Cold weather, generators, and campgrounds

[cptqueeg]

My wife and I were at Yellowstone the past few days at NPS campground Madison, which is run by Xanterra. It was pretty cold and snowy for several days, not extreme, but a little "rough" for mid-October.

The campground rules are no generators btwn 8pm - 8am. There were many in the campground that ran their generators intermittently all through night. My question is this:

Is this complete disregard for the rules and FELLOW CAMPERS acceptable in light of the conditions?

[ktmrfs]

tommyznr wrote:
My cartoon bubble:

#1: Man did you hear all those generators last night cycling on and off? I hardly slept a wink.

#2 Uhh, that was our furnace fan cycling on and off all night.

yup furnace is noisy, that is why we have a setback thermostat, set to 50F at night, set to 70 at 6:30AM as our "alarm clock" in 30 minutes trailer is then reasonably warm. Quilt keeps us comfy.

Personally I don't get a good nights sleep if the furnace is set to a temp that has it cycling during the night. Keeps waking me up.

But the outside noise from a furnace (at least both of our trailer furnaces) is NOT very loud at all, hard to hear even 10ft away. But nearby generator definitely can be heard inside the trailer.

IMHO in a designated campground running a generator at night is an extreme example of selfishness and inconsideration for others. It's an "I'm more important than you" message to me. Just plain rude.

Boondocking with no one else around, go for it,

[Fisherman]

tommyznr wrote:
My cartoon bubble:

#1: Man did you hear all those generators last night cycling on and off? I hardly slept a wink.

#2 Uhh, that was our furnace fan cycling on and off all night.


In my rig the furnace cycling would be much louder than any generator noise sourced from "many" surrounding camp sites with the RV buttoned up to keep out the cold. In fact, I cannot imagine hearing a nearby generator from the inside of my RV in these conditions. Note that I am not a fan of generators in campgrounds even during the day.

As for the "rules are rules" folks, rules are at the discretion of the enforcing authority to enforce as they see fit.

I have to agree with you, two neighbouring trailers with furnaces cycling make more noise than my Honda 2k eu.

[tommyznr]

My cartoon bubble:

#1: Man did you hear all those generators last night cycling on and off? I hardly slept a wink.

#2 Uhh, that was our furnace fan cycling on and off all night.


In my rig the furnace cycling would be much louder than any generator noise sourced from "many" surrounding camp sites with the RV buttoned up to keep out the cold. In fact, I cannot imagine hearing a nearby generator from the inside of my RV in these conditions. Note that I am not a fan of generators in campgrounds even during the day.

As for the "rules are rules" folks, rules are at the discretion of the enforcing authority to enforce as they see fit.

[Grit_dog]

And another 4 pages of proof of how fickle some people can be….
Call LEOs at 2:30am because of a generator running? Seriously?
Was it rude? Yes, sounds like it.
Although 15deg with a wind could suck down a camper battery pretty quick if unprepared.
But then we’re not all the “perfectly prepared” campers that the rvnet royalty profess to be.
Would it be more palatable if you knew some of the gennys were running to keep someone’s newborn baby warm while the new parents were trying to experience camping? (This argument is like the wdh argument, can never be too safe, right? Lol)
Or would it be ok if it was a couple old folks who needed to stay warm or their cpap died? (Cpaps ARE figuratively the wdhs of the medical world…hahaha)

Or is it better to sit in anger and just “know” that some delinquent is running their genny just to ruin your night and they’re probably playing xbox at 2 am and that’s what used up their battery?

See, many different scenarios.
All are a rude reason, inherently, to disturb others, so maybe should call the cops!!

Maybe I’m blessed to be a heavy sleeper. Or maybe I just have more/more important things to worry about and occupy my time with. So maybe it’s just me…

[cptqueeg]

time2roll wrote:
I mostly see failure to offer assistance to those with less knowledge and experience.
What happened to helping others? Today most want to be angry at something.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure those not following the rules were far more experienced than me. And it was way more than one camper anyway. I'm new enough I still thought that campers might actually follow the rules.

And at 2:30am there isn't much anyone could have done except help them to pack up and give them directions to a warmer climate so they could camp in comfort.

[Skibane]

toedtoes wrote:
How should the OP have helped these folks? Should he have gone around knocking on doors and offering extra bedding? Should he have provided batteries?

Help is always great, but this isn't a matter of one RVer forgetting to bring warm bedding or having their battery die. This is about multiple RVers choosing to ignore the rules for convenience.

And it's not like help isn't readily available on the internet to anyone who makes the effort to seek it.

This isn't about a scarcity of know-how - It's about people too lazy to watch a YouTube video, or post an inquiry on an RV forum.

[toedtoes]

time2roll wrote:
I mostly see failure to offer assistance to those with less knowledge and experience.
What happened to helping others? Today most want to be angry at something.

