Roof-Top Air Conditioners

A sweltering summer heatwave can force even the thickest-skinned camper running for shade.

Traveling - or worse yet, trying to fall asleep - inside a mobile sauna can be unbearable.

Instead of cranking open a small vent on the roof, modern-day campers opt for the creature comforts of air conditioners mounted on their RVs.

Powering an air conditioner miles from an electrical outlet can be tricky.

However, with a generator, you can actually run an air conditioner in the middle of nowhere without breaking a sweat.

Basically, there are three ways to power a roof-top air conditioner with a generator:

RV Generator
If you own a motor home or fifth-wheel trailer, you've felt the temperature rise in a trailer packed with party-goers traveling to the big game.

The air coming from the dashboard simply isn't strong enough to keep the RV cool.

If you need extra air conditioning, simply flick a switch to start the RV generator. Then crank up the roof-top a/c to keep the road trip comfortable.




Medium Recreational Portable
If you own a travel trailer or a pop-up camper, you probably don't have an RV generator compartment.

Instead, you'll need a portable recreational generator with at least 2,800 watts to jump start your rooftop air conditioner.

Unfortunately, medium-sized recreational generators aren't light - especially with a full tank of gas. You'll need at least two able-bodies to unpack the generator and set it up outside.




2 x Small Recreational Portables
If you don't have the manpower to lug around one big generator, just split the load in half.

Some small recreational generators can be combined together to generate enough juice to turn over the air conditioner.

You'll need two small generators and a parallel cable. Surprisingly, the bundled package is more powerful and less expensive than a single medium recreational generator.