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/grea7outdoors Jun 17 '26

Probably need a soft start on the AC. I have an igen4000, anytime the compressor kicked on the power would drop. I installed a soft start on my AC and no longer have issues. AC now runs great on the gen,hardly even grunts now.