How should the OP have helped these folks? Should he have gone around knocking on doors and offering extra bedding? Should he have provided batteries?

Help is always great, but this isn't a matter of one RVer forgetting to bring warm bedding or having their battery die. This is about multiple RVers choosing to ignore the rules for convenience.

[time2roll]

I mostly see failure to offer assistance to those with less knowledge and experience.
What happened to helping others? Today most want to be angry at something.

[Skibane]

ktmrfs wrote:
Those that are camping should have enough sense to make sure they have a battery bank good enough to last through the night. Throw on an extra quilt, turn the thermstat to 50F and most any battery will last through the night even if it dips below freezing.

Yep.

I see a lot of potential failure in this situation:

- Failure to completely recharge the batteries during daytime hours.

- Failure to leave enough reserve in the battery to get you through the night.

- Failure to properly maintain your batteries, or to replace them when they no longer have more than a small fraction of their original capacity.

- Failure to use a heat source that conserves battery power (or doesn't use any battery power at all).

Every one of these failures is the RVer's fault, and is entirely preventable.

[ktmrfs]

regardless of allowed generator run times, If I'm camping anywhere near anyone else, I NEVER start the generator before around 10AM and ALWAYS havew it shut it off no later than 4pm. And I seldom need to run it for more than a hour or so.

Even if it gets down well below freezing our trailer, which is NOT a 4 season trailer only needs the furnace to run for an hour or so during the night, a good quilt and we are comfy. Come prepared, doesn't take much.

Rules are rules, they are clearly posted for virtually every campground, come prepared and abide by them. Same thing for those who seem to think only one vehicle allowed doesn't apply to them, or no parking on the grass doesn't apply to them. Only sympathy I have is for the authorities that have to deal with such arrogance.

[cptqueeg]

wildtoad wrote:
Sounds like the park ranger and/or camp host need to do a better job of informing everyone generators are not allowed at set times for ANY reason. Assuming there is cell service, a phone number to contact ranger should be provided for people to report someone who violates the rule AND is causing a problem. If the offender is five or six sites away, not sure it affects me. I don’t believe a camp host is the person to address the issue at 2:30 in the morning.

Agreed, LEO is the only way to handle this. Hopefully they remember to check overnight activity next season. Unfortunately no cell service.

[cptqueeg]

toedtoes wrote:

cptqueeg wrote:

toedtoes wrote:

2oldman wrote:

cptqueeg wrote:
So yes I agree that I should avoid campgrounds as much as possible.

I don't know if you need to go that far, but at the very least I would do my best to avoid extreme cold.

Or pick less crowded campgrounds. I camp in winter with nighttime temps below 45 degrees and have never experienced generator use like that.

Well that's a good point about the crowding, but this campground wasn't crowded other than 1 loop. The campground seemed to be fully open but for some reason all the new arrivals, yes many late in the night were on Loop B where we were. While many of the other loops were very sparsely occupied.

I would have asked to move to another loop that first morning.

The first time by the camp site I pulled around and instinct told me I wasn't in a good spot, but I didn't want to be a "complainer" and tried to make the best of it. At that point I wasn't fully aware of exactly how empty most of the campground was otherwise I would have insisted on a switch immediately.

[toedtoes]

cptqueeg wrote:

toedtoes wrote:

2oldman wrote:

cptqueeg wrote:
So yes I agree that I should avoid campgrounds as much as possible.

I don't know if you need to go that far, but at the very least I would do my best to avoid extreme cold.

Or pick less crowded campgrounds. I camp in winter with nighttime temps below 45 degrees and have never experienced generator use like that.

Well that's a good point about the crowding, but this campground wasn't crowded other than 1 loop. The campground seemed to be fully open but for some reason all the new arrivals, yes many late in the night were on Loop B where we were. While many of the other loops were very sparsely occupied.

I would have asked to move to another loop that first morning.

[cptqueeg]

NamMedevac 70 wrote:


Well said and especially if they are traveling in groups such as the ones I encountered in SP in southern Oregon and at other locations. They were driving and not from Oregon but a neighboring state and not NV or Wash. On the happy side they had to spend much of their time trouble shooting technical problems with the mobile RV repairman and unable to do any R&R for long time. They can be a real .Cheers to you.

So they were from Idaho?

[cptqueeg]

toedtoes wrote:

2oldman wrote:

cptqueeg wrote:
So yes I agree that I should avoid campgrounds as much as possible.

I don't know if you need to go that far, but at the very least I would do my best to avoid extreme cold.

Or pick less crowded campgrounds. I camp in winter with nighttime temps below 45 degrees and have never experienced generator use like that.

Well that's a good point about the crowding, but this campground wasn't crowded other than 1 loop. The campground seemed to be fully open but for some reason all the new arrivals, yes many late in the night were on Loop B where we were. While many of the other loops were very sparsely occupied.