I am trying to get some stuff together for outdoor racing. My local track doesn't have power and I was wondering what's the smallest generator I could get away with. I will be using a two channel charger that can charge at 10amps a channel and two smaller 6amp chargers. I will bring my small laptop and maybe run a fan and light.

The chargers will draw about 5 amps or so from the generator so that's about 600 watts. You'd have to look at your other devices to see what they draw, but if it were me I'd be looking at something in the 1200 watt range, maybe a little more if you think you might have all those things going at the same time for any length of time.

If you are running a laptop there can be some issues with standard generators. They don't provide clean enough power.
An inverter generator will fix this and give you good clean power. 1000 watts will be enough. The other nice thing about an inverter generator is that they are quiet. Honda and yamaha probably make the best but there are a couple people at my local track have a ridged one that was a good bit less expensive.

If you are planning on charging at higher currents or needing more power get a 2000 watt generator and you wont have wonder if you should have gotten the bigger one.

If you are on a tight budget harbor freight has a little cheap generator but they are loud and have a tendency to break.

Harbor freight now has a 2000 watt inverter generator, it looks like it is the same noise level as a Honda at about half the price.

http://t.harborfreight.com/2500-peak...not%20provided

I was looking at the generac 800 or the Honda 1000, the generac is 800 max and is $320. The honda is 900 and $800. I might as well buy the honda 2000 for $1000. But if I could get buy with less than 800 watts I could save $700

Keep in mind that the Honda 2000 will do a lot of other things. I have one that I use for camping. It'll actually run my 13,500 btu a.c.unit. It also works for running a fridge or freezer in a power outage. And don't believe the sound comparisons. The cheaper units fool you by giving decibel readings at lower load than the Honda.

Get a Honda if you can afford it. I have the HF 900 watt genny and it works good but it is a bit louder. I dont know how the poster above got 600 watts from a 5 amp load, that is incorrect. 5 amps at 12 volts will be in the neighborhood of 80 watts load. Check out the heli forums like helifreak.com, field charging from generators is the norm for Heli guys, they also put huge loads on their charging rigs (charging 50 amps at 24 volts, works out to around a 1500 watt load to the genny). There is a lot of good info there

We sell honda's where I work. For $200 more why wouldnt you double the amount of power you have available ? The 2000 watt honda is a great unit. Along with the 2000 watt ac it puts out 12 volt 8 amp dc on a independent circuit.

I have the Honda 2000 also. Its a great unit and I've had 0 issues with it in the 4 years i've had it. Seems every time I take it to the track (or where ever) it gets compliments on how quiet it is. I liked it so much, when I got a camper that required a new generator I got the 6500eu. It gets the exact same compliments. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter because of all the other loud generators running.

Buy once,Cry once!Get the Honda and don't look back!I have the 2000 watt Honda and it is very quiet,especially on the Eco throttle setting.I have owned one of the harbor freight generators and had nothing but problems with it and it is no where near as quiet as the Honda.

If I were just recommending one I would say get the honda 2000 watt.
I actually found mine used for almost half of the retail price.
And they are awesome for if the power goes out. As has been said it will do a lot more than run your charging station.

At our local track there are two broken harbor freight ones for each one that kind of works.

The hondas are also the quieter than the less expensive invertor generators.

the yamaha's are just as nice as the honda's and have a few other options that come standard the honda doesn't. cbs sports uses yamaha's to power their camera's at racing events. if they're good enough for them to rely on that tells you something.
and the ryobi from home depot is decent too. and just as quiet as the honda and yamaha.
i'd skip the harbor freight one. their stuff isn't up to par for repeated long term use that I've experienced. I bought one of the 8gal compressors and the first time it fell over in the truck the whole plastic housing shattered along with the fan busting in 3pcs.
it became useless. thankfully it was only $80. but I only got to use it 3 times at that point and had to toss it.

I have a hyperion 720i duo and
use a 12v 100ah marine battery to keep things charged when away from power
No problems keeping 4-5000 7.4 lipos & 2-7600 7.4 lipos charged for
all day long running .
Way cheaper than any generator just to charge batteries
plus no maintenance , just put the battery back on the battery tender at end of day till next time

Well if you run a power supply plugged into it will be better and more efficient then the 12v out on the generator. I run a 1200 watt generator (2stroke) for charging only and its great for this purpose. got it on sale at Menard's for less than $100. Tank lasts all day if I remember to shut if off between charges.