running DP's durining quiet hours

Yea I don't feel like "quiet hours" are referring to coming & going in a CG. I would put everyone to sleep with stories of staying at CG's and many of them quite high end and hearing people leave early or arriving late. I'm talking about folks that might be long term and have to leave EVERY morning to go to work or get home very late. Never bothered me.

I had a 09' Ford V-10 and you couldn't hear it at idle so I don't think I ever bothered anyone. Now I have a pusher and it is louder but I don't think its excessive. If I ever offend anyone by starting my engine early in the morning to air up my suspension, have the camp host ask me to leave and I will happily oblige.

We also run the engine 5 minutes to air up the system so it comes to ride height, then turn it off while we unhook. When the weather is cold we use engine preheat but we do let the engine come up to temperature. We have been in campgrounds and are not early risers. When we do get up, we usually ask each other if we heard the DP right in the next campsite leave. Never heard a thing and certainly didn't wake us up. Barking dogs on the other hand do wake us up.

Here is my thoughtfulness on this subject.
Why is it always about Diesel Pushers? What you were disturbed 3 times!!! How can that be!!! Everyone should know YOU are the only ones that matter.
I think this is about DP envy.
I was in over 40 campgrounds this summer and didn't have a problem with DP's coming in late or leaving early. :B :S
Bill

This topic's been on here quite a few times before. As one of the first answers stated, no one's going to win here. There are some basics here. About 99.9999999999% of the gassers out there do not have air bag suspension. So, when prepping to leave, they do not have to start up, just to air up the suspension.

On the other side of the coin, there's the Diesel units. About 99.999% of them DO HAVE AIR BAG SUSPENSION. And, at least about 99.99% of them empty the bags for camping. So, what that means is, when it comes time for leaving, they must AIR UP THE AIR BAGS, in order to have suspension. And, the engines air compressor is the component that does that.

Based on a few variables here, on the average, from dead empty air bags, to the time the system is filled and, the compressor governor cuts out, is "on the average" around 2-4 minutes, plus or minus.

Now, different folks have different procedures for prepping to leave a camp site. And some, take a prescribed amount of time, whether they need to or not, couldn't be changed if you held a gun to their head.

We have D/P and, there are times when I like to get a real, I MEAN REAL early head start, as in around MIDNIGHT!! We have the procedure down to a science. EVERYTHING is put away in the evening before departure. There is nothing out. Even the main slide is already in. All I have to do is, start the engine, hit the "Store" button on the HWH pad and, based on normal idling, it will take approximately two minutes for the jacks to be completely raised and, the bags to be completely full. At that point, we both pull out of the site.

We will hook up, coach to toad, out and away from camp some place so as to not bother anyone while doing this process. We know that most folks do not like to be disturbed during their sleep and, we try to accommodate that the very best we can.

There's even a time or two that, if circumstances prevail, we'll pull out of the campground in the early evening, around maybe 6:00-8:00 at night and, head to a local Walmart or Kmart to get a couple hours of sleep before the midnight departure. That way we don't disturb ANYBODY when firing up the big CAT at midnight.

So, it's pretty much a matter of common sense. If you own a pusher and, need to depart camp at the weeeeee hours of the morning, do be considerate, think about your fellow campers who maybe drove a long way the day before and could really use a good nights sleep, maybe even alter your normal departure procedure (i.e. hook up the toad out on the road someplace instead of letting the engine idle in the coach while you fumble around with all the components in the dark, right nest to folks trying to sleep).

It's obvious that you cannot air up suspension, bring up hydraulic Jack leveling systems, bring some slides in, WITHOUT POWER. You need to do what you need to do. Just be a bit thoughtful for those around you.
Scott

We're late risers, so you'll rarely hear us leave early. Now here is another thought. My DP is so quiet inside, I don't hear what's going on outside. So I never hear anyone leave, even people next door.

Mile High wrote:

rgatijnet1 wrote:
Some of the auto and pick up diesels are very quiet. I guess they figure that it is just not worth spending the money to quiet down most DP's.
I know that the Liberty Prevost engine that I drove was very quiet and you could just barely hear the diesel generator running unless you were standing right next to it.

But at 4 or 5 AM, they are all noisy. Beyond me how some of these folks get up at 4 to get an early start, then drive 60 mph to get there.

The inside noise from your AC or furnace would be creating more noise in your coach than any noise from a Prevost coach.

We have a DP and what I try to do regardless of when we are leaving is quietly stow everything and idle the coach just enough to air up the brakes and air bags. Then I move to another location to hook up the toad if possible. That way I'm not sitting idling while hooking up the toad right next to my neighbors. There isn't much else I can do. My wife and I both work so sometimes it is unavoidable. We also sometimes try to leave a day earlier and dry camp at a rest stop on the way home to be able to leave later in the day.

wildtoad wrote:
It's not just DP's as the same issue exists for diesel pickups. I really don't understand the mechanics that cause a diesel to be so much louder than a gasser. ( and don't need to) I've been at many campgrounds where you can hear a diesel no matter where in the campground they are. I only request that y'all do all you can to minimize the time used to get ready to go and if possible wait till most people are awake.

If you drive for long time, you probably know the "knocking" that come from older gasoline engines when at low rpm you push the gas pedal too far and low octane gas come to the play?
In diesel "knocking" combustion is the only way to work as the fuel is delivered in burst.
It took last years digital technology and piezo-electronic injectors that are fast enough to make pre-injection, sometimes up to 5 to make the combustion quieter.
That said my vintage 2-cycle Detroit is really loud. but having big battery bank, I am carrying quiet electric compressor that runs off the inverter.
The compressor takes 20 minutes to air the coach, but you can stand next to the compartment it is in and barely hear it.
So when I start my Detroit, I am out of here in about 15 seconds.

rgatijnet1 wrote:
Some of the auto and pick up diesels are very quiet. I guess they figure that it is just not worth spending the money to quiet down most DP's.
I know that the Liberty Prevost engine that I drove was very quiet and you could just barely hear the diesel generator running unless you were standing right next to it.

But at 4 or 5 AM, they are all noisy. Beyond me how some of these folks get up at 4 to get an early start, then drive 60 mph to get there.