Generator noise under bed

[janegowest]

Those of you who own gas powered Class A motorhomes....how do you deal with the noise of the generator under your bed at night?

[janegowest]

It has been really tough to find a MH with the gen not in the back of a gasser! about 80% of the ones that I have inquired about, have the gens back there!

I found a couple of MHs that have the gens midship, but neither of them have a slide.

[afrescopXx]

dieharder wrote:

afrescop wrote:

BTW: If you read the Cummins/Onan warranty you will find out that the use of a third party exhaust system voids the generator's factory warranty.

Adding a Genturi IS NOT using a third party exhaust system since you are not replacing any parts of the original exhaust system. It is just an add-on that re-directs the exhaust fumes.

Read the warranty for complete details. IMHO Cummins is directly addressing the Genturi system.

[janegowest]

I would think that an A/C overhead would not be as noisy as it being under the bed. I think the combination of both being under the bed was a too much.

[zman-az]

If you have good batteries you should not need to run your generator overnight, exception is if you want AC. Keep in mind that there are a lot of noisy AC units in RV's so if you have the generator upfront the AC could be under the bed or you may have one overhead. Either way most are noisy and if you are a light sleeper your pretty much screwed. If you only occasionally boondock then you might want to look at something where the AC location is not going to bother you if that means that you would have the generator under your bed. Pick your poison.

BTW, I have heard that placing a rug under the generator helps absorb noise that would be bouncing off the parking lot.

[Effy]

what happened to the rest of the posts?

[janegowest]

Sorry for the confusion. To clarify....I do not yet own a motor home. I saw some MHs and test drove/rode one (a gasser), which had the generator AND the A/C under the bed and the noise AND the vibration were quite bothersome.

I assumed that all gassers had gens under the bedroom area, so I was asking about how you all dealt with that. But now, I am learning that gens do not have to be in the back in all gassers, so yes, I do appreciate alternative suggestions on makes and models.

As I am shopping CL, I am now asking where the gen is located. That will weed out a lot of them, since so far, out of the 8 that I have asked re its location, they have all been in the back of the MH.

I am a light sleeper and do not like vibrations or noise in the BR area. We would like to boondock sometimes....and if we have to camp at Walmart overnight on hot nights, we would like to be able to run the A/C.

Thanks for all your input! : )

[dieharder]

afrescop wrote:

BTW: If you read the Cummins/Onan warranty you will find out that the use of a third party exhaust system voids the generator's factory warranty.

Adding a Genturi IS NOT using a third party exhaust system since you are not replacing any parts of the original exhaust system. It is just an add-on that re-directs the exhaust fumes.

[Bill_Diana]

I must say this topic has "generated" much discussion.

[Raymon]

tatest wrote:

Raymon wrote:

tatest wrote:
I would not buy a motorhome with the generator under the bed, whether I planned on using it while sleeping, or not. That is simply bad design, and would be a dealbreaker for me.

At some companies, the marketing teams who design these things seem not to have an understanding of how they are used. They ship them off to dealers, buyers look, say "I can't buy it because of that" and it takes two to three years to find a buyer that doesn't figure out the design defect. Model meanwhile gets discontinued because dealers won't buy it. Natural selection inthe RV world.

Your first sentence kind of insults the OP for purchasing his current MH doesn't it? You offered no information regarding his question because you do not own a MH with the OP's layout. Kinda wasted reply don't you think?

The OP said nothing about having already made the purchase, so I would be appropriate to advise against getting into the situation.

He also did not say that he was considering purchasing such a MH. My take was that he already owned such a MH and was asking for advice. If he was considering purchasing such a MH, then your comment would be less offensive. He does not indicate what RV he owns or even if he owns an RV. Take care.

Ray

[tatest]

Raymon wrote:

tatest wrote:
I would not buy a motorhome with the generator under the bed, whether I planned on using it while sleeping, or not. That is simply bad design, and would be a dealbreaker for me.

At some companies, the marketing teams who design these things seem not to have an understanding of how they are used. They ship them off to dealers, buyers look, say "I can't buy it because of that" and it takes two to three years to find a buyer that doesn't figure out the design defect. Model meanwhile gets discontinued because dealers won't buy it. Natural selection inthe RV world.

Your first sentence kind of insults the OP for purchasing his current MH doesn't it? You offered no information regarding his question because you do not own a MH with the OP's layout. Kinda wasted reply don't you think?

The OP said nothing about having already made the purchase, so I would be appropriate to advise against getting into the situation.

[bshpilot]

Our 10K (diesel) generator is under our bed, we barely hear it and if anything it probably puts us to sleep.
Our water tanks (220 Gallons) are under the bed, so maybe that provides a little insulation too - but our generator can barely be heard inside the coach.

Here's a question for the OP....Im curious...is it the NOISE of the generator that you're hearing or could it be vibration ?

[Ramair]

Our is under the bedroom and I run it if we need to. Our is very quite and have never had an issue with noise. as for running it at night while sleeping ours has never set off our CO detector and I feel safe with it on or off. To each their own. I run it so we are comfortable at night. Most of the time we are at CG so I don't use it much except for it monthly run time. which reminds me I need to run Nov 1st...

[Joatha]

tropical36 wrote:

janegowest wrote:
Those of you who own gas powered Class A motorhomes....how do you deal with the noise of the generator under your bed at night?

We have never run our genset while sleeping. Is there a reason why you have the need for doing so and realize that this isn't answering your question?

If you are somewhere that doesn't have hook ups and it hot in the summertime, you'll want to run the AC units. The only way to do that is to run the generator.

Personally, I have this exact scenario happen frequently. That's because I use my RV for tailgating - arriving Friday night - and there are no hookups on campus where I park. And, the Georgia nights are still quite warm at night in September. I cannot sleep without the AC units on.

When I had my Winnebago, I would turn the AC as cold as I could and get the bedroom cold enough to hang meat. Then, I'd turn it all off and go to sleep with a blanket or 2 on me. I'd peel the blankets off over night as it got warm in there. Many times it was still too hot to do that and I would run the generator and AC and sleep on the couch instead of the bed. That helped get away from the noise and vibration some.

The Wanderlodge I have now is so much better equipped to handle this situation. I can run the generator and not even hear it or feel it over the AC. It has made life MUCH better for me.

[Dutch_12078]

afrescop wrote:

BTW: If you read the Cummins/Onan warranty you will find out that the use of a third party exhaust system voids the generator's factory warranty.

My Onan warranty expired years ago, but I wouldn't be concerned anyway. Onan themselves sell exhaust extensions that are more restrictive than the Gen-turi.