Is there a quiet NON inverter generator?

Thanks Salvo and Phil!

The pulley idea is much interesting.

30 amps charging is ok.

I texted the ex650 guy and haven't heard back, so he may have sold it...

Naio wrote:
There is a 650 for sale near me! I could go try pulling on its rope . Do I understand correctly that it might put out 50 amps DC charging???

It's an outstanding coincidence that one happens to be available near you!

The EX650 would only be good for about 30 amps charging. That's assuming that you used it to power a charger to charge your RV battery that maintained around 14.4 volts on the battery's terminals during the initial charging stage (if the charger is a multi-stage charger).

Why do you need to use 50 amps to charge your batteries? I charge our large dual-battery RV battery bank all the time with only about 30 amps or less from the engine alternator when driving, or with only about 15 amps from the RV's converter in parallel with a cheap Sears 2-10-50 car battery charger when drycamping. When drycamping the EX650 powers both the converter and the Sears charger at the same time.

Remember that the little EX 650 runs for 4-6 hours on only 0.51 gallons of gas. I merely run it out of fuel each recharging cycle to "bring up" the battery bank when drycamping for several days in a row. When I drive to the next camping spot after camping, the engine alternator brings the RV battery bank back to full with 3-4 hours of driving. When I drive back home after camping, I plug in the RV at home and the converter brings the battery back to full within a day or two of continuously being plugged in.

I carry 2 gallons of spare fuel for the little Honda in a red colored all-steel safety rated gas container.

The Honda is so quiet, I can't hear it inside the RV, and outside it's sound is a low frequency sounding muffled hum that fades quickly a few feet away. It's sound is, to me, way more pleasing than the more mechanical sound of the plastic-cased modern inverter Honda generators .... and certainly more of a pleasing "white noise" than hearing the up/down changing RPM of inverter generators.

Our EX650 is at least 25 years old. A few years ago I replaced one of it's circuit breakers that I bought over the Internet. We carry it in the RV all the time for drycamp battery charging and as an emergency backup to the built-in generator ... and would do so even if we had solar.

All of the above is very simple non-rocket science. Our last RV battery bank lasted about 8 1/2 years treating it this way, and I'm not sure those batteries were real bad when I traded them in last month. However there may be one caveat to our RV battery charging procedures ... our RV batteries are of the AGM type ... which charge quicker - with any particular charging method - than wet cell batteries do.

You don't have to pull cord with hand. Use foot!

Connect another cord to pull handle. Build a wooden contraption with a pulley on top. The pulley should be at the same height as the pull handle and about 2 feet away from gen. The length of the added cord depends on your comfort to step down on the cord loop (where foot slides in) just below the other side of the pulley. Step down and the gen starts!

Naio wrote:


I really can't pull the starter cord. It's the speed, not the strength.

Ductape wrote:
Option 27:

Harbor Freight 700w genny $120 now on sale. Buy a cordless drill $50. Pay a handyman to cut a hole into the genny crank cover and rig up a socket in the drill to spin the crank. $50

Now you're talkin'!

I have drills, and disposable hole saws. Can I do this with an inverter genny? There is a honda 1000 for $350.


I am not sure, though, with my shoulder/back stuff whether I could provide enough resistance that the drill would turn the motor and not turn me. Maybe I could brace it on something...

@Phil:

There is a 650 for sale near me! I could go try pulling on its rope :). Do I understand correctly that it might put out 50 amps DC charging???

KD4UPL wrote:
I would be uncomfortable with any gen. that only cost $300. That's basically buying junk. If you do want an electric start gen. where will you put it? If you have to load it in or out of your RV it will be rather heavy. I would bet that moving an electric start gen. will cause more shoulder stress than pull starting a smaller, lighter gen.
Even at $500 you won't get an electric start unit. It will be hard to find any gen. that's not very heavy in that price range. Their basically all contractor style units designed for rugged dependability on a job site, not light weight.
You can probably get a 1kw or even a 2kw Honda for about $800 or $900. I really think that's what you should be looking at. Their light, start easy, are quiet, put out high quality power, are fuel efficient, and last darn near forever.

The Champion 3500/4000 usually sells for $300, is considered incredible reliable and I bought my electric start version new for $425 on sale. Louder than inverters, quieter than most open frames. Great for boondocking but I'd never use ours in a campground.

Champion also has the 1200w none inverter, it is quieter than the 3500/4000, in the range of the louder inverter generators but no remote start.

The Champion 3100i has a remote start unit but it's slightly over $1000 unless you find one used.

Even though I am wide eyed with my solar, we had a generator first. A generator or some form of alternate method of charging is an important part of a balanced system. (especially with a 120v fridge) We don't take ours for shorter trips but we would if we hit the road.

Naio,

Well, I'll try again with my same sales pitch:

Everyone is assuming you mean "new generator". How about an ultra-quiet, non-inverter generator, that is not electric start, but has a small enough engine such that only a gentle non-jirking but steady pull of the starter rope is all that's needed .... and is discontinued so that you merely have to locate and buy one used for probably around $150 to $250?

It'll charge RV batteries, run RV computers and televisions, run small RV vacuum cleaners, run some hair dryers on their LOW setting, run most corded electric drills, run some corded electric leaf blowers, run some electric heaters on their LOW setting, run more than one cooling fan at the same time, etc..

That would be the generator that someone above has already mentioned - a 650 watt Honda EX650 that runs at a constant noise level of 54dB. You just have to be able to lift it at around 51 lbs. - that weight is partially due to it's insulated steel case which helps make it one of the quietist small generators in the world.

Here's some additional verbiage on it:
http://www.aboutgenerators.com/honda-ex650-generator.html

Option 27:

Harbor Freight 700w genny $120 now on sale. Buy a cordless drill $50. Pay a handyman to cut a hole into the genny crank cover and rig up a socket in the drill to spin the crank. $50

I think you need to ask yourself which option would leave you pleased in the aftermath.

Generator $300 (really not possible to achieve reliability at this price point.)
Solar $900 (just pay someone to get it done)

Thanks, everyone :).

I really can't pull the starter cord. It's the speed, not the strength. My shoulder doesn't mind the pull, but the jerk is just not ok. Especially if camping, when I need to drive home!

I would keep the genny on a rear carrier rack on my van, and get friends to lift it if necessary. Hopefully it would just sit there forever, with a lock.