Almot wrote:
Phil's scenario - that would necessitate a generator run - is rather particular. Mostly, it was due to A/C. They tried to camp in the shade because it was too hot. In some places it's about the same hot and humid in the night as it is in daytime. Running A/C day and night (=running a generator) is not much fun, I don't think anybody will argue this.
"Properly installed" - I doubt it's even possible to install a generator in a class B or class C so that it wouldn't be irritating for both the owner and his neighbors. Unless it's hidden few hundred meters away in a concrete shack downwind, you will hear it and smell it and/or feel vibration through the frame.
(continuing off-topic) Our Onan generator does not "audibly bother us" to have to run it when camping for either - A/C in the heat or to run the hair dryer to dry out the dog after a wash. The sound of the Onan's motor is not even it's major sound. The bulk of it's sound is the swooshing sound of it's cooling air. I could quiet this even more with more insulation, a drop down curtain, and ultra-mounts ... but have never chose to because it's quiet enough as installed by Winnebago up high tucked in between the coach wall and the chassis frame.
Also our situation may a bit unusual because of my "Boy Scout" tendencies. i.e.: We also carry along a small ultra quiet portable generator for long battery charging runs and as a 120V backup to our built-in Onan generator and the PSW inverter we have in the coach. This small generator runs about 5 hours on 1/2 gallon of gas and has a constant noise level of only 54dB. You "probably cannot" hear it a few yards away. As an additional battery charging backup, I guarantee that you can't hear our main gas engine idling a few feet a way when using it's alternator to boost charge the batteries whenever I don't want to use either generator.
We try not to drycamp close to others anyway for several reasons, so my various power sources do not wind up irritating anyone. We don't like to have to count on hookups or the sun ... so that we can be free as a bird when wandering around on RV trips. To me a running generator is "the sound of independence".
Some of the places we have drycamped are:
- In the back yard of a farmhouse out by the barn.
- Out in the middle of nowhere in the Utah high desert
- Out in the middle of nowhere in the Oregon desert.
- In the parking lot of a manufacturing plant in Oregon.
- In the grass along the Green River.
- In a Walmart parking lot in the Deep South in July trying to sleep in 90/90 heat and humidity conditions.
- In a Port of Entry parking lot in Wyoming.
- In a church parking lot.
- In a hookup campground without using the hookups ... when a major T&L storm was approaching and we didn't want any electrical disturbances entering the coach's electrical systems via the shore cable.
After spending all that money for a rig, I guess we just plain can't see being limited once we get out and about. :)
