[RE-wrenches] Big Charger, Small Generator

[Mac Lewis]

Hi Mark,

It will stall the generator and/or it will shutdown on overload and or trip
a breaker.

However, many battery chargers have some adjustability so you may be able
to adjust it down to the sweet spot.  The way I like to do it is start with
the charger very low, then slowly adjust the load up. At some point, the
generator will sound like its working hard but not overloaded.  Just know
that you may need to adjust this for various operating conditions
(temperature is the big one) or if you are moving it around, elevation.

Be prepared to be disappointed by the generators performance, battery
chargers can be difficult loads for low quality generators.




Mac Lewis

*"Yo solo sé que no sé nada." -Sócrates*

On Wed, Feb 11, 2026, 6:01 AM Mark Frye via RE-wrenches <
re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:

> Folks,
>
>
>
> If I have a larger AC powered battery charge, say 3kW and I have a battery
> bank that may want to pull some current, want will happen if I try to run
> the charger with a small, say 1.2 kW generator?
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Mark
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