Reddit reviews WEN 56200i 2000-Watt Gas Powered Portable Inverter Generator, CARB Compliant

If you actually want a shot at the podium, these are what I would recommend at a minimum (and you already mentioned most of these):

• Front brakes: Stainless steel brake lines, race pads, and RBF Dot4 fluid. Flush it several times throughout the season.
  
• Steering damper
  
• Suspension: Proper springs and valves for your weight, set up by a reputable tuner.
  
• Mild tune: Hindle full system (cheapest), BMC race filter, and take it to a reputable dyno tuner to unlock the ECU and tune. They might recommend other mods.
  
• Bodywork: Armour Bodies, Flexi Glass, or similar. Paint it if you want but this is basically a consumable item that will need to be replaced after some number of crashes.
  
• Controls: Adjustable rear sets and clip-ons. Vortex are highly adjustable, modular, and therefore, crashable.
  
• Tires should be obvious. You're going to spend a lot on them. Use fresh slicks for races and then finish them off during practice/track days.
  
• Find out what gearing works best for the track(s) you'll be racing at, and buy the correct sprockets and chains. I run aluminum rear sprockets but they barely last a season.
  
• Optional: A tall windscreen like Zero Gravity Corsa really helps down the straights. A quickshifter is nice but won't drop you much time, more mental energy. A gear shift indicator is nice for moments when you get forced off-pace, such as race starts or getting stuck behind traffic.
  
  I recommend SV racing's tire warmers. They're cheap and reliable and have multiple temperature settings: http://www.svracingparts.com/store/#!/SV-Racing-Parts-New-2017-Series-180-190-Series-Adjustable-Tire-Warmers/p/10237728/category=22883337
  
  I use a Honda clone generator that has been nothing but reliable: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SMNLF4M/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  Also, this should be obvious: track days. Make lots of friends and they will show you the lines and point out where you can drop time. After a few months they'll be asking you for pointers.

It'll probably be cheaper in the long run to add solar to the roof to help charge.

Alternatively, save yourself the gas and the wear on the motor and buy a small generator. You can get a 700W generator from harbor freight for 100 bucks. A gallon of gas will probably run for 8-12 hours, which is far more efficient than running your big ass engine.
http://www.harborfreight.com/900-peak700-running-watts-2-hp-63cc-2-cycle-gas-generator-epacarb-60338.html

Alternatively here's a 1600W 4 stroke that doesn't require mixing oil. Supposedly runs pretty quiet.
https://www.amazon.com/WEN-56200i-Starting-Generator-Compliant/dp/B00SMNLF4M/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1484762599&sr=1-1&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_browse-bin%3A4827497011

Check around Amazon and you might find something that will better fit your needs or more easily integrate into a skoolie. My major concern would be in trying to get a larger gas tank for running the generator. If you're staying in one spot for a long time, a half gallon tank that runs for 5 hours ain't going to cut it. Just keep in mind that I linked the cheap stuff. Honda makes a 2000W generator that's $1000. The higher wattage and longer running generators can only go up from there. Personally I'd be inclined with the load you're expecting to get the cheapest, quietest regular unleaded generator you can find and figuring out a way to hook up a larger gas tank to it.

While the Honda line of small generators are some of fhe best out there, they're quite expensive...

There's a lot of good "clone" inverter generators now. For $475, this WEN unit is essentislly a yamaha clone. Link is here

You only need at most 600 running watts, the generator linked does 1600 running 2000 peak.

Either way, you'll have plenty of power.

A generator is going to be the best bang for your buck over a battery. Then get a bunch of shop lights. You can run it for 4-8 hours on a gallon of gas.

If you do go with generator make sure it's an inverter type. I think they go to about 2000 watts but the main reason you want this type is because they're quiet. The traditional type of construction-site generator will be super loud. Legal or not you don't want to disturb anybody or attract attention.

I have this one and it's surprisingly quiet. https://www.amazon.com/WEN-56200i-2000-Watt-Generator-Compliant/dp/B00SMNLF4M/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1511825168&sr=8-16&keywords=generator

The generator wattage doesn't matter as much as the amperage output of the charger that you plug into your generator, unless you plan to charge the battery bank directly from the 12v output that some generators have which would take forever because they only put out about 8 amps at 12v.
In terms of how long it would take that again depends on what charger you use.

Plugging in straight to the generator would
Take about 22 hours (440ah * 0.4 = 176Ah you need to replenish, 176Ah / 8a = 22hrs, and then a bit more to account for inefficiencies in charging )

A 20A battery charger plugged into the generator would take about 9hrs (176Ah / 20a = 8.8hrs

A 50A charger would take about 3.5hrs.

1000w should be enough to power just about any charger you plug into it except those huge 100A engine start chargers.

I would recommend getting a nice little inverter generator because they are SO much quieter. If you can afford it You really can't go wrong with a Honda Eu1000i or 2000i. If you wanna go a bit cheaper I've heard good really things about the Wen generators coming out of China https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00SMNLF4M/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485290528&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=wen+inverter+generator&dpPl=1&dpID=51YwNCX6DSL&ref=plSrch

here's the combination I've been thinking about:

$425 Generator WEN 56200i, 1600watt,

https://www.amazon.com/WEN-56200i-Starting-Generator-Compliant/dp/B00SMNLF4M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488210637&sr=8-1&keywords=generator+when

$139.00 Mini-Compact Air Conditioner ,Frigidaire FFRA0511R1 5, 000 BTU 115V Window-Mounted

https://www.amazon.com/Frigidaire-FFRA0511R1-Window-Mounted-Mini-Compact-Conditioner/dp/B00W2KG92Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488210783&sr=8-1&keywords=air+conditioner+5000+btu

I wish they made a small generator that ran on propane.

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

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An inverter is a type of generator. This article explains it better than I ever could.

They’re a little more expensive than a regular generator, but worth it in my opinion. I bought this one last year and it was excellent.

Thank you both for your input! Do you think this one would suffice?

https://www.amazon.com/WEN-56200i-2000-Watt-Generator-Compliant/dp/B00SMNLF4M

WEN 56200i Super Quiet 2000-Watt Portable Inverter Generator, CARB Compliant
by WEN

alternate

This is the quietest one I've been able to find: https://www.amazon.com/WEN-56200i-Starting-Generator-Compliant/dp/B00SMNLF4M/ref=sr_1_8?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1494602222&sr=1-8&keywords=inverter+generator

53dB

I've been an A/V guy for 33 years and I've done lots of outdoor setups.

If you are going to be using this at all during the daytime, you need to get at LEAST a 3000 lumen projector. If the sun will be hitting the screen, probably more like 6000 to 10000 lumens.

At nighttime, it's not such a big deal... 3000 lumens will look amazing, 2000 lumens average, and 1000 or 1500 lumens weak but usable.

All those figures are for a screen that's about 120 inches wide (or less), if your screen is bigger than that, you may need more lumens, especially during the daytime.

The other thing you want to look at is your lens. The lens will have a ratio on it. 1.0 means if you have a 6 foot wide screen, then the projector will need to be 6 feet back from it. Some cheap projectors will have a 1.5 or 2.0 lens, which will still work, but you need to get it really far away from the screen, which makes it more difficult to set up, especially indoors. If you can get something that has .7 or .5 lens ratio, that's great. You can put the projector close to the screen but it will still fill the whole screen.

So now you have your screen and projector squared away, you need to get an HDMI cable to run to your laptop or game console, the longest you can get on those is about 50', so if you need longer than that, you'll need to find another way to hook them together using Baluns or HD-SDI cables. Much more expensive.

For audio, most projectors will have a small speaker built in, but if you want something more than the tinny cell phone type sound that comes out of those, then you need a powered speaker. How much you want to spend on that is up to you. More money means better sound but also a larger speaker.
I have no idea how many people you will have there, or whether you want to play music through it also when you aren't watching movies, but I'd probably get something like this as it's a decent compromise between size, power and cost.

So now that you have all your gear, you just need to add up all the wattages on the back of that gear, and you can then know how much power you'll need. Let's say 350w for the projector, and another 350 watts for the audio, and maybe 100 watts for the laptop and any miscellaneous other stuff you might want to plug in.

So you need to look for about an 800-1000 watt generator. I'd probably look for the most quiet one I could get, because there is nothing more annoying than having to listen to generator noise while you are up in the woods trying to play some games or watch a movie.

This might be good at 51.5dB (remember, lower is better)

Or maybe this at 51dB

I think you definitely want an inverter generator, they will run more quietly than regular generators, but they are more expensive.

Planning on this - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SMNLF4M/?coliid=IK0S0655NZ2PW&colid=11VC2POA3TTXX&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Seems to say 51dB

This projector - https://www.projectorcentral.com/Optoma-HD143X.htm

And for sound and screen size I haven't thought of it but its not really my primary concern right now, screen size I'll figure out later and sound just needs to be relatively loud, we'll be in a quiet place in a mountain so there won't be that much ambient noise to worry about.

How does that sound to you? Also was wondering how high my projector needs to be to project on a 120 in screen? Does it need to be completely center with it?

Less than $500 and well worth the effort to save up for if you live in an area susceptible to power loss. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SMNLF4M

Just enough juice to run a fridge or microwave and keep all your phones and laptops fully charged.