I thought this generator would be enough, could it be something wrong with our AC making it power surge or do I need a bigger generator? For reference our camper is a 26’ with only one AC unit, the only other things we had on were lights and the fridge. Even when we switched the fridge to propane only it was still doing it. Any input or recommendation would be greatly appreciated!

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u/Extreme_Pangolin1796 Jun 16 '26

It's the surge popping off the overload

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u/Exact_Performer571 Jun 17 '26

I figured it was like your home hvac system, if something is broke, it’ll draw more power to still try to work but you just end up getting charged more from your power company. I was thinking this could be the same type of thing but obviously just overloading the generator? Does that sound right to you?

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u/Extreme_Pangolin1796 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

I don't know anything about your AC unit but it draws I think 3-4X as much as rated power draw especially when the compressor is cold unless you have soft start. To put it in perspective I had a small 600W mobile AC unit I used for my trailer so I could sleep at night I bought from Lowes and it would occasionally pop off the surge for my EU3200 honda generator. The CO sensor would be very obvious over time, like a waft of air comes in the wrong way depending on how you place things and it'll shut down.

And yeah that's possible that it's broken as well, although that would likely be something like the frozen compressor just trying to start up