HEY GENERATOR............SHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Last trip I was on someone had a very noisy genny they would crank up every afternoon for a couple of hours. They were more than 500 yards away, and they tried to create some kind of baffle with plywood boards. It was louder in my site than when the guy 75 feet away ran his Honda. I made sure they could hear my applause and cheer when they cut it off everyday.

We started out with a Coleman Powermate 2500, basically a B&S motor on top of alternator and boy was it loud. I wondered why we picked up almost new for $50 until I started it up.
Sold that off and got a Champion 3500/4000, new they run $300 or so and fine while boondocking by ourselves. Used it one season for charging and some AC. While it is quieter than the Powermate, it isn't quiet by any means.

This year I started using the solar I put a few hundred into and when you say quiet, it is silent. The Champ is still there for a bit of AC, Microwave and as a back up to the solar but is rarely run if at all.

I have used those interlocking rubber floor mats to surround the generators and while it didn't make them "quiet", it did make a small noticeable difference.

If I were to replace the Champ with a quieter unit, it will be the Champion 3100i inverter model. The same size and noise level as the Honda Handi but half the price. They have had great reviews here and if I see one of those on the refurb list I may just have to pull the trigger.

Rolling Condo wrote:
Check out the Supergen website. They feature Champion generators and they have custom sound enclosures for them.

Nice site Champion has come a long way. They maybe a legit mainstream product now. However I'm not too thrilled about all the refurbished units.

Do you really need a generator? When we first bought our TT (10 years ago now! Wow, time flies) I was looking into a generator until a camping friend suggested that I wait until after I had gone camping a few times. Turns out that I have never "needed" a generator, and only rarely have I actually wanted one.

Most of our camping when we started was in full service campgrounds with electric hookups. Now that our kids are grown up, I look mostly for state parks and other dry camping - we really don't need electric hookup most of the time, and much less expensive per night.

Be careful about adding an extra muffler. Sometimes those small engines will not work correctly with any additional muffling, usually meaning exhaust resistance.

Check out the Supergen website. They feature Champion generators and they have custom sound enclosures for them.

I had a 10 hp briggs gen. I made a muffler, enclosure and still wished it was in the next county when I had to start it. We've been running our Yamaha for over 8 yrs now. I had to replace the battery once, I do like elec start. It uses 1/3 the gas the briggs used.

take it back and tell 'em you want a QUIET one. The Lord will bless you for it, and so will all your camping neighbors.

I've never camped by someone with a 5K B&S gen-set. You know its loud, so run it when it won't disturb people. Noon or midnight depending on where you are should work...........

If they won't take it back (which I think they will) check out some "marine" stores. Have seen some after market exhaust systems for sailboats that make it quieter. For starters and not sure is
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/TopCategories1_11151_10001_-1 but are a lot others.