generator use

Dashonthedash wrote:
Many campgrounds in the west do have at least electrical hookups, including a lot of State parks. National Parks with at least electric in one of their campgrounds include Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Zion, Grand Canyon (South Rim) and Mesa Verde.

not so if you come to California. none of the National Parks here, have any hookups that i know of.
and less than 1% of our state parks' campsites have hookups. and most of those are only W/E.

Many campgrounds in the west do have at least electrical hookups, including a lot of State parks. National Parks with at least electric in one of their campgrounds include Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Zion, Grand Canyon (South Rim) and Mesa Verde. Other parks have campgrounds nearby with hookups if you don't want to dry camp. Yosemite is one of the most difficult to get in and out of if you camp outside the park, but it is also the most difficult to get sites inside the park, at least in the Valley, where there are no hookups. If you have sufficient battery power, camp conservatively and plan carefully (using hookups and/or travel to recharge batteries between dry camping), you can see just about all our beautiful country without the use of a generator. I seldom use my own, unless my batteries get low from an extended dry outing. It is your choice, and I hope you enjoy your trip out here.

Thank you everyone for your replies. Always been to campgrounds with electric here in the east, don't have a generator, just trying to see what other people are doing so I can make a plan when we go west, Dave

our circle of friends frown on generator usage .
we hook up our truck batteries to our trailer batteries .
we have learned to conserve .
our truck batteries get recharged every 2nd or 3rd day anyway.
good batteries are way cheaper than solar or a genny .

Having run into this at various places I went ahead and beefed up my trailer system to operate all of the things we want to have with us both 120VAC and 12VDC. We increased our battery setup to allow us to do this for the one day/night camping run from our increased battery bank. The next morning when allowed to run our 2KW Honda generator we would connect the trailer shore power cable directly to the generator 120VAC receptacle using a RV30A-15A long adapter. Using our smart mode technology converter/charger we can re-charge our batteries back up to their 90% charge state in just three hours generator run times so we can do all of this all over again for the next day/night camping run. If we end up staying more than 10-12 days then we have to run the generator for some 12 hours to be able to re-charge our batteries to a full 100% charge state otherwise we will start doing damage to our deep cycle batteries.

It does take some planning and we have been very successful doing this over the past few years and don't seem to hardly bother anyone with our generator only running just around three hours aday usually during breakfast.

We have found most camp grounds have generator run times from 8Am-10AM and then again from 4:30PM to 7:30PM. This is still true at some Natl Forest sites as well. More and more of Natl Forest sites are now allowing the use of generators from 8AM to 8PM but it is not guaranteed. One must check with the camp ground regs before going to the the camp grounds.

Of course this does not include the use of air conditioning or high wattage item like the microwaves. Also when heat all night long is needed creates another problem area as the propane heater 12VDC blower motors are a real high usage item from the batteries. You have to develop work arounds for these times...

What we found out rather quick was you just can't show up at weekend camping trip off the power grid and expect to automatically do all things you normally do at a regular electric site. It takes some planning...

Its all about having PLAN Bs inplace to be successful

just my thoughs
Roy and Carolyn

harold1946 wrote:
There are also rule changes depending in weather conditions. If there is a Red Flag condition many restrictions change accordingly.
An example would be morning use only. Another would be that only onboard generators can be used, no portables.
Each park and ranger district has the authority to control and change generator use as conditions change.

I thought the red flags meant no swimming. But it amazes me that some still do. As with the generators some will still do it no matter the rules. :E

Check with the park as noted above. If I recall, Watchman campground in Zion does not allow gennys but all the sites have electric hookup.

If I need to use the generator at a National Park campground, I usually tell my neighbors in advance. It's not required, it's during generator hours, but it's just simple courtesy. I always try to treat others like I would want to be treated myself. I think you've heard of it...:B

agesilaus wrote:
Turns out some woman in a site well away from mine didn't want to hear any generators at any time.

Same thing happened to me.

I was in a boondock area of a CG and it was hot. I was also sick. I had to run my Hondas to keep cool, but apparently the couple next door didn't like listening to it. When I came out to gas them, she complained about them. Being in no mood for that I said "Look lady, it's hot, I'm sick, and I'm well within generator hours. So just live with it."

The state CGs I go to have generator hours from 10am-8pm, but NP cgs are often 2 hours blocks 2 or 3 times a day. I have also been at a NP CG that allows it in some loops but not others (Bryce). So, yes, check.