Camping with the Sound Police
This is not intended to be another quiet generator versus noisy generator discussion, but I am curious where people camp who run their generators for much of the day. I am a full timer and travel ext...
Forum Discussion
The best way to have drycamping electrcal power along is to have more than one way to get it:
- We can idle our motorhome's gasoline engine (Ford V10) to charge all batteries, heat the whole rig, or air condition the whole rig. It can hardly be heard 10 feet away.
- We can run the built-in Onan to charge all batteries, heat the whole rig (if the propane furnace system should ever fail), air condition the whole rig, or run the microwave. The Onan was installed well enough by the RV manufacturer such that it's not at all irritating inside .... or outside past, say, 30 feet away .... especially when parked on a soft surface.
- We can run a no longer available very small suitcase Honda to charge all batteries. It's noise level is only a low frequency humming at a constant 54 dB such that you can sit right next to it and carry on a conversation. It's even less irritating than an idling Honda 2000i (53dB) because the suitcase Honda's sound seems to contain no high frequency components - unlike the 2000i at idle - and a 2000i is really irritating when running full bore (59dB), or especially when going up and down while powering a cycling microwave or air conditioner.
We're touring hit and run campers who rarely spending more than 3 days in the same site, so we don't even have solar due to our 230 AH AGM battery bank plus wanting power flexibility regardless of sun, shade, cloudy skies, night skies, high altitude cold, desert heat, or Southern U.S. heat and humidity. We don't like to be restricted as to what location, what weather, or what season we can camp in and still have the full comforts we paid for. RV's cost too much for them to not to be ready for anything and everything. Tent camping is only camping. RV'ing is intended to be camping on steroids.
- We can idle our motorhome's gasoline engine (Ford V10) to charge all batteries, heat the whole rig, or air condition the whole rig. It can hardly be heard 10 feet away.
- We can run the built-in Onan to charge all batteries, heat the whole rig (if the propane furnace system should ever fail), air condition the whole rig, or run the microwave. The Onan was installed well enough by the RV manufacturer such that it's not at all irritating inside .... or outside past, say, 30 feet away .... especially when parked on a soft surface.
- We can run a no longer available very small suitcase Honda to charge all batteries. It's noise level is only a low frequency humming at a constant 54 dB such that you can sit right next to it and carry on a conversation. It's even less irritating than an idling Honda 2000i (53dB) because the suitcase Honda's sound seems to contain no high frequency components - unlike the 2000i at idle - and a 2000i is really irritating when running full bore (59dB), or especially when going up and down while powering a cycling microwave or air conditioner.
We're touring hit and run campers who rarely spending more than 3 days in the same site, so we don't even have solar due to our 230 AH AGM battery bank plus wanting power flexibility regardless of sun, shade, cloudy skies, night skies, high altitude cold, desert heat, or Southern U.S. heat and humidity. We don't like to be restricted as to what location, what weather, or what season we can camp in and still have the full comforts we paid for. RV's cost too much for them to not to be ready for anything and everything. Tent camping is only camping. RV'ing is intended to be camping on steroids.